Could somebody tell me about their experiences with Springfield's M1A Bush Rifle?
What kind of accuracy can I expect out-of-box?
How reliable is it?
How is the fit and finish?

Thanks

IMO, the barrel is too short.  Plus, the M1A is one of the few remaining rifles legally allowed to retain a flash suppressor, but the bush rifle even replaces that with a brake.

I've handled them, but never shot them.  Fit and finish looks as good as a regular M1A.

i have a scout w/i arms reach. very accurate 2" MOA easy.
muzzle break helps. to heck w/ the flash hider. i can legally switch to one if i want.

It's got a flash supressor - lookie:
[img]http://www.springfieldarmory.com/images/rifles/Bush.jpg [/img]
Is the barrel too short?
What kind of ballistics can you expect from 18 inches?

Careful Cohiba.  There is no such thing as a 2" MOA (2 inch MOA)  MOA is a definite distance, given a distance from the origin.  You can say 2 MOA to represent a 2inch group at 100  yards, but not 2 inch MOA.  

The barrel being too short is nothing more than a personal opinion.  That barrel is still longer than a stock G3 barrel.

How much energy and velocity loss will there be compared to the standard 22" barrel?
Also, is the barrel blued stainless, or chrome moly?

BACK TO TOP!!

Woo Hoo!

Gone through a couple of M1A
Had a Scout Squad sold it to one of my inlaws..am trying to get it back..
The Scout is reported to be more accurate than the out of box rack grade...and more so than the Bush rifle..
With a scout scope mounted forward Im guessing this is stabilizing the  barrel a bit more ...
I would lean toward the Scout Squad with a synthetic stock ...though Im pretty sure both rifles share the same Wilson blue carbon non chrome lined barrel that the scout has..

Mine's a tack driver.  Tossed a scout mount and CompM on it and it works great.  As for the chrome barrel, well, my Garand doesn't have one and its' just fine [;)]...

I have had mine for 4 yrs. and  am very happy with it.  It is so short and handy moving aroundwith in the field, does not lose anything at 100 yrd. distance I have for plinking over my 21".          
            RL556 out.


"we need the ammo"

What about a Bayo lug - does it have one on the flash supressor?

DarkNite - That's exactly what I want to do!
Could you post some pictures?

Yeah, I've read 2 reviews on the M1A scout, and they both concluded it was a little more accurate.  Something about barrel harmonics, or the shorter barrel not "wiggling" as much as the standard.  They also really liked the Scout's brake.

Mine runs about 1-1/2" with any good ball.It shows signs of doing even better with some loads.It seems to be about 1/2" better on average than my standard.I've run or seen a lot of 308's across the chrono.A large percent of the 18" were just as fast as 22" rifles.Anything below that and you start going down hill.18" gas guns do seem to lose a little more than 18" bolt os S.S. compare to there 22" counterparts.

Chronograph testing shows that reducing the 308 barrel from 22" to 18" will give you 150 fps loss.  This is an average value dependent on the actual gunpowder being used.  As suggested by RL556, this will be unnoticed when shooting at 100 yards and really unless you are shooting 300 yards and beyond  the downrange energy and trajectory is not that much lower.  On the other hand, if you are looking for very best trajectory and utmost accuracy then you either need a 24" barreled bolt-action or a highly worked over AR-10 / SR-25 or any of the high-dollar accurized M1A's to the tune of $2,500.  You can spend $2,500 on a bolt-action 308 and really have a shooter (I know!)

Just like it almost allways boils down to, What do you want to do with it?  The shorter barrels are handy, but will give up a bit of velocity, just being short is in no way bad for accuracy though.  My personal pick in a 308 semi-auto is a FAL with a 21" barrel.  I chose 21" not for balistic performance but because I like the balance and appearance of this standard configuration.

One more thing, If you keep the M1A iron-sighted (or FAL or G3 for that matter) how will you know if it is capable of better than 2 MOA?  Personally this is all the better I can see/shoot, so my NM Garrand and FAL are both in the same leager as far as accuracy with me behind them.  Only with a scope fitted can I personally appreciate any more accuracy.

Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.