What are my options for mounting a regular eye relief scope on my MIA.  I have heard good and bad about actual scope mount that attach over the top of the receiver.  Is this a good way to mount a scope or should I get a rail for the top of the barrel/ top of the stock and mount a larue or adm extended scope mount backwards?  Please give me all of the options and tell me which one you believe to be the best/ most secure.

I guess it depends what kind of scope you want to mount.  I got an ARMS 18 mount that would probably work just fine with most scopes.  But, I put an ACOG on and it stovepipes from the brass hitting the bottom of the ACOG mount.    Its a tight fit, and sits pretty low. I'm keeping it for future projects, but its not a good fit for an ACOG.

+ 1, we can help from there.

I am thinking about getting a Bushnell 4200 Elite 4-16x, Nikon Monarch 3-12x or Vortex Viper 4-16x PST.  I am still looking at scopes though,but the scope will be something similar to those.  I understand that this is a battle rifle, not necessarily a precision gun, so I don't mind if the scope has to be higher off the bore axis to get reliable results (no stovepiping, etc.).  Any ideas?

I'd consider an ARMS 18 mount.  I know some people don't like the owner very much, but in my experience, its a good mount that sits pretty low and allows for the use of the iron sights.  I'm pretty sure that if I used one of the scopes you're suggesting, I wouldn't have had the stove pipe problems.



Whatever you do, think it over.  I'd avoid Springfield Armory mounts like the plague.  Not sure how the 4th Generation one is, but the 3rd Gen one is pretty much universally considered to be crap.  Remember, buy quality, you cry once.  Buy crap, you cry twice.

Sadlak Airborne - works great.

+1

Sadlak over the reciever for that scope. Sadlak mount's have a bevel to prevent stove pipes my rifle functions fine with it. Stovepipes can also be caused by improper ejector spring tension. The problem won't show up until you put a mount on. So if your rifle stove pipe's with the mount first replace the ejector spring. And make sure you have a M14 ejector. And not a Garand ejector....

Sadlak makes an excellent mount and worth trying. The only bit of nervousness that you will experience is whether or not your reciever is close enough to M14 specs for the mount to work. If it doesn't, you have the option of sending the mount back for modification to fit your rifle.

I had an apportunity to closely examine a SA 4th Gen mount and found it to be well made. The design addresses two of the problems SA M1A rifles have with the Sadlak mount. First, the mount omits the projection that aligns with the groove in the side of the reciever. That solves the potential problem of having a rifle with the groove machined too shallow or too narrow. Second, the mount is relieved above the ejection area, leaving a clear path for ejection.

I finally decided on purchasing a Troy MCS stock instead of another scope mount. $250 plus for the mount, plus I wanted to uograde my stock. In perspective $599 for the MCS did not seem so bad.