Description
The Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308 answers the one complaint people have about the M1A: that it is a big rifle. Four inches come off the barrel, four inches come off the overall length, and a forward Picatinny rail appears over the barrel for a long eye relief optic. The result handles like a carbine while still firing a full power cartridge.
What The Scout Configuration Changes
The barrel on the Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308 drops from 22 inches to 18, which brings overall length to 40.33 inches and weight to 8 pounds 8 ounces. You give up somewhere around 100 feet per second against the full length rifle, which at any realistic hunting distance is not something the animal will notice. What you gain is a rifle that swings between trees and fits in a truck, which is a trade most people are happy to make.
Springfield fits the Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308 with a muzzle brake rather than a plain flash suppressor. On a shortened .308 that is the right call, because the shorter barrel means more gas still burning at the muzzle and more muzzle rise to control. The brake keeps the sights closer to where you left them between shots.
The forward scout rail is the defining feature and the reason the configuration exists. It sits over the barrel ahead of the action, which is the only sensible place to mount glass on an M14 pattern rifle without a bulky side mount fighting the ejection path.
Shooting The Scout Rifle Concept
A forward mounted long eye relief scope is a genuinely different way of shooting. Both eyes stay open, the field of view around the optic stays clear, and target acquisition on a moving animal is faster than with a conventionally mounted scope. It suits low magnification, roughly two to seven power, and it suits shooting inside 300 yards, which covers the great majority of hunting.
It also leaves the iron sights usable. The Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308 keeps its National Match front sight in a .062 blade and a military .0690 aperture rear adjustable in MOA increments for both windage and elevation, and because the scope sits forward the rear aperture is unobstructed. If the optic fails you simply keep shooting.
The trigger is the same two stage service rifle unit found across the M1A range, which remains one of the better factory triggers on any semi automatic. The stock is black composite rather than walnut, which is the sensible choice on a rifle intended to be carried in weather, because it does not move with humidity the way wood does.
Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308 Specifications
- Caliber: 308 Winchester (7.62x51mm NATO)
- Barrel: 18 inch six groove carbon steel, 1:11 twist
- Muzzle device: Muzzle brake
- Front sight: National Match .062 inch blade
- Rear sight: Military .0690 aperture, MOA adjustable for windage and elevation
- Optic mount: Forward scout style Picatinny rail
- Trigger: Two stage
- Stock: Black composite
- Operating system: Gas operated with long stroke operating rod, rotating bolt
- Overall length: 40.33 inches
- Weight: 8 pounds 8 ounces
- Magazine: One ten round magazine included
- Model number: AA9126
- UPC: 706397041267
One ten round magazine is supplied, and twenty round magazines are the standard M1A pattern where legal.
Why Buyers Choose The Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308
If you like the M1A but have looked at a 44 inch rifle and hesitated, this is the version that solves it. Forty inches and eight and a half pounds is genuinely carryable, and the Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308 loses almost nothing ballistically at the distances a .308 gets used at.
The forward rail is the honest answer to the M1A optic problem. Side mounts on an M14 pattern rifle are heavy, expensive and never quite right, and the scout rail sidesteps all of it while keeping the irons in play.
The Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308 is also a better woods rifle than the full length gun. Shorter barrels swing faster in brush, and a low power scout scope with both eyes open is quicker on a running hog than any conventionally mounted optic.
Now the caveats. Ammunition selection matters on an M14 pattern rifle. Commercial .308 with slow burning powder can raise gas port pressure enough to bend the operating rod over time, and the shorter Scout gas system is no more forgiving. Stay with 150 to 175 grain loads using appropriate powders, or fit an adjustable gas plug.
Beyond that: the brake is loud and redirects gas sideways, so anyone beside you will notice. Scout scopes are a specific taste and a specific purchase, and if you want high magnification for distance work this is the wrong rifle. And the 18 inch barrel does cost you velocity, so if every last foot per second matters, the 22 inch Standard Issue is the one to buy.
Who Should Buy The Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308
The Springfield M1A Scout Squad 308 suits the hunter working timber or brush, anyone who wants an M1A they will actually carry, and shooters drawn to the scout rifle concept. If your shooting is from a bench or a blind at distance, the full length M1A gives you more velocity and a longer sight radius. If you want match components, the Loaded is the one. And if you have no interest in a forward mounted optic, you are paying for a rail you will not use.
Learn more about this rifle from the manufacturer, or see more firearms available at MAG5 Firearms.
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