I was at a local gun shop the other day, and saw a Fed Ord M1A for something like $369 or 469, forget which.

What can you tell me about these? I never  really thought about getting a M1A cause they're so expensive, so I'm not really familiar with them (M1A's in general). This had a stripper clip guide above the mag well...it didn't seem right, like a bolt on afterthough. Other than that, I didn't know what to look for.

John

I aint heard much good about a Federal Ordnance M14 but I aint never owned one either.  I do know that some came assembled with USGI parts and some with Chinese.  If it came assembled with the USGI parts I would snatch it up in a hurry but if it came with the Chinese parts I'd just forget about it.  Hey, that just one mans opinion though.

Good luck!

I used to have one, bought it back in the mid 80's.  It was of remarkably good quality, all parts were TRW including a new TRW barrel and a TRW trigger assembly.  Stock was U.S.G.I. fiberglass, which I replaced with a wood unit I got from Sarco.  The receiver was their own, a forged unit.  It held up well.  I ended up selling it years later, ran out of room in the safe and something had to go.  It shot as well as my S.A. standard.  I actually shot matches with it, and I did well with it.

Later production units were of diminishing quality.  The receivers were "soft", as evidenced by how easily the serrations in the rear sight mounts wore down.  Also headspace became a major problem.  As U.S. G.I. surplus stocks disappeared Fed Ord shifted to imported Chinese parts, mostly from Norinco.  These units are, frankly, crap.  Avoid at all costs, no matter how good the deal is.

So before you buy, pull the stock off and look hard at component markings and look at the sight "click" serrations.  If you see U.S. surplus parts (every Fed Ord I saw back in the 80's were almost all TRW) and sharp serrations, it's a keeper.  If not, it's a soft receiver/Chicom crapper.  Run.