Here, we were able to get into the mechanical functioning and design of the gun and how to turn the plain vanilla M14 into an extremely ac- curate match-grade rifle.Įarlier this year, I was fortunate enough to review the Loaded M1A (LOCK & LOAD: Springfield Armory Loaded M1A, February 2016 S.W.A.T.), so I was anxious to see how the SOCOM 16 CQB configuration compared. The next time I got the opportunity to see what a great rifle the M1A/M14 is, I was attending the Army National Match Gunsmithing Course at Rock Is- land Arsenal. Accuracy of these guns went sub-MOA for five shots at 100 yards with good ammo. The M1As 58 with Match barrels, excellent triggers and glass-bedded wood stocks. The course lasted a week and included night firing with what was then state of the art in night vision-the AN/PVS-2. The course of fire was very well set up and ranges were fairly short, around 175 yards, since this course was primarily for law enforcement.

Since I was a member of the Unit’s Pistol Team, I was able to attend the course during the off-season. Two senior NCOs, who had extensive experience in sniper and counter- sniper operations in Vietnam and ran a very popular course primarily for local law enforcement, staffed the CS section. The unit had three sections: a competitive pistol section, of which I was a member a competitive rifle section and a counter sniper (CS) training section. Army Marksmanship Unit #1 in Fort Meade, Maryland. I first used the M1A when I was assigned to the U.S. OF my Top Ten favorite we used were all Match-grade M21s, FEATURES rifles that I’ve shot and worked on in my life, the M1A has to beat the top of the list. In this article, Steve Sieberts reviews Springfield Armorys SOCOM 16 CQB rifle.

M1a socom accuracy and range