Its been a long time since I had an M1A. I sold mine back in 95. My fatherinlaw was nice enough to give me his. Its was pretty clean but I wanted it perfect. I used Cerakote on the metal and tried to match the parkerizing. For the wood I used Chem Pak from Brownells. Lovin this rifle. I wish I never mine. [img]https://postimg.org/gallery/3ji68vdls/[/img]

[img]https://s19.postimg.org/aor251d8z/M1_A_RS.jpg[/img]

Beautiful!

Ed

Nice !!! Reminds me of time spent with the M-14 while in the Corps.

Very nice.

This
To me there is just something nice about a Real Wood Stock on a rifle

Nice work. That Chem Pak is great stuff.

Great job👍

Excellent job! It probably didn't look that good when it came from the factory.

Very nice job but will it turn into an M-1 when it grows up!

No, it didn't. They always had an uneven finish on a few of the parts and the wood was never this smooth. Tomorrow Im going shooting out to about 500 yards I can't wait.

Hated it when we switched off the M-14...loved that rifle. Still seeing/hearing that its still in use in some places. My M1A looks exactly like yours.

I was fortunate enough to have bought my Springfield M1A from my local Sheriff's Dept. It was used in a double murder and with the trial over, it was no longer needed for evidence, etc. Paid $700 for it, six mags and two 50 cal ammo boxes of 308 ammo! Ran the serial number and it was a 1974 vintage if I remember correctly. Replaced the (supposedly) Winchester barrel with a Harris McMillian barrel and had it accurized by a friend that was a US Army Marksmanship Unit armorer. She will now shoot nickel sized groups all day long for me. Have used it many times on legal culling operations of deer on a local plantation, and her longest kill was a 633 yard heart shot. 42.0 grains of 4064 behind a 168 SMK.

Hope you love yours as much as I love mine!

Nice job, looks great! If it shoots as good as it looks, you're all set!

Jeff

I would be proud to own such a rifle!!!

That early of a gun--See if it is a Devine Texas gun, You might have a real collectors gun. Check it out.

What are you going to did you run through it?

168gr SMK with 41.3 gas of IMR 4895. I also had excellent results with 168gr Federal Gold Match.

Was your handload in heavy LC brass? I've assembled many thousands with a 168, IMR4895 and LC brass and it has always been good. Being an M1A owner you probably had that load burned into your brain already.

Did the Fed brass survive OK? The M1A is notorious for being hard on commercial cases.

The Federal brass looked fine. I used Winchester brass that I had from my bolt gun. I also have Lapua brass but thats overkill on a semiauto.

[img]http://[img]https://s19.postimg.org/eydaayonj/m1a_target_2.jpg[/img]



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In that Federal brass try 41.7-41.8 grains of IMR4064, a Fed 210 and a 175 grain match bullet.

WOW! Beautiful finish on that stock. I bet Brownells sells a few more of those Chem Paks thanks to you.