My New M1A

B

BillyBeards

New member
I pickup up a new M1A Loaded earlier this week and took it to the range yesterday.
Wow! This rifle is awesome but you guys probably already know that.
I did my best to zero it in at 100 yards with my bad eyes and it didn't need much tweaking at all.
I'm planning on most likely ordering a Bassett scope mount so I can still use the irons and the search has all ready started for an "affordable" scope.
As far as I know in my area I don't have any place to shoot out to 1000 yards so I'm not really concerned with that at the moment, probably 300 at the most.
I'm really a pistol guy so I'm doing a lot of reading right now as I don't know much about optics.
I'll be taking it into the woods with me tomorrow for a little whitetail hunting but in my area it's all close range.
It's all fun either way. :D

Thanks for all the great info I've pickup up all ready.
 
Congrats on the new M1A. I'm jealous. Now if you ever feel that it's taking up too much room in your house, and you need a place to "store" it, just let me know. I'm sure I could make room.....
 
Do some more shooting before you scope it. The M1A has the best irons made. You can get different size apertures and different size/style front blades. The "loaded" model should have SAI's version of NM sights, they can be improved upon. I find I shoot my iron sight M1A about four to one over the scoped one. Tune the blade and aperture to your eye sight and blast away.

Check out the Sadlak mounts before you buy anything.
 
Scoping an M1A is an expensive endeavor. You must stay away from aluminum mounts as they heat up and expand at a different rate than steel does.

Currently Sadlack makes the best mounts, a copy of the original Brookfield, again stay away from the Al one. The steel version is 260 bucks.
 
If you are set on getting a magnified optic and are looking for "affordable" I have been extremely happy with Nikon's offerings. I think they make a 2-7 that would be a great scope up to 300 yards.

Up that being said, I too recommend that you shoot it with irons a while first.
 
Clicks

I have a loaded M1A for about 12 yrs, bought extra stuff along with the scope mount, which I will never use. MY eyes are 74 yrs old and this rifle is to much fun to muck it up with a scope or a bipod. Get a good leather comp sling and learn how to use it. If you are going to reload what you will need is the small base dies.
I am not recomending this load but what I use for fun shooting is 150 gr FMJBT that I bought in bulk don't know the maker, 43gr IMR 4895, LC brass, WLR primer. With this at 200 mtrs +9, 300 mtrs +16, 385 mtrs +20, 500 mtrs +24, and at 650 yds + 32. This won't be exact for you as conditions vary and how you sight the target but should get you on the berm. Again this is not a compition load.
 
Scoping an M1A is an expensive endeavor. You must stay away from aluminum mounts as they heat up and expand at a different rate than steel does.

Currently Sadlack makes the best mounts, a copy of the original Brookfield, again stay away from the Al one. The steel version is 260 bucks.
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I've had no problems with my aluminum Sadlak mount.

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No problems at all for me with the aluminum sadlak either. Would highly recommend it. I don't foresee getting into a sustained firefight where that mount could heat up enough to shift poi. If it did, I could always fall back on the irons which are awesome as has already been said.
 
nicknitro71 said:
Scoping an M1A is an expensive endeavor. You must stay away from aluminum mounts as they heat up and expand at a different rate than steel does.

Currently Sadlack makes the best mounts, a copy of the original Brookfield, again stay away from the Al one. The steel version is 260 bucks.
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:confused:

I do agree that Sadlak makes great mounts but as far as problems with using a aluminum mount, I have to raise the bs flag. I have over 1K rounds on my aluminum Sadlak and there are zero issues with expansion rates as the rifle heats up. The receivers just do not get that warm to be a problem.

I suppose if you had a NFA M14 and fired mag after mag full auto the receiver would reach temps high enough to be a problem, but you would not be able to see through the scope for all the heat coming off the barrel.
 
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Thanks for all the input guys.
The iron sights are great and I'm fine with them for the short range hunting I'm doing in my area but I know want to start doing some long range shooting so why not scope it right.
I think I might take a chance on the Sadlack Aluminum mount even though some say it's not so great. From what I can see if I do have any issues they sound like a good company and they should make good on it. If they are willing to make the mounts specific to each rifle they sound pretty good to me.
I guess I need to look at cheek pads too.
I do want to try and keep this rifle as light as possible. It's not crazy heavy but after hiking through the woods yesterday I can see what people are talking about.
I do have to start researching load data because locally at a minimum of $1 a round is getting expensive.
 
I have a loaded M1A with the VLTOR rail system on it. I put a Nikon Monarch in Warne rings on it and shot it a while.

I have since taken the scope off and only shoot with the irons. Those sights are amazing.

I shoot the 300 popper with mine and if you are careful with your follow through, you can see the bullet "trace" just before you see the popper move.

I have since put that scope on a CZ 452 rifle. That rifle is pretty amazing too.
 
I guess I need to look at cheek pads too.
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I have seen several different ways of doing this. The strap on raisers are just OK, they tend to move around, there strong point is you do not damage the wood.

I have seen guys use the cheek raiser for the Enfield No4(T), about $40 from e-guns.

The kydex raisers work great but you need to drill two holes through the stock.
 
I suppose if you had a NFA M14 and fired mag after mag full auto the receiver would reach temps high enough to be a problem, but you would not be able to see through the scope for all the heat coming of the barrel.
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You are probably right as my experience is with the M14s and M25s while in the service. The Al mounts were a big no-no as told by our gunsmiths. We used Brookfield steel mounts w/out any issues.

Said that, the iron sights are great!
 
Please keep in mind that I live in NY. No full auto or even any type of rapid fire at ranges near me. The one close long range to me only lets you load one round at a time anyway. :(

I'm not really worried about distortion from heat.
 
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