M1-A1 Optics?

**308man** · July 2nd, 2012, 11:06 PM

Anyone have any suggestions for M1-a1 mounts and optics? Looking for advice within 500-600 yds but mostly 100-300 yds. I already started with a nice platform so I want a scope of similar quality. Thanks in advance.

**pacomdiver** · July 28th, 2012, 09:47 PM

check out the springfield scopes, they have ranging marks (shoulder brackets) and are well made. they are available in 6, 8 and 10x. use a good scope mount too, the springfield one or a sadlak, so it wont move around or loosen up like the cheaper ones

is yours a match grade rifle? most regular ones will shoot 1 1/2 moa at best with the pencil barrel. look into shimming the gas block and maybe a titanium nitride piston. the gas block upgrades are one of the biggest accuracy improvers.

**JDePietro** · August 14th, 2012, 12:02 PM

As a connoisseur of the M14 platform I must say you choose a fine rifle for all around applications. The first thing I will say is if you haven't already take some time and get to know the irons. I don't mean just learning how to shoot open sights I mean really get to know your irons. I spent 500 rounds and many days just shooting and writing down pertinent information about my rifle. The M14 has a great set of irons and if you learn the quirks you can impress a lot of people that can only shoot with the aid of glass.

All that being said, what is your goal? The platform is not a dedicated target rifle unless you set out to make some high dollar changes and have oodles of time to invest in the know how of your system. If this is the case I highly recommend obtaining a copy of "The M14 Owners Guide and Match Conditioning." - Scott a Duff. To get the rifle to a match level you must understand many aspects of the operating systems as well as what does and doesn't work.

As is the rifle is a superb platform for combat accurate shooting. Spend some time learning the system and what ammo it does and does not like and you can repeatedly achieve 2 or 3 inches ten shot groups at 100m. I'll break it to you early but shooting a 3 shot 1/4 inch group out of a rock stock M14 platform is not the norm. It can be done but what you should aim to achieve is consistent and repeatable results.

Take my suggestions or leave 'em don't much matter to me.

The mount is going to make or break your ability to repeatedly make the shot. There are more mounts than you can shake a stick at and only a few are worth the cost of shipping. Sadlak makes an astounding mount but my number one favorite mount is the Basset.

http://bassettmachine.com/

Easy on and easy off makes this great for storage or system management. Buy two put a 1-4 on one and a 10x on the other and you got a rifle that will shoot a long range match and a 3 gun in 2 minutes.

As far as optics go you are going to hear more opinions than you'll care to listen to. I'll say this... You spent upwards of $1200 on your rifle your glass should cost at least half that if not more than. Decide what you want to use it for and select the best you can afford. IOR, Nightforce, and Premier all make great scopes but they won't mean a thing if you don't understand what your rifle is capable of and what you want to use it for.

Good luck!

**308man** · August 17th, 2012, 11:01 PM

This is exactly the advise I was looking for. Appreciate it. I have got comfortable with the Iron, but not over confident yet. Might try irons for a bit longer. I am holding 3-4" at 100 yrds on surplus ammo. Thought that it was decent. Wanted to reload some any tips?

**JDePietro** · August 18th, 2012, 07:59 PM

I'm not a reloading guy. If you are doing it to save some cash it might make sense. Can you squeeze some more accuracy out of it with hand loads? Sure but it will take some time and patients. These guns thrive on 168 and 165 grain ammo. Any top ammo company can supply these with enough QC to make your gun run at its best hand loading will only get you incremental gains.

3" to 4" at 100 running irons is very good.

What grain and who made it and Is this a 3 shot group or a ten?

I ask for two reasons. 1. Keyboard commandos often boast about 1/4 groups at 100m, to make matters worst many magazines make 1" at 100m a bench standard for what a good rifle is. That is all chest thumping and nonsense. 3 rinky dink rounds don't even heat up the barrel enough to get an idea of what the gun is capable of. The average rifleman is never going to be making a 100m shot at the head of some freedom fighter holding a knife to a screaming girl in February with a 8 knot fish tailing wind. I would however bet you may someday be interested in Three gun or a sniper/tac shoot. This is going to require multiple shots in a close enough sequence that the gun is not going to run cold every time. Shooting ten rounds gives you a good idea as is to how the rifle shoots warm to hot and how to compensate for these things.

2. 7.62x51 is made all over the world some countries have better QC than others but all are pretty decent. Most of what you will find is 147gr and designed for the FAL. If you can get a hold of some lake city marked LC on the head stamp you will have some real good ammo.

**animalmother85** · August 19th, 2012, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by JDePietro

I ask for two reasons. 1. Keyboard commandos often boast about 1/4 groups at 100m, to make matters worst many magazines make 1" at 100m a bench standard for what a good rifle is. That is all chest thumping and nonsense. 3 rinky dink rounds don't even heat up the barrel enough to get an idea of what the gun is capable of. The average rifleman is never going to be making a 100m shot at the head of some freedom fighter holding a knife to a screaming girl in February with a 8 knot fish tailing wind. I would however bet you may someday be interested in Three gun or a sniper/tac shoot. This is going to require multiple shots in a close enough sequence that the gun is not going to run cold every time. Shooting ten rounds gives you a good idea as is to how the rifle shoots warm to hot and how to compensate for these things.

I LOL'd at the first part about the 1/4" groups...you are spot on. However; I can pull a 1/4" 1 shot group with any of my rifles

On a serious note, not only does that take allot of money, a fine tuned rifle, but also a fine tuned shooter as well. As much as I have been practicing to get my fundamentals down over the past few weeks, it's tough to shoot less than 1/2" if your rifle can do so.

Originally Posted by JDePietro

I'm not a reloading guy. If you are doing it to save some cash it might make sense. Can you squeeze some more accuracy out of it with hand loads? Sure but it will take some time and patients. These guns thrive on 168 and 165 grain ammo. Any top ammo company can supply these with enough QC to make your gun run at its best hand loading will only get you incremental gains.

Time and patients is right. However; if you search enough, you can find load data to replicate most popular match grade ammo.

As far as optics go, I totally dig SWFAs 1-4x and 1-6x line of scopes and the new Bushnell 1-6.5 is supposed to be one of the best priced scopes out there for what you pay for.