nortac; My Springfield Armory M1A is a low-4000 serial numbered gun which may have been made before they moved from Devine, Texas to Geneseo, Illinois. It's a compilation of G.I. parts with the Springfield Armory M1A cast steel receiver. It has a SAK 1-69 barrel. Some have said these SAK barrels are "match" barrels but it offers no special heavier dimensions and I think it's only a military contract replacement barrel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Armory,_Inc.
The brass is very well-treated by this rifle. It don't overwork it or chew it up at all. I've made up good useful, reliably functioning loads using powders from the Reloader 7 to H 414 burning rate range. Most efforts over the years have centered around the IMR series: 3031 through 4320 with bullet weights from 125 grain to 180 grain in weight. Don't have my reloading notes to hand but can offer some "pet" loads later if you like. Never really found that others favorite pet loads offered any more than a starting point for a different rifle.
No small base dies have been necessary. In fact, setting the standard .308 sizing die to perform a complete neck re-size and a partial re-size otherwise suffices for cases run through the rifle repeatedly, such as in match shooting. I've never run the handloads on the ragged edge of maximum though.
I have seen "how low I could go" though. On one occasion I was trying to come up with an accurate, low-recoiling load for training kids so loaded the Sierra 125 grain spitzer over the minimum published charge weight of SR4759. This was a powder puff indeed. The rifle functioned with this load too, sounding all the while like my Winchester Model 12 shotgun sounds when shucking it while trying to knock down a pair of mallard from the duck blind. It's almost comical to experience. The rifle never failed to feed any from this batch of excessively light handloads. It was spic and span clean and lubricated with Singer sewing machine oil.
While not recommending such a load in an M1A, this goes to show that the rifle can function to some extent with out-of-spec rounds.
On the other hand, years ago, I went to the Texas State High Power match at Camp Bullis in San Antonio and was paired with a person who shot an M1A with some pretty gross overloads using 180 grain Sierra Matchking bullets. The rifle was holding up as far as I could tell.
There's a bit of a story on that. Was the first time I attended a state match and on Saturday morning they stuck me with a girl! She was a young woman, petite and very unassuming in appearance. I thought: "Great. First time here and I have to babysit some girl all day, spotting for her and lending a hand."
At the end of the two-day match, yours truly was 91th out of 182 match entries, or flat dab in the middle of the pack. She, on the other hand was 4th, and high woman for the match. Turns out that her dad was base commander at Lackland or Kelly (can't recall which), she shot high-power three weekends out of four all season and had a base armorer providing support for her rifle.
She was there for the two days, shooting off 180 rounds of gut-bustin' hot .308 handloads, and whipping me like a redheaded step-child.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Armory,_Inc.
The brass is very well-treated by this rifle. It don't overwork it or chew it up at all. I've made up good useful, reliably functioning loads using powders from the Reloader 7 to H 414 burning rate range. Most efforts over the years have centered around the IMR series: 3031 through 4320 with bullet weights from 125 grain to 180 grain in weight. Don't have my reloading notes to hand but can offer some "pet" loads later if you like. Never really found that others favorite pet loads offered any more than a starting point for a different rifle.
No small base dies have been necessary. In fact, setting the standard .308 sizing die to perform a complete neck re-size and a partial re-size otherwise suffices for cases run through the rifle repeatedly, such as in match shooting. I've never run the handloads on the ragged edge of maximum though.
I have seen "how low I could go" though. On one occasion I was trying to come up with an accurate, low-recoiling load for training kids so loaded the Sierra 125 grain spitzer over the minimum published charge weight of SR4759. This was a powder puff indeed. The rifle functioned with this load too, sounding all the while like my Winchester Model 12 shotgun sounds when shucking it while trying to knock down a pair of mallard from the duck blind. It's almost comical to experience. The rifle never failed to feed any from this batch of excessively light handloads. It was spic and span clean and lubricated with Singer sewing machine oil.
While not recommending such a load in an M1A, this goes to show that the rifle can function to some extent with out-of-spec rounds.
On the other hand, years ago, I went to the Texas State High Power match at Camp Bullis in San Antonio and was paired with a person who shot an M1A with some pretty gross overloads using 180 grain Sierra Matchking bullets. The rifle was holding up as far as I could tell.
There's a bit of a story on that. Was the first time I attended a state match and on Saturday morning they stuck me with a girl! She was a young woman, petite and very unassuming in appearance. I thought: "Great. First time here and I have to babysit some girl all day, spotting for her and lending a hand."
At the end of the two-day match, yours truly was 91th out of 182 match entries, or flat dab in the middle of the pack. She, on the other hand was 4th, and high woman for the match. Turns out that her dad was base commander at Lackland or Kelly (can't recall which), she shot high-power three weekends out of four all season and had a base armorer providing support for her rifle.
She was there for the two days, shooting off 180 rounds of gut-bustin' hot .308 handloads, and whipping me like a redheaded step-child.
