My brother has been looking for a Springfield Armory M1A, despite all the horror stories that I heard on the boards and related to him.  Sooo anyway, I find a co-worker whose dad has had a NIB loaded M1A sitting in his closet since 1997.   He wanted $1200 for it.   My brother promptly sends the money (while his wife is conveniently out of town on training), and I promptly get it to him Tuesday (since his wife will be home Wednesday and she can't know about this whole deal, and after that he's transferring to England, so no shooting there either).
 So we find a range near where he lives(Thanks, NAM!)  and proceed to shoot the thing.
My nipples still get hard whenever I think about the M1A!!!!! I've got to get me one of 'em for myself now.  I can't believe how low the rifle's recoil was and it was putting the bullets in aound 4 MOA, which is pretty good for me not using a scope.
 Anyway, just had to get it out of my system.  Thanky'all for listening.

One weird thing--the mag that came with it (brand-spankin' new like the rifle) wasnt' a 10 or a 20 rounder.  It held 16 shells...is this unusual, or is there something I don't know about M1A mags?

edited to change accuracy to 4 MOA, because I remembered that I was shooting at 50 yards (oops).

Hey...Glad to hear it all worked out.
Was anyone else out there? I rarely see people out there during the week.

If it were any other day of the week, i would have come out and empied a few boxes with you guys.  Tuesdays are jsut bad days for me.

As for the M1A MAg.... never heard of it. I have never seen 16 rnds....Did you disassemble the mag?

I'm guessing... seeing it's a NIB post ban.... maybe it had a 20 rnd mag that was blocked. MAybe the block was damaged? I would definitly strip it and see what's up.

I don't know how far you are from here, but there's a gun show in Collinsville. It's a half hour from the base or so.... towards St. Louis.
I work till 7am... thne im gonna change and drag my rear over there .

There were a couple of high school kids shooting .22LR (veeeery nice, veeeery expensive Anschutz rig).  They left after 30 min. or so and after that we were the only ones on the range.  There were a TON of cars in the parking lot, but I believe they were having  a member's meeting at the time, probably why no one was shooting.
As far as the fun show, I am in Springfield MO, and I have to work this weekend, so I can't make it--have fun though!
I'll report back on the mag situation as new developments arise.

Yeah... they usually have silhouette shooting every sunday. THey also have an indoor range too.. .but that's members only. I was thinking about a membership. but for $100...i coudl get transferred tomorrow and im out. $5 a shoot is good for me.

Sounds like someone else will be buying a bunch of ammo soon.

I always say,M14's and M1A's are better than Lays potato chips.Can't eat,I mean can't own just 1.They're very addictive.

M1A  - very cool.  Love mine.  I  Never heard of a 16 round magazine.  Go to

www.battlerifles.com

They know a lot about the M1A.

Springfield Armory sells fifteen round magazines.  www.springfield-armory.com

Stay away from Cavim ammo! It's cheap in more ways than one, believe me.

Sounds like your brother got himself a nice rifle. Spend about $20 for a box of Federal Gold Medal Match ammo to try through it.

You might really be surprised how accurate the M1A really is.

I've got a M1A that shoots 2 - 4 MOA with mil-surp ball ammo, but shoots sub-MOA with the Match ammo. And there are NO National Match parts on it...

As far as mil-surp ammo goes, I like the Spanish-made Santa Barbra and the South African stuff that's around these days.

Quoted: Stay away from Cavim ammo! It's cheap in more ways than one, believe me.

Whats wrong with the Cavim ammo ?  Always worked good for me.