tinman1975

Hey skeeter, I told your mom to get her feet out of the picture...but she loved the rifle so much:p

picked her up last week....went to the range today...shooting 2 moa with bad eyes and iron sights. Brought her home and shimmed the gas system and added NM spring guide...see how she does next time

oh well the links are there and seem to work...i dunno why the pic wont come up in the window...maybe its cause im at work or something...ill try when i get home on thursday

The image just shows up as the little red x mark...dunno whats wrong

I am trying to upload pictures of mine...how come when i hit the manage attatchment button it says i have uploaded my maximum attatchment of 1?

Its all good....you can tell him "I told you so" when he is on the street corner pan handling to save up enough money so he can buy his standard with all usgi parts...or even worse his LRB build. I thought the socom was gonna be the only one i needed too....now in only a year and a half later i have bought two more standards

The main advantage of buying the scout over the socom is....it will save him another 1500 bucks or so..because once he has a socom he is gonna want a standard or two to everage out....if I were only gonna buy one...then maybe id go scout. But so far my socom has been nothing but reliable...actually even more reliable than one of my standards

I am in the same boat as you....live in Kalifornia and just bought my 3rd m1a...its an older one with all usgi parts. I think I am going to try the bassett mount myself. People seem to love the leupold and ive heard a lot of good things about the super sniper. My biggest reservation is this: Do i really want to spend 1500 dollars on a scope/mount combo on a rifle that is going to shoot 2-3 MOA? I guess it just depends on what its being used for....for ringing the gongs at 800 yards at the range....I think will skimp a little on the scope and just buy more ammo, the rifle still rings the 600 yarders with iron sights, which is good enough for me. Right now I think I am considering a bushnell elite 3200

Ahhh i see what you were saying...the brown handguard part. That makes more sense now. Yeah it is an expensive gun by most peoples standards...but as far as M1'a/M14's go...they are actually at the cheaper end of the spectrum. You do probably lose a little bit of quality just because of the fact that they are commercially mass produced.....but if you look at the nice hand built ones like LRB or fulton....some people pay up to 4-5 thousand dollars to build em. As far as the stocks...unfortunately most of the new M1A's built by springfield have boyd's stocks on em...and yeah those kind of suck......they are spray stained and a lot of times arent cosmetically as nice as a natural GI walnut stocks treated with linseed or tung oil like they used to. Also a lot of people dont like the thick contour of boyds stocks as compared to the old usgi walnut stocks

I dont think you were looking at a national match model. Springfield doesnt offer a national match model with plastic stock on it....they should be bedded in a walnut stock. Supermatch rifles can come with a top quality synthetic mcmillan stock...but those are like 400 bucks alone...so they aint doing that to cut corners. So im guessing someone might have tried to swap out stocks...or it wasnt a match model. Also, the supply of usgi stocks has all but dried up....which has led springfield to start producing their own stocks...which do leave some to be desired. Either way...i have 3 m1a type rifles from springfield and they all function flawlessly......and springfield gives a full lifetime warranty should anything go wrong. For the price they are a pretty good deal though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvCkFnfUCqI I dont have this sling....but this one looks nice because if for some reason you dont like the swinging around of the one point after trying it.....you can always change it to a 2 point or use the weapons catch adapter. Or there is something like this: http://www.botachtactical.com/ggbesiposlat.html. I use the spectergear 3 point cqb sling and it seems fine...i like that you can just let go of the weapon and it drops down nicely in front of you and you dont have to %$^* with attatching it to something to keep it from swinging around. Also since all of your controls are on the right side of the weapon...the extra piece of webbing doesnt really bother me, unless you like carrying a bunch of shells in a saddle on the left side. A few extra carry options too

If you want to get even more confused....try to figure out why its ok to import FN SLP shotguns with mag capacities over 5. I know most of the new ones are made in south carolina now...but the earlier ones were impoted from belgium and some were made in portugal also

"It's strong possibility that this Benelli is truly one of a kind" LOL Oh also. skeeter....where did you get the cans stenciled for shotshells...thats cool...ive been lookin for those everywhere

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=159366205 this still amazes me...and still has 17 bidders http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=159715725

here is a cheaper one from DMW http://davesmetalworks.com/shot.html

sent you a pm

They are a little bit pricey. I use mine mostly for my M1A because it is a real pain in the neck to clean from breech to muzzle without taking the barrel completely off if you are using a cleaning rod. The otis kit is very portable and all around useful, but it does make the cleaning process take about three times longer than using a rod. But for Ar's and shotguns where it is easy to access the barrel for cleaning...I like using a single piece coated rod with patches and brushes

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=147164890 I dont know what tax is in your area...but this could be a couple hundred bucks cheaper. If you arent in a big rush....i see these go on gunbroker for 1350-1450 all the time. If you even think you might buy one of these shotguns ...I would order one of kip's titanium tubes now. they take a while to get to you, but are worth the wait. Then, if you dont decide to buy the gun, you could turn around and sell the tube for exactly what you paid for it to somebody who doesnt want to wait while theirs is on order.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/MOLLE202-7.html This bag is 42 inches....but its super nice, durable, and holds a ton of stuff.....I have 2 of them. Different manufacturers make the identical bag...but the one i have is rugged.....i ordered it from the same site about a year ago...it fits the m4 with the fixed stock and leaves about 4 inches of free space to spare...i think a 36 inch would be too short for the fixed stock....hope that helps

Told ya you wouldnt be dissapointed:) Oh, also you might want to check on that m14 forum, but i swear i remember reading somewhere that you should never go larger than 175 grains....see what you come up with. I actually read that the 110 grain hornady tap rounds will give some of the best performance and tightest groups. Im glad you decided to see for yourself how cool those rifles really are, and Im glad you seemed to get one that doesnt have all of those finicky gas system problems. Enjoy

the stock configuration M4 is listed as 4+1 here on the benelli site. You can actually fit 5 shells if you are using 2 3/4". Its not that there is a limiter inside the tube...the tube just ends where you see that funny little plastic lookin part on the last 1/3 or so of the tube. So realistically a stock M4 can hold 5 +1+1 if you float a shell on the carrier

Never tried it...but thats a total rip...here: http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/catalog1/product_info.php/pName/250rds-12ga-remington-le-tac-8-2-34-8-pellet-oo-buck/cName/12-gauge-buckshot thats about half the price yer gunshop is asking:)

I just checked my numbers...you are right it is slightly more...not quite that much, but I have only tested lithuanian M80 146 grain and lake city XM80 and i had variances of 120-150 fps between my socom and standard. neverless, its a moot point now.....have a blast with the new rifle hookster....I know you will love it

Well hookster opinions are like A$%^&holes....everyone has one. I think if you were to google socom 16 reliability...i think you would find that you would get far more positive opinions than negative ones. As for gas system function....yeah the original gas system is intended for the long barrel, but springfield has completely revamped the gas system to be socom 16 specific, and take it from an owner....it works. As for .308 factory ammo being loaded for best performance for long barrels...the manual that comes with the socom specifically says to use mil spec 7.62 ammo...which could also be a source for "finicky" function rumors....i dont fire cheap or reloaded gun show ammo through my 1800 dollar rifle. Also if you were to search ballistics for the socom....performance isnt really much different from the full length barrel.....you lose about 50 fps. Im not bashing the scout model, because I dont have one....you pretty much just need to decide what you are looking for. The socom has different sights that are clearly intended for closer range and faster target aquisition, and become kind of thick and bulky trying to shoot out past 300 yards....you will find with holdover...your front blade will cover your entire target at 400 yards. If you are looking at the socom I assume you are looking for something compact. If not, I would say just go with the standard...they seem to be much more readily available and much cheaper. Like someone pointed out in an earlier post...here in cali, i can sell the rifle even with almost 1k rounds through it, for more than i paid for it by the end of the week. The only other consideration I would say is....you will spend just as much money on ammo as you will the rifle:) At best, 7.62 is still about 59 cents a shot ranging to 80 cents to a buck, depending on what you buy. Either way you go...the M1A platform is awesome and you will want more.

talyn do you own a socom 16? I do, and I love it...i have put at least 800 rounds through it without one fail to fire or cycle. I also own a standard M1A. I would ask what kind of ammo you were using if you were havin reliability issues. Also are you cleaning your rifle upside down or closing off the gas port when cleaning? Allowing solvent or oil to enter the gas system can affect the systems function. As for the co-witnessing...i am not sure...the iron sights on the rifle are so good...with a larger rear ghost ring allowing pretty quick target aquisition, i have never considered optics. Also what do you plan on using the rifle for? I have a friend who uses it as his bear rifle and he loves it. Accuracy is pretty good, but the rifle isnt meant for long range shooting....but hitting 18 inch steel plates from any position at 100 yards is pretty easy. You definately will punish the guy next to you on the firing line with the concussion that comes from the muzzle break. Recoil aint bad....i dont notice any difference between the standard length and the 16 inch barrels. I would also advise against the socom 2 model with the cluster rail...it just gets too heavy. The one downside to the rifle....the price. I bought about 2 years ago right as people were starting to get scared that they would become illegal...so i snatched it up, at the time i paid 1750 out the door with california doj fees and everything. I actually enjoy shooting the standard M1A better just because i love the feel of wood and its a little more accurate. But if the world comes to an end...out of everything in the safe...i would grab the socom...short, maneuverable ,powerful reliable, and accurate enough for what its for.