Got Tired of Waiting for the Masada...

[Guncrazy]

...and some might say I got smarter, too.

I'd been thinking about switching for a while, and even picked up ten 20-round mags and 400 rounds of ammo for the "alternate choice" before really committing to the decision.

But just last night, I went ahead and placed an order for a Springfield Armory SOCOM 16.

This will be my first non-.22, non-commie rifle, and I can't wait to try it out. I should have it in a couple of weeks (mailed a check, wait to clear, wait for shipping...find time to pick it up when the wife won't know.) I'll post my impressions here when I've done some shooting with it.

In the meantime, is there anyone here who has one of these? What do you think of it? What scope would you suggest? Anything I ought to know about it before I take it out?


ETA: Thanks, Chris, and everyone else involved, for the new place!

[FastRope71]

Mine is the full length barrel. I think you'll be plenty happy with your choice. It's a sexy gun. Make sure you use double hearing protection. .308 coming out of a 16" barrel is loud.

Try and shoot it at dusk, so you can see the fireball effect from the ported barrel. It should be pretty exciting.

[cu74]

Mine is the full length barrel. I think you'll be plenty happy with your choice. It's a sexy gun. Make sure you use double hearing protection. .308 coming out of a 16" barrel is loud.

Try and shoot it at dusk, so you can see the fireball effect from the ported barrel. It should be pretty exciting.

FastRope - Is that what your daughter was shooting at the Austin Shoot this past spring?

[Battleriflefan]

I have been thinking about a SOCOM, I would go to Reese Surplus and get a repro BM-59 olding stock, but that's just me. Realistically, though, it is out of the question until next year, and I think next year is stil questionable considering who might be the next president, and who will end up running Congress, and whether or not they have a super or fillibuster proof majority. After all, a previous Supreme Court ruling against limiting campaign contributions didn't stop or discourage anyone in Congress from not "reforming campaign financing" including many Republicans, so why would "Heller" be any different? Well, I'll just wait and see, congrats. you don't have to wait, and I think you will be pleased. And don't worry about me, i already have a full length M1-A, and it's a rifle that just feels right and shoots great.

[Combat Controller]

I have a scout and a NM. Love the rifles, quite fun, eats 7.62x51, but the NM has trouble with .308 sometimes. I think it is the match chamber, but other M1a owners have reported some trouble with commercial .308 ammo.

[Guncrazy]

Well, a few weeks late, but here she is...





So far, I've only put 20 rounds through it. Ammo is expensive, and the groups I was getting with the first box didn't justify using up another. Not that I suspect the rifle of being inaccurate--it's just that my eyes are crap, and I can barely see the target at 50 yards. Even with the neon orange VisiShot targets, I have no clue where I'm hitting until I retrieve the paper. This is one of my better targets, though.



Anyway, I've decided that I need to put a scope on it. One thing I noticed, though, is that even after only 20 rounds, slow-fire, the scope mount was...very warm. In fact, I started to suspect it wasn't a scope mount at all, but a heat sink, and wondered if anyone made cooling fans with picatinny mounts.

I also wondered, if I were to mount a scope on the heat sink, would the heat affect the scope? Might it kill an electronic red-dot sight? I decided I didn't want to find out.

So I ordered a Trijicon TA-70 scope mount. I went with it, because unlike the Springfield scope mount, it appears to use the rear dovetail where the stripper clip guide is currently located. I think that will provide a more solid mounting platform. Aligning the mount should also be easier than adjusting the screw bushing on the Springfield. And finally, by placing a mount on the back end of the rifle, I'm not restricted to using "scout" type scopes.

That should be here Monday.

Once I've got that on the rifle, I'll need to pick a scope. Since I'm definitely going to need magnification, and I want a red-dot scope, I think I'm going to go with Trijicon again--the TA648-308 ACOG. This one is a 6x model, which should help me see the targets better at 100 yards and, if ever they invent a really kick-ass vision correction procedure, beyond.

I've already got a 4x ACOG on my AR, and it really helps me see where I'm aiming.



I'm hoping for even better results with the 6x. My gun fund almost has enough in it to buy it, and hopefully I'll have it pretty soon. I'll post here again when I've had a chance to try it out.

Quick impressions of the rifle, based on the few rounds I've put through it.

1. I like!

2. .308 through that 16.25" barrel is loud, but not as loud as I was led to believe.

3. Recoil isn't bad.

4. Trigger is good, with short take-up, no creep. The break feels a little heavy, but crisp.

5. Everything on the rifle is tight when new. But practicing mag changes and playing with the elevation/windage knobs seems to have loosened things up a little bit. The safety, however, still requires a good bit of effort to engage or disengage.

6. Forward hand position is far more restricted compared with most other rifles. As mentioned previously, the forward-mounted rail gets kind of hot when shooting. But if you've got long fingers, they tend to wrap around and touch it.



You could try to move your hand forward, but the sling swivel gets in the way, and is uncomfortable between your fingers.



Moving your hand back is generally a bad idea, because gripping the rifle will interfere with the op rod...or it will interfere with your fingers.



So for me, at least, I find myself having to push my index finger up against the back of the forward sling swivel, and keep my fingers and palm curled out a bit.



This isn't the most comfortable hand position, and it may not be the most stable, but I'll practice with it and see if it is workable.

7. Minor quibble 1--there's an area where the op rod apparently rubs, and the metal is bare in this area.



8. Minor quibble 2--the elevation adjustment for the iron sights seems to be off a little bit. Coming from the factory, the sights seemed to be set for well under 100 meters (yards?). I couldn't dial the knob back far enough to get down to the 100 meter tick mark. The dial read about 700 meters with the sight at its lowest position.



In order to set the range at 100 meters, I have to turn it quite a bit in the other direction, rolling past the 1000 meter mark to get back to the 100. At this point, the sight sticks up a little bit.



Turning the knob as far as it can go in this direction, I can only dial it up to 900 meters before the sight reaches its highest point. The manual does not say if the yardage (meterage?) dial itself can be adjusted.



That's pretty much all I can say about it for now. I do have a couple of questions that maybe someone can answer. At the butt of the rifle stock, there's a metal plate that flips up. What is this for? So you can rest the rifle on your shoulder, like an RPG? A reverse bayonet? Garden trowel?



Also, someone told me that if I'm going to use a scope, I'm going to need an elevated cheek pad. Is this really necessary, and if so, is there one that's preferable to the others?

[Mud_Dog]

At the butt of the rifle stock, there's a metal plate that flips up. What is this for?

Just a left-over from when they made them full-automatic, I assume. You'll find the same feature on the M249 SAW. Not sure exactly how it's used, but on the SAW we used it in the prone position(Not sure how that'd work out on a non-bipod M1A) to have it stay on our shoulder with our left hand on the buttstock to keep it in place.

[tfbncc]

To sight in at 100 yards, turn the sight all the way down to it's lowest setting. Then turn it up and count the clicks. 13 clicks will put you on the paper with a standard barrel. I don't know how it will be affected by a 16" barrel. You may need to come up a couple more clicks. Fire a group and see where you are on the target. Repeat as necessary. If I remember correctly (it's been 20 years since I've done this) each click is 1/2 moa or equal to 1/2 inch travel on the target. Once you have the rifle sighted in, you can remove the knob and turn it so that the numbers on the dial match up with your sight in range.

[FelixEstrella]

Holy crap. 800 rounds of Winchester white box. You are saving your brass, right?

[FastRope71]

FastRope - Is that what your daughter was shooting at the Austin Shoot this past spring?

Sorry CU74, I so rarely comment twice on a thread i never saw your question. My daughter was shooting the DPMS panther I sold when we were still at the GunThing. Essentially an AR10 (.308 ar15).