New SA M1A quality

[jmoore]

They are very critical of SA Inc M1A.

It seems to be largely a case of one-upmanship rather than any real fault of SAI. Gotta wait in line for months to get the "latest and greatest".

[vintage hunter]

Hook Boutin, he's the one. Could'nt remember his last name. Evidently my pal Bill knew him personally. Bill was a retired Army captain with 20 some odd yrs. service and a 3 tour Viet nam vet, 2 as a sniper, and may have been on the shooting team, not sure on that though. Taught me a lot about percision shooting. He (Bill) is pictured in Norm Chandler's Death From Afar series, don't remember which volume, he's the old bald guy in the white shirt. I read something about SA's supply of GI parts drying up several years and them having to use new made ones in their place but I gathered that they were going to produce the parts themselves. Guess not. I wonder if they make their own M1A receivers. Lithgow in Australia makes their Garand receivers. Did'nt the military snap up a bunch of the M1A's at one time? Might be the reason for the wait.

[jmoore]

Another fascinating gentleman with whom I conversed regularly at Benning was Mr. McQueen. AMU shooter, Viet nam vet++, He was a "model" for some of the illustrations in the M14 marksmanship training manual- Someone framed the photo used for demonstrating the proper rapid fire sitting position (blown up to poster size) and hung it on the wall in his "office" at English Range. A bit like meeting a rock star, I guess- I never got all that excited about "celebrity types", but I sure looked forward to matches down there!!! Great folk.

I think the problem people have with SAI is that the company has attempted to keep prices in check- so their mfg. methods have had to be cost effective. They have had teething pains when changes were made, but they've stood behind their product the whole time. Building these rifles isn't easy, the machining set-ups are complicated, and so precision casting is used where feasible to contain costs. Some few parts will have to remain "old school", but as long as the end product functions, and will interchange with the original, I'm not gonna complain. They do need to sort their extractor dramas, though- scopes are quite common on this platform now!

Check the prices on new mfg. forged and milled M14 type parts- very high! Some have been of fairly unsatisfactory quality, at least initially- No names- They seem to be improving, but their prices will likely reflect the costs of the improvements.

Oh, one there's area in which SAI did fail pretty miserably- Optics! Aieee! utter rubbish 90% of the time. Just enough good ones to keep you guessing- I've an odd ball that's apparently uncatalogued which works fine, and I've witnessed a couple of others that did OK, BUT!!!

[Maniac]

Ck out the M14 Forum - M14 M1A Forums They are very critical of SA Inc M1A. I have a late model one and have zero issues. Base model Walnut stock that I swapped for USGI. Extractors are the primary material complaint. Parts are cast and forged in Brazil & the PI with final machining and assembly stateside. IMHO, best thing about SA Inc. is the warrenty. Like I said, zero issues with mine.

There's a few over there on M14 Forums that consider any M14 type that doesn't have a forged receiver to be junk. Savvy M1A owners know better.

[jmoore]

Funny thing, that. The absolutely WORST M14 receivers I've seen from a functional standpoint have been forged civilian type receivers. Poorly machined in either appearnace or dimensions/datum placement- and not the odd players you might expect- BUT they were earlier examples- nothing new has shown up with dramas yet.

[TDH]

I am not going to throw stones. People in glass houses and all that. I have noticed in the time I have been coming here that especially among collectors (not throwing stones) are more dead set against SAI than shooters. I've had my M1A Scout for 2 years now and the only real problem I have had is the gas plug loosens and must be tightened. Scope mounts are an entirely different story. I have tried several.One I had that mpunts to the side of the receiver and the charger slot would trap the brass even after a lot of judicious inleting. The Scout model has a scope mount in front of the receiver and takes a long eyereleif scope I finally found a one lever QD mount that keeps within a click or two of zero well.
I shoot at 3" targets at 100 yards and usually hit waht I'm shooting at and I'm 60 and have worn glasses for 50 years. the rifles work well.

You cannot beat their warrenty. LIFETIME unless you abuse it purposely. And extends to magazines as well.

[Seventh Fleet]

There was a time back in the late 70s when Springfield Armory Inc went to cast bolts but they ended up having a huge recall due to major issues with using a cast bolt.

Presently their bolts are forged but if you buy an M-1A built in the past few years, since they ran out of USGI parts, you should change out the internals of your SAI bolt for USGI parts.

The op rod and the rest of the rifle's internal parts are made from cast commercial parts imported from Wayne Machine, Inc. (Taipei, Taiwan).

7th

[Gman 56]

I bought a loaded m1a in feb17 of this year.I have shot about 300 rds not a problem!It has a forged bolt.This is my second m1a my other is 12 yrs old has GI bolt and op rod.I love my m1a rifles.Both rifles are accurate!You can't go wrong with Springfield Armory Inc.Thier lifetime warranty is great!I also have a 7.62 forged rec rifle and Springfield shoots just as good .So don't worry about buying a SA rifle.SA has been building m1a rifles along time if they were bad rifles they wouild have closed up along time ago!

[jmoore]

I have noticed in the time I have been coming here that especially among collectors (not throwing stones) are more dead set against SAI than shooters.

They ain't none of these rifles what be collectible and all. Some of their PARTS, maybe, but aside from the few folk like andy_ita that have 'sho 'nuff M14s, these rifles (receivers) are all wanna-be's.


One of my favorite wanna-be's, though! And a darn fine tool in it's own right.

[jeeper80]

I'm a shooter and don't regard M1A's as collectible. My concern was the rumor about SAI using cast bolts (and to an extent, op rods). Apparently the cast bolt issue is no longer a concern. Other than that, I have no problems with SAI's cast receivers. The one I have is nicely detailed and shows no porosity.