Ammo for M1A Socom

**Stony** · August 6th, 2009, 03:00 PM

I know the net is a bad place to search for opinions and answers sometimes- but just curious to see if anyone has experience.
I have an M1A Socom 16- the barrel IS stamped 308 under the op rod. (So I should be good for 308 or 7.62x51mm designated right?) The chamber pressure of most factory 308 ammo is less than that of mil-surplus 7.62 NATO stuff.
I'm curious if it'd be ok to fire 150 grn Federal SP factory ammo out of it.
I've read about slam-fires etc etc- and from my understanding, that was a bigger issue with older m1a's and m14's

Also, I've read as long as the bullet weight is below 175grn- I'm in no danger of bending the op rod or damaging the gun.
Big reason is because at Wally-word the Federal 308 150grn Soft Point's are 13.79 per box right now....the LOWEST i can find the regular federal FMJ 150grn's is $15.00 per box.
I could use wolf- but spending 1500.00 + on a gun and then using the cheapest and most questionable for consistency ammo isn't making sense to me.

So...Federal 150grn Soft Point's safe to shoot from m1a's or nix the whole idea?

**DougX** · August 6th, 2009, 08:32 PM

I shoot any 308 or Nato rounds out of my m1a scout with a hiccup including factory ammo.

**brian** · August 6th, 2009, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by Stony

I could use wolf- but spending 1500.00 + on a gun and then using the cheapest and most questionable for consistency ammo isn't making sense to me.

why?
any of the russian stuff is decent to good stuff. wolf is toward the bottom end, but silver bear and brown bear is good stuff.
silver bear is probably the hottest of the three, with bb a close second. it's all i've fed mine, it's all i'll feed mine.
no sense going broke feeding half a gun.

the m14 uses a slightly different op set up than the garand. bent op rods are really not an issue with them.

**Stony** · August 6th, 2009, 10:00 PM

I have nothing against wolf- infact, it shoots best outta my glocks....
I'd go with wolf before I went with silver-bear or Brown Bear....I had serious issues with silver-bear in a bolt action rifle before- the cases expanded inside the chamber to the point where I needed to tap them out with a cleaning rod...
....I just wanted the brass. I'm more preferential towards brass cased ammo in my rifles.