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M1A info

rightway1974

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I have a chance to purchase a SA M1A. I was told it was a older GI parts national match. It has a blackish synthetic stock. I know nothing about the m1a. Can someone help me out with any info? I believe I read something about calling SA with the serial number and they can tell you how it left the factory.
 
I have a middle 1980's Springfield National match M1A. As I understand it the differences between that and a standard rack grade M1A were these:

1-- N.M. has a barrel that is a little thicker under the handguard, a little heavier, to add stability.

2-- The N.M. barrel has a faster rifling twist I think it was 1 turn in 10
inches, rather than 1: 11 because the National Match was envisioned for use with 168-gr. bullets, but it had to work well with 147 grain military full metal jacket.

3-- The stock was walnut & very darkly stained, and fiberglass bedded to perfectly match the rifle's receiver.

4-- The N.M. trigger group, marked as such, was tuned from the factory to be very crisp and have a 4.5 pound trigger pull.


5-- The National match rear sight has a smaller diameter aperture, is hooded with a knurled shade, and there is a notch in that hood which you can use to make 1/2 minute of angle adjustments in elevation. The click adjustments are still 1MOA, however, which is plenty of precision for 99.9% of owners of such rifles.


6-- The gas system is optimized at the factory and the adjustment screw is pinned in place, so it is no longer adjustable. The idea is to get exactly the same amount of gas to operate the action for every shot.

That's all I can think of.
 
alleycat alleycat is right Springfield Armory will tell you how it was built and when.

I don’t think that NM rifles come in plastic stocks, maybe a McMillan stock or in walnut.
glass bedded
GI parts are easily identified

as Mentioned hooded rear sight , excellent trigger, welded or pinned gas cylinder (unitized)

Whats the price OP?
 
10-1 it’s a standard M1a late model being pawned off as a NM because they bought them later and slapped something together... are you good with the seller or is this a deal on another forum... say Armslister? Original parts included or as is?
 
I know the seller. He said it was a older NM SA. I thought maybe someone changed the stock out but I will double check tomorrow.
Makes a difference when you know the seller personally so maybe he just swapped the stock? SA should easily help you out and get the rifle identified.
 
Yeah, a lot of riflemen would want to take off the perfect pristine walnut civilian M1A stock and "save it" while buying a synthetic stock as a beater to hunt with, to modify with stiffeners or counterweights, or to drill into for mounting a bipod, some special type of sling, etc.

Then, it's easy for the walnut stock to get lost or misplaced. Especially if you move to a new home, or two.
(I have a beater M-14 wood stock, and I'm not sure where it is. Haven't used it since the middle 1990's.

I would still check out the individual parts & components to see if its a N.M. rifle in a different stock.


P.S. There are late 1960's vintage USGI surplus stocks that are fiberglass, and they are more rigid (more accurate) than the modern plastic commercial ones.

The USGI glass stocks were originally brown, with a cut-out for the M-14's selector switch. But many of those have been modified by folks who will fill-in the hole and paint it tactical black.
The Springfield plastic stocks come in black.
 
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