[MGSchindel]

I've been lurking here a long time as I gathered a wealth of info and finally built out three Springfields to suit my needs: a Socom, a Scout, and a National Match.

The rifles have GI bolt guts, op rod springs, and trigger groups. They have Sadlak NM spring guides and gas pistons, NM relieved ferrules, and properly fitted and relieved handguards. The Socom and Scout have shimmed gas cylinders, and the National Match's gas system is unitized. The Socom and Scout are carefully fitted to properly relieved Boyd's stocks, mated with GI stock hardware. The National Match is factory glass-bedded, of course, so she was left alone. The Socom's factory alloy scout scope mount has been substantially relieved so the op rod clears it nicely. The Scout is sporting an SEI coast guard muzzle brake. I couldn't help myself and had to sexy up the National Match with a GI slotted handguard, which it deserved!



The Socom started off in a factory plastic FDE stock, with abysmal accuracy, shooting 6" groups and worse at 100 yards. I was horrified. The op rod was slapping the scout scope mount. The barrel band was flapping wildly loose and there was no downward tension on the barrel. The handguard was tight against the stock on both sides. The op rod spring was binding. The gun also would not eject reliably. With its new wood stock and the few upgrades and mentioned procedures to fit everything properly, it is now shooting inside 2" at about 75 yards with an Aimpoint T-1 red dot!!!!! I am thrilled and relieved, and I LOVE this little guy!!!!

The Scout started off in factory walnut but was poorly fitted/not fitted. It shot about 3" at 75 yards, having odd unpredictable fliers. The gas cylinder was laying firmly against the bottom inside of the stock forearm and hitting the ferrule. The barrel band was pretty sloppy, begging for shims. The handguard was way tight, canted, and pressing down along the entire length of the stock on one side. After fitting the gun properly to the stock, and the other mentioned mods and fitting procedures I learned from this site, the gun is shooting inside .75" at 50 yards with a low-power Scout Scope, and with the power turned up, it will shoot just over 1MOA at 100 yds with its favorite Hornady 168gr boat tail hollow points. Another thrilling result! The accuracy is transformed.

The National Match just got a scope, on a Bassett low mount, and I will shoot it for the first time this weekend to see how it run with the scope.

I wanted to thank the members of this forum for their incredible contributions and information-sharing that has made my little Trifecta not only possible, but caused it to exceed my expectations, with very little effort or extra cost. Thank you!!!!

MGS

 

[boomerpusher]

Welcome aboard from South Dakota and what an introduction! Beautiful brace of rifles. You have a right to be proud of them. Glad to have you with us.

 

[Wasted ammo]

Welcome, that gives the word threesome another meaning in my mind.

 

[32639]

That 1" MOA scout is a beaut. Ready for the national matches.

 

[Dekker]

Welcome from Southern IL. and Congrats! on your trifecta.

 

[spanky289]

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[POLACK]

I see we have another perv from fla,nice stocks
welcome from south florida,bring beer?

 

[MGSchindel]

Thank you for the warm and gracious welcome!

I was able to run the National Match today with a scope/Bassett quick-mount set-up for the first time. I ran all three rifles in amazing weather today at Okeechobee Shooting Sports. Two observations that may benefit others.......

I swapped different gas pistons in and out to see what the hype was about. Sure enough, running the Sadlak TiN match gas pistons in these commercial SAI gas systems DID improve groups in both the Scout and the Nat Match by as much as 20%-30% with certain ammo!!! No joke! Really hard to get your head around how minute differences in ONLY the gas piston tolerances can impact accuracy and consistency by that much, but the results didn't lie!! The Nat Match put two three-round groups of Hornady 168 grain BTHP match ammo into 0.38" and 0.36" at 50 yards! Groups opened up to over half an inch just by putting the factory gas piston back in! If you have most everything else worked out in your M1A, the Sadlak gas pistons are worth a shot! I tried a GI gas piston too, but it made no difference over the stock commercial gas piston in the Nat Match, and maybe groups even opened up with the Scout. I'd save the GI gas pistons for older guns with the genuine GI gas system components, and stick to trying the Sadlak pistons in the newer commercial Springfield guns to see if you get a benefit with your chosen ammo.

And......I can't recommend the Bassett picatinny rail mount highly enough! Bolted right on in 30 seconds, zeroed right up with an old 2-7x leupold vx2 I had sitting around, using Leupold steel prw rings, just to test things out, and it ran stellar! Solid, stable, no slop or movement whatsoever, and excellent return to zero upon removing and replacing. I have the low mount, and I could still see just enough of the iron sights underneath to confirm that the scope was right on target, before I started firing. I also had NO issues with windage and elevation. The Bassett picatinny scope mount is worth every penny, super quality and a reasonable price IMHO!

Next up will be some tuning experiments with Schuster adjustable gas plugs.....Man I love these rifles.

Thanks again to everyone on this forum, for making these rifles a joy to mod and shoot, rather than the confusing misery I would have suffered to painfully and slowly sort out their minor factory shortcomings. All the knowledge, parts, and resources to get these rifles in order was sourced from all of your considerate contributions and shared experiences in the threads of these forum pages. I can't think of a better firearms brotherhood anywhere on the internet!!

 

[mercman]

Welcome aboard. I run the SEI CG brakes on my 18"er's and have been very happy with them.

 

[m14brian]

Nice trio you have there!
m14brian

 

[Killashrub]

Beautiful rifles. What is your next M14 going to be? You know the addiction doesn't stop here right?

 

[Doc]

Welcome ot the forum and thanks for sharing a great picture.

 

[MGSchindel]

Beautiful rifles. What is your next M14 going to be? You know the addiction doesn't stop here right?

You're so right....It started with the Socom in plastic as a "handy rifle" to knock around with......which instead led to the Scout in walnut because I just couldn't resist and had to know how they compared, plus I love the traditional wood and blued guns. I figured I'd compare the Scout and Socom and keep the winner. Wrong!!! I turned them both into winners. And they have different roles, in my mind, letting me run them at different distances with different types of optics.....Which then naturally led to the Nat Match because I wanted a longer range scope that was quick-detach, great iron sights with more sight radius to reach out with, and a bedded stock.....

Looking at this sad logic (insanity), I fear the mental sickness will continue in this direction and eventually lead to a full-blow case of Super Match! GI3

 

[reyetwinger]

Wow, what a great looking trio!

 

[MGSchindel]

Thank you for the kind words. I cannot believe how the very solid and tight-fitting Boyd's walnut stock went far beyond just enhancing the Socom's looks. It utterly transformed the Socom's accuracy as well. It's every bit the shooter that the Scout is, now. I would tell anyone that has a plastic modern SAI stock on their Socom or Scout, and is struggling with disappointing accuracy, to give the Boyd's stock a try.

After two more trips to the range with the trio, it is impossible to pick a favorite out of these three!