Meet Rache.
Sherlock Holmes fans will get the reference; everyone else will think I’ve named my rifle after a character on Friends. Well, everyone else above a certain age, I suppose.
I have to wait ten days, but I get visiting rights, of course, so I can fondle her whenever I want. That makes me sound like a perverted divorced dad, but I don’t care! I’ve not been this giddy for a while.
Oh, yeah, those Cooper rifle plans got pushed back, let’s say, a few more months. Maybe more than a few.
VERY nice.
Congratulations.
Hmmm. I can’t get excited about most versions of the Springfield Socom.
Excuse me, David, but when did JC Garand ever make a design for CQB? Stoner-action rifles are fine for CQB, but the heavier M14 says to me (mine does, anyway), “I’m here to give you control of ALL the battlefield, not just the part out to 300 meters”.
The Ninja-forend? Not required. You can mount a scope just fine with the Sadlak mount. You won’t be putting flashlights, etc on a rifle which weighs 9#+, anyway.
That shorty barrel on the Socom mitigates against some of the better long-range rounds with heavier bullets.
I’m dressing my M14 up for serious long-range battlefield control work, and it will be HEAVY, probably upwards of 13# when treated to a big scope and the better bipod. I was somewhat tempted by a buy on a Socom with the wood stock and a scout-scope last year, but for $1200, I had a lot more choices for a medium-range rifle, so I didn’t get it.
Your rifle will shoot well, but if I were you, I’d pop over the hill to NV and get some 20-round mags. Forget the 30’s, unless you want to opt for a REALLY tall bipod.
I’m still saving up for my M14 / M1A. This makes me jealous.
FWIW, I am contemplating purchase of a second M-1A, since I have a lot of magazines for my old service grade. Pretty flimsy excuse, huh? So far I have been avoiding the shorties, as the muzzle blast & flash bother me too much. I believe I’ll keep saving up my pennies for a semi-match version. Just my 5 cents worth, adjusted for inflation.
Merle
RD, I’ll probably leave the bottom half of of the rail group off the rifle most of the time.
As for CQB, I’m just following Boston T. Party’s admonition that in a world where everyone expects to be on the receiving end of .223, the man with a .308 has an advantage.
As do all thinking Californians, I purchased a number of M1A/M14 20-rounders years ago before the ban/before I moved to this state (take your pick). So now I legally can purchase new 20-rounders as spare parts kits for my existing ones. And yes, I’ll be doing that post-haste, before prices go up anymore. 🙂
Boston T. Party didn’t get his inspiration from one of those garlic westerns, did he?
Watch out when buying the Taiwanese Type 57 mags. They’re just fine, but someone, probably Norinco or one of their hacks, has started putting cheapo mags into a counterfeit sealed wrapper that LOOKS like the Taiwan issue one, but isn’t. The mags don’t work well and are a grade or two flimsier. I’ve seen them at two different gun shows up here in the past year.
I did an experiment with the counterfeits. The mag table had a REAL USGI mag on it, and I picked it up and squeezed it between my thumb and forefinger. The steel did not give at all. Doing that with the ersatz Type 57 magazine in it’s sealed wrapper brought some definite “oil-canning”. You could probably take a reloader’s pocket scale and weigh the mags and tell that way, also.
LOL. “When a man with a Socom meets a man with an AR….”
Good info on the TW mags and the squeeze test, thanks.
Hey Merle, if you want to unload some of those old magazines to me as “part kits,” shoot me an email. I’d definitely be interested, the price I’m willing to pay is probably more than you’ve got in ’em, and most importantly then you wouldn’t feel like you had to buy another rifle. 🙂
Congratulations on the new purchase, David. And I definitely like the paint job. The under-rail is a wonderful place to put bipods or vertical grips, depending on your purposes, so I would not dismiss it too quickly.
In either case, she is a blast to shoot (literally and figuratively) and I know you will enjoy it :).
I don’t usually encourage Californians to move north, but in your case, I’ll make an exception.
And Rivrdog’s right, a CQB version of an M14 makes little sense, especially as the thing has no bayonet lug! What kind of “Close Quarters battle” are you going to do with no bayonet?
And, yes, I did spend part of my formative years at Fort Ord…
I guess with no bayonet you’d better get busy with the hatchet. I hear good things.
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