About to junk my SOCOM.

The SOCOM seems to need some tweaking. I would say hit up RAMMAC as to exactly what he did to his to get it near SUB MOA.

Have you tried a different stock, checked for looseness anywhere, cleaned and so on?

Give us some more info and I bet we can get you in the right direction.

Old, new, used.

Don't we have a premier builder up there in Alaska? Maybe have an expert look at your rifle - lots of things can cause accuracy problems.

You might want to try running a good box of ammo through it after a good cleaning and lubing. I would try a box of FGGM 168gr. A good place to start eliminating what it could be.

I agree with Kmcintosh78, you need to get RAMMAC's opinion before you make any final decisions. What kind of mount do you have the EOTech on? Do you take the EOTech off between range trips?

You mentioned it doing good cold. Does that mean as you go through the string its opening up? Might need to check your handguard, GC or front band and make sure everything is fitted correctly as kmcintosh suggested.

Check and make sure your handguard isnt touching the barrel and is not putting too much pressure on your front band. After that I would check the gas cylinder lock to make sure its indexing properly. It could have too much/not enough pressure on the GC. There or several threads on this site that address the issue, check in Ted Brown's or Art Lupino's section. Well, any of those sections for that matter. I would suggest finding a SS or brass shim kit to fix it in case that is a problem.

Anyway, good luck. Theres tons of info on this site. Whether it's you, your ammo or your weapon you can find out what the problem is and I don't believe any M1A is simply a lost cause. They take some work but are very capable of being accurate weapons.

EO Tech

I seldom post my 2 cts but you mentioned an EO Tech,,,just to eliminate that pull if off and shoot the iron sights.

I cant believe at 75 yrds that your group would open that wide after a great first string.
dont give up and keep us posted....

45.308 said:

I understand to do some work and parts upgrade but at this time I am not willing to put any money or effort into it.

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Well, then, you might as well sell it.

It's shown that it is capable of fine accuracy, obviously something is heating up/moving/binding/shifting/etc once you start really shooting the thing. This is not uncommon and I won't bore you with the maudlin details of all the squirrely firearms I've gotten that required some detective work and a few parts to square them away, but to me the effort was worth it. And this is not to say something like this wouldn't happen with the next M1a no matter what make you would get.

If you are frustrated with it, set it aside for a while or sell it. And, as the others mentioned, maybe get another set of eyes on it... you might be staring right at the problem and not see it.

I second the frustration, I have a brand new SAI standard that has 40 rounds through it. With open sights it was right on out of the box but 4 to 5" groups at 100 yards. With the scope I was dead on at 25 yards and could not hit half a sheet of drywall at 100 yards! I did the same as you and tossed it in the truck and left. I will get back out soon and try it again but got to leave it alone for now. It's like owning a 63 split window Corvette that can't get out of second gear. It looks good setting still but can't get out of it's own way.

I think buddy shooting is the best idea of all. If it duplicates with both of you shooting it's the gun. My personal guess would be the stock binding in some location but yes frustrating for a rifle in the $1600 dollar range.

Is your gas cylinder shimed . . .

or unitized? If not your front sight might be a loose cannnon.

lbsnake925 said:

45.308,

My recommendation,

Remove the optics.

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That was also my first thought. I never put an optic on my rail, in fact, I removed the rail on mine, completely. The way the mount is, right on the barrel, right in front of the chamber... that is probably the worst place to put a mount.

...and check the adjustment screw on the rear sight... mine came loose when I was shooting last week... took me a while to figure it out. Duh.

When my shots start going wild, I know that something is loose. Usually, my rail mounted bipod or my gas plug or my scope. Eventually, they all come loose.

Scout rail may be misaligned or loose enough to contact oprod. I had this same issue on my Socom. Took a little metal removal on the rail to clear oprod. Good luck.

MM

Just a thought - Maybe find one of our more seasoned riflemen here at the forum who holds an FFL - ship it to him for evaluation... let him or her send some rounds down range and see if there is anything wrong with the gun.. I'll bet we have some armorers here that could do a shake down rather quickly for little $$$.

I agree with others here. Remove the optic and shoot it with iron sights at close range, maybe 25 or 50 yds and see how it shoots. Shoot 10 or 20 rounds, then move out another 25 yds and repeat until you go out to 100 this way you can collect more data on the rifle with the iron sights.

Hopefully you can establish more of a baseline on how the rifle performs at different ranges. In my opinion, inconsistincies like this are usually optic or mount related.

Dump the opitc! Try the iron sights first!

aw, man, surely the famed-reliabilty-accuracy of the M1a is not just a myth?

I'll buy it...... Seriously.




I need one and willing to work on it til it shoots right.