Decided to put the first 30 rounds or so through a Springfield Armory M1A (.308) that I’ve been sitting on for a few years. It has a REALLY nice custom stock (J. Allen Engineering, JAE-100 G3) favored by U.S. military ‘specialists’ … and I mounted a Millett 4-16×50 Illuminated Tactical Riflescope on it this morning (for now, not permanent).
Got the rifle zero’d at 100 yards with about 15 rounds, then ran a quick-fire drill on a steel silhouette to see if I could replicate (or even beat) the 1″ sub-MOA group I shot on the same target with a 6.5 Creedmoor M1A the other day.
Very happy with the .308’s performance, but I think the 6.5C out shot it, perhaps because the newer 6.5C has a National Match (NM) barrel and trigger.
Obviously, both are more than effective at this relatively short range (100 yards).
I’m working on a new, longer range shooting lane on the property, which I hope to have completed in the Fall … out to about 300 meters. Then, we’ll see which of the two M1A’s really shines.
We all know about the “weak link” metaphor often used in business, which was well demonstrated in my second shooting drill. I hit a 6″ AR-500 rated steel plate right in the middle, and one of the two chains holding it in place failed (snapped) from the energy transferred from the bullet, to the plate, to the chain. Bullet disintegrated, plate absorbed and transferred the energy, and the chain failed.
The M1A is considered by some shooters to be an “old school” design, basically a civilian version of the venerable military M-14 that dates back to the end of WWII. I beg to differ. I’ll take an M1A over an AR-15 (or similar) any day. I own both, and I carried an M-16 in the military for 8+ years.
Overall, I’m happy with this rifles performance. I’ll probably switch over to a Vortex Viper PST scope at some point, but for now it is demonstrably G2G (good-to-go!).