Back five years or so ago on opening day of deer season, I was sitting in a 20 foot ladder stand at my hunting property.
I was sitting there with my 30-06 bolt action rifle which is scoped.
This particular ladder stand is on the edge of a field with heavy woods right behind the stand.

Shortly after legal shooting time, a large doe walked out from the woods behind me and started feeding in the field.
Ok, when it turns broadside I'm going to drop it for meat in the freezer.
I squeezed the trigger and the doe dropped like it had been hit over the head with a telephone pole.

Just about the time the sound of the shot echoed off the nearby hill, I hear a loud crashing behind me and a large eight point buck came boiling out into the field.
It ran about fifty yards out in front of me and stopped. The buck had no idea where the shot had come from.
I cycled the bolt to chamber a fresh cartridge, and the buck heard the noise. It looked up at me in the ladder stand, spun around and disappeared into the brush.

I remember thinking, If I only had a semi auto with me that day. When that buck stopped momentarily, I could have dropped it also along with the doe.

Fast forward a bunch of years and that plan has come to fruition!

I've had this Springfield M1A for more than 15 years. I just never did much with it.
It's a "Loaded Model" in 7.62 X 51 (.308 Winchester) with a stainless medium weight barrel and black polymer stock.
When I first got it, I hooked up with an experienced "High Power" Competitor at the range and got it sighted in.

This guy was recommended by a friend, and he proceeded to shoot my rifle with handloaded match ammo prone at 200 yards with an excellent group.
He proclaimed it an accurate rifle and it went back into the safe for a long time. I didn't do much with the M1A rifle after that
Other priorities I guess.

I live in New York State. In 2013 we got the NY Safe Act. The M1A became an assault rifle. Prior to the Safe Act, it was not. Old M14 hi capacity box magazines were legal here prior to the Safe Act.
With the Safe Act, my hi capacity box magazines got moved out of the state. (just 5's and 10's now)
The rifle got modified, flash hider removed, bayonet lug was already gone when I got the rifle new, and I machined the threads on the barrel muzzle away. (for the castle nut)

The front sight is retained onto the muzzle with a pressed on stainless steel sleeve. (it replaces the castle nut at the muzzle)
So now I have an M1A rifle that isn't an assault rifle (by NY Safe Act) and DID NOT require registration due to the permanent modifications.
A new barrel would return the M1A to it's former glory if I move.

I tested the M1A after the modifications, and it remained accurate.
I still did nothing with the rifle.

Recently I ordered some parts for the M1A.

Sadlak steel scope mount.
Leupold Mark 4 picatinny rings, medium height, steel.
Vortex Crossfire 2 scope, 3 X 9 by 50 mm objective, 1" tube and the V-Brite illuminated dot in the center of the duplex reticle. (CR2032 battery in the brightness adjustment knob)
Springfield Armory leather lace-on cheek pad.

I put all the pieces together today.
I will post a range report when I get a chance to sight it in.
My "new" deer rifle! (and a heavy one at that)
Most of my deer hunting is from elevated stands and ground blinds. So not a ton of walking.

M1A_Right by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

M1A_Left by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cee_Kamp,

Looks good! I recommend a proper cheek rest. That leather cheek rest was meant for a M1D Garand with the offset scope.

Get a Bradley adjustable Kydex cheek rest. It attaches with velcro straps and can be adjusted to the proper comb height for your head/scope/ring combo.

This is about what a proper cheek weld should look like. This is a Vortex with low rings on a Sadlak.


Tony.

Very nice!

Tony,
I will try the leather first.
I have a kydex "across the chest holster" for carrying a handgun for hunting. I replaced it with "across the chest" made from leather because the kydex is just too noisy for hunting.
That kydex cheek rest would likely be better that the leather one I bought, but for now I will stick with the quiet leather.

I scheduled a range trip earlier in the week for yesterday. 90+ degrees and high humidity, so not exactly pleasurable.
I don't have a bore sighting device, so I started shooting at 12 yards to get it on the paper.
No issues with sighting in at that distance, LOL. No issues with scope turret range of adjustment.
Next, out to 100 yards. Shots were well centered and about 14 inches high.
I started dialing it in at 100 yards and discovered the M1A seems to open up the group size to 3 MOA, maybe 4 MOA when the barrel got hot.

It's a bone stock M1A Loaded, no glass bedding, cheaply made OEM plastic stock, and no accurizing.

With a cold barrel, and yesterday that was a relative thing, group size is just over 1 MOA. (for multiple individual cold barrel shots)
20 to 30 minutes waiting for barrel cool down between cold barrel shots due to the oppressive weather yesterday.
Since I will be using the M1A for whitetail deer hunting, this appears to be more than acceptable.
The longest shots available on my hunting property are no more than 150 yards as it's heavily forested.

I was shooting 7.62mm Winchester military overrun 147 grain FMJ ball ammo. Cartridge head stamp WCC 10. (bought a quantity some time ago)
It's time now to start locating some better quality hunting ammo and get it in my inventory as rifle deer season starts here in mid November.

My local gun club has 12" round steel gongs at 100 yards and 200 yards.
I am not a long range precision rifle shooter by any description and could easily hit the 200 yard gong with every shot fired.

Oh, and some inconsiderate bastard left the red dot in the Vortex riflescope turned on. The battery was dead. (it still had functional conventional cross hairs)

I had read online of some people having M1A reliability feeding / extraction / ejection issues after installing the Sadlak scope mount. I had no problems, 100% firearm reliability.
I have been acquiring more 5 and 10 round M1A magazines since the NY Safe Act forced me to move my 20 rounders out of the state.
Yesterday gave me an opportunity for testing magazine reliability, no issues as well.
5 and 10 round Check-Mate's were tested. 5 round magazines are required for hunting with a semi-automatic rifle by NY hunting regulations.

The Sadlak scope mount appears to be a solid piece of gear. I experienced no problems at all.
I will report again when I test the hunting ammo.

I may have to break down and finally put a scope on my M1A since my eyes are not what they use to be.

How difficult is it installing the scope mount? Any special tools needed?

Here is what you will need.
Some common sense.
And some patience.
Basic hand tools, wrenches, screwdrivers.
Dial or digital calipers. But micrometers work better.
Small needle files and/or abrasive stones. Triangular.
Inch pound torque wrench screwdriver. 0 to 100.
Watch the Sadlak video's.
Watch the Sig Forum Member Tony Ben's video's.
Installing the scope on the M1A made it useful.
The winged battle sights are damn hard to see dawn/dusk.

I did source some Hornady "Whitetail" hunting ammo.
I bought 2 boxes of 20 rounds each, at $38.99 per box.
Edit: hunting ammo purchased was Hornady, not Winchester.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cee_Kamp,

We did another range trip yesterday. High temperatures in the 60's so much nicer that the last trip.
Got all the deer rifles sighted in for the upcoming mid November start of rifle season here at my location.
I acquired some new ammo for hunting ammo accuracy testing in the M1A.
The Hornady "Whitetail" ammo shot great. It's got 150 grain InterLock projectiles at advertised MV of 2820fps.
Cold barrel shots it's like a laser beam.
As the rifle warms up, it's about 3 MOA.