I am interested in a Springfield M1A in .308. I don’t know a lot about them so I am looking for some help deciding which model to get. I will be using this for medium range target shooting and possibly hunting. I like the look of the socom with the shorter barrel. But should I spring for the national match for accuracy? Any help and knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

I'd suggest getting either the Squad Scout or the basic M1A or "Loaded" package if that's still available. The 16" barreled SOCOM loses a lot of velocity and is supposedly very loud. The nice thing about the basic M1A or slighter shorter barreled Squad Scout is your ability to customize them to your liking. My first M1A was turned into a "National Match" rifle for competition when I got into that and my Squad Scout is more of a tacticool gun now:

That’s very helpful! Good info!

I'd say stay away from the Socom unless you want to go down a road of modding it. It likely won't shoot very well accuracy wise without some work. It's a handy little sucker though.

I'd also steer you away from the NM unless it's shooting groups you're after. Even then, 1.5 MOA might be the best you get out of it stock, although if precision is what you're after you can then mod that rifle further and figure it out to get where you want to go.

I personally like the Scout. It's a lot lighter than the NM or loaded. You can mod that too in order to squeeze it's best accuracy but I wouldn't expect better than 1.5. Not that it can't happen. My opinion is the scout is the best do it all SA offering. General purpose. It's a lot handier than the heavier models and the shorter barrel aids there as well.

Not sure what's out there now but m14forum or GB could possibly get you into something nicer for about the same cost. Nothing wrong with SA rifle though as the upgrades are almost endless and lifetime warranty is hard to ignore.

Get the Scout Squad. It's an ideal "all around" M1A, being short and light enough for hunting or home defense, but being more accurate than the SOCOM. It also uses standard M14/M1A parts, whereas the SOCOM has some proprietary gas system parts.

If you want to, you can customize your Scout Squad to be almost the same overall length as a SOCOM, while retaining a slightly longer barrel and better accuracy. That's what I did with mine, by removing the factory front sight/flash hider, and installing a gas lock front sight and aftermarket flash hider.

It ends up being like 1" longer in OAL than a SOCOM (and would be the same length or shorter if you just left off the muzzle device altogether).



SOCOM for comparison:

We are happy with the Scout Squad, just the right size. Our use is some range & hunting, shorter distance.

I've shot the SOCOM, the Scout Squad and I currently own the Standard.

Personally, I prefer the standard. I regularly shoot out to 450 yds with no problem (450 is all I can find right now, I'd like to go longer). Once I got mine all dialed in, I have no problems hitting what I want, I'm sure if I played around with ammo, there'd probably be a tighter group.
I know that there's a few other tricks to get smaller groups out of that gun, but I'll do that somewhere down the line. Not really ready to upgrade to a Match or National Match yet.


There is A LOT OF BARK with the smaller barrels! And you're loosing velocity.

They are all fun guns to shoot, and it's a .308, so not much to worry about as far as ammo goes, and that round will take down most of, if not all of what you're hunting.

Whatever you decide, go with 18". You'll thank us all for it. Accuracy without too much length. Great out to 600+ if you can find 1-10 twist.

quote:

Originally posted by john crusher:
Whatever you decide, go with 18".

Well, that would make the decision pretty easy, since the Scout Squad is the only 18" barreled M1A.

The SOCOM has a 16" barrel.

The Standard, Loaded, National Match, etc. have a 22" barrel.

I'd go for a loaded in wood. That stock will be the most rigid and the hunting weight will be about 11 or 12 pounds with a scope. It will be fairly accurate.

This is assuming you want an off-the shelf rifle. If I were building a custom gun for someone, I'd install Criterion medium weight 18.5" barrel and bed it to a wood stock and have the stock sealed with outdoor weather sealer. It will be more consistent than the standard weight scout barrel. I'd expect about 2.5" to 3" with a standard scout with no modifications.

The SOCOM is handy but expect groups in the 5" to 6" range unless you heavily modify it and have it bedded into the wood stock or a McMillan M3A stock. Then maybe you might get 1.5" to 2" groups after you do load development.

I did, however, bed a 18" standard scout barrel to a wood stock and that rifle shot consistent 3/4" groups. That was an anomaly and I wouldn't guarantee that accuracy out of another scout.

If you want to lighten a loaded, replace the wood with a GI fiberglass stock. The current SAI plastic is much more flimsy than GI fiberglass.

Tony.

I'm very partial to the Scout Squad, but if ordering new would go with the wood stock.

I got this one lightly used from WARPIG, and it's a great gun. I added the Vortex scout scope to it, as my eyes are freaking useless with irons at this point in my life. I find that the 2-7 scope is about perfect. Free hand, 2x gives a good, clear field of view and from the bench, 7x gives good precision.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
I'm very partial to the Scout Squad, but if ordering new would go with the wood stock.

Definitely. The Springfield factory M1A synthetic stocks suck. Cheap and flimsy.

But you can sometimes find really good deals on certain synthetic stocked M1As, and even with buying a separate walnut stock, you can still come out ahead compared to buying a factory wood M1A. For example, for a time there were several retailers that were blowing out the Kryptek M1As like yours, and the Mossy Oak M1As before that, for significantly less than retail. The savings were more than the cost of a new walnut stock from Boyds.

As benny stated, if you want a synthetic stock get a surplus USGI fiberglass stock, or a nice McMillan (if you want to spend that much).

I bought a standard M1a a couple of years ago, to celebrate joining the Army 50 years ago, and that is what they handed me in boot camp, and again when I went overseas with the Big Red One. have been very happy with it, fits nice in the safe between the M1 Garand and the M1 Carbine.
Barry

I’ve been thinking the scout in 308 vs a 6.5 creedmoor 22”.

Still not sure.

+1with Tony, Loaded walnut, accurate, great trigger out of the box