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Springfield M1A Scout - Classic .308 rifle
Updated
18 months ago
Just recently I was working on a red dot review and I had the Springfield’s M1A Scout sent to me to do review comparing it to another Springfield rifle, long story short, the M1A, the Scout, was a perfect platform for the optic I needed to review, and now I have to review the M1A Scout.
I’ve actually shot and owned every version of the M1A other than the Scout. The M1A is such an iconic gun and it really is a legend. I wanted to review the Scout in the good old-fashioned walnut stock, just like it came, standard trigger, part, barrel, nothing national match. My other M1As have the synthetic stocks, the enhanced triggers, national match barrels, they came fully loaded. I wanted to see what I could do with just the basic M1A Scout.
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So, look at the specs and tech and see what we have before we get to shooting.
Specs and Tec
M1A Scout
- 2-Stage Trigger
- 9 lbs 3 oz
- .308/7.62x51mm
- 18” 1:11 twist barrel, 6-Groove Carbon Steel
- Military .0690 aperture MOA windage/Elevation Rear Sight
- National Match .062” Blade Front Sight
- 40.33” Total Length
- Comes with (1) 10-Round Magazine
MSRP: $2,023
Yes, sir, pretty basic, but that’s what so many love about the M1A, it’s just KISS. I heard a lot of different opinions, data research, for and against the reliability, etc., of the M1As. My experience and some veterans that I know, that actually used it in combat, say the same, it’s a solid firearm.
What I want to do now is I just want to get this zeroed at 50 yards. I have a great luck with doing that, I like zeroing at the 50, sort of the battlefield zero. It works for me, for pretty much all calibers. I’ve got some Hornady match here, the 160 grain A-MAX, special thanks to Hornady for providing the ammo. Hopefully, we’re gonna get as good at groups as we can get. The idea is I’ll zero it here at 50 and then that should put me pretty much spot on relatively close at 300 and allow us to really have a lot of flexibility between 50 and 400 yards or even 500, if we can reach out that far, so let’s just get it zeroed here and go from there.
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There’s a lot of controversy out there about seasoning and breaking in a barrel. I used to think, no, my experience is absolutely… I contacted, I’ve got a video out there, I contacted Bartlein, Krieger, Shilen, and they all recommend doing a barrel break-in and seasoning and I do see a difference. I’m about moderately way through, pass sort of that initial one-shot, three-shot, five-shot, 10-shot, and you are seeing the groups tighten as we go.
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This is the sight picture that I’m getting at 50 yards for the side in, and it’s hard to tell sometimes with the camera looking down optics, but I can tell you that is probably the most crisp, clear, clean red dot circle I’ve seen, I can’t tell and I won’t know till I’m editing, it doesn’t get any better than that. Let’s check out the groups.
I’d made a couple of clicks, I think I made about three clicks to the right, it was kind of having some difficulty hearing and feeling them. Came back over here because I had those original three off and that was the last three. For right now I’m pretty happy, I did do just now the one click to the left and I think I’m gonna call that good. I’m gonna start banging on some steel. This barrel really does need some more seasoning, some barrels need more than others and my experience with M1As is they like a little extra seasoning, so let’s start having some fun on some steel.
So, then I made a couple adjustments, I got a group of three, I made a couple more adjustments, check that out, guys, that rocks, that is awesome. As we’re getting further along and getting that barrel seasoned, there you go, I might bang on some steel here, but as far as the optic goes I’m calling that good.
I’m just gonna start off here at 300, not the max that I think we can go, but fairly challenging, 100 is gonna be kind of a no-brainer, let’s just start off here and see how we do.
I went to fast on that last one, I was getting a little too ahead of myself!
That’s awesome, guys!
With the sight picture, I mean, you can hardly see the target up there at 300, let’s give four a try.
That was impressive!
Let’s just see how we can do here at 200 and 300, standing.
Nice! I’m ok with that, two or three out of five at 300, even one out of five standing at 300 with a red dot works for me.
So, for the initial side in and all that stuff I was using, the Hornady, again the special thanks to Hornady, that is some awesome ammo, and we were getting the kind of groups that we were expecting. This DNH, it’s kind of expensive, but it’s hard to get a hold of, so some of you are gonna be looking to shoot on the cheap, so let’s see how this performs with maybe more affordable ammo or stuff that we can get our hands on, I don’t know that you’d be able to get your hands on this, but this was some military SurPlus several years ago, the kind of things I put on crazystupiddeals, don’t even know what I got this for 30 cents, awesome ammo, we’re gonna see what we can do with it.
And then, of course, Tula, a lot of people snub their nose at Tula, I’ve had great luck with it, let’s see what this does. My experience is the M1As chew this stuff up and spit it out and get some decent accuracy, so let’s find out.
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Product
Price
Store
MPN
UPC
TULA Ammo Tula 9X19 115 Full Metal Jacket 50rd Box
$14.99
Tombstone Tactical
TA919150
814950011531
Tula Ammo Zinc Coated Steel Case Handgun Ammunition .380 ACP 95gr Brass Jacketed FMJ 50/ct
$16.99
Natchez Shooting & Outdoors
TLTA380911
-
TulAmmo Battlepack 223 Rem 55 Grain FMJ - 60 Rounds Loaded in Amend2 Magazines
$58.99
Ammunition Depot
TULA223-L60-BP
000000022360
Tula Ammo Zinc Coated Steel Case Handgun Ammunition .380 ACP 95gr FMJ 1000/ct Case (20-50/ct Boxes)
$338.99
Natchez Shooting & Outdoors
TLTA380911C
-
Tula Ammo Zinc Coated Steel Case Handgun Ammunition .380 Acp 95Gr Brass Jacketed Fmj 50/Ct TA380911
$19.40
Shooting Surplus
TA380911
689481697178
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And, of course, the PPU, which we just used and I get fantastic groups with that, I’m hoping to get my hands on some more of this stuff, is great. This would be kind of my recommendation for just plinking ammo. I don’t think you’re gonna get any better than that and it’s gonna be the most affordable ammo.
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I’ve got some PPU here, the first two shots was awesome, it was right there, and then I had a couple shots, and then the final group was right there, and that’s pretty respectable for range ammo. What I wanna do now is, with range ammo, star having some fun on some steel.
I’m gonna go up a little bit higher here, I’m gonna go up off the target!
There we go!
So, let’s go in about a foot off the top of the target, let’s try that a couple more times and then I want to try 500.
Let’s go five!
Let’s give it a go here, we’re gonna settle in and see if we can get this at five!
That was two out of four, two out of five at 500, I like it.
So, we got the Tula, give this a shot here, let’s go for 300.
I will say, in Tula’s defense, that first round was loaded out of a box that’s been sitting for a really long time, the actual casing was a bit dirty, so let’s try a few more and put that to rest. I’ve actually had great luck with Tula in the past, so let’s stretch that up, let’s see what we can do at 400, let’s see how well it holds a consistent zero with the other ammo.
Something like the M1A Scout, the whole idea behind this is it’s not necessarily a tack driver at 500 yards, I mean, this really was not what this was designed for, this is designed for a .308, something with some punch, quick target acquisition at reasonable distances, so let’s just see how fast we can get them on target here at 100 yards using this red dot.
I’m using some of this really old military SurPlus, it is not too bad, they’re not super shiny, slick, clean, they’re just a little bit tacky, but I’ve had pretty good luck with them.
So, I got that military SurPlus in here, let’s continue on here at 200.
Let’s try one last time here at 100 and see how fast we can get them off on target, I got that military SurPlus and I got my target back up, the post just broke and fell over, need to replace that. Let’s see what we can do here.
I think that’s pretty decent, standing and firing fast at 100 yards, I could use a little more practice, anyway, it is what it is, you decide what you think.
It just didn’t feel fight doing this review without doing the iron sights, so I took the red dot off, I’ve got my military SurPlus here just because I’ve got a lot of it and it was cheap and I just got the iron sights zeroed at 50. I’m gonna do a 50-yard battle zero with this and I’m hoping that’s gonna mean that I’m spot on pretty much consistently, hitting the steel out there at 300. I was happy with the groups.
I wanna bang on some steel now and see how we can do with those iron sights!
Let’s try three. I’m hoping we should be spot on.
Ok, it’s hard up there at 300, I did four clicks up and I still was having to shoot just a little bit lower, but iron sights, 300 yards, that’s challenging.
