First chance to shoot new-to-me M1A SOCOM 16

Managed to buy one from a board member, took it to Wyoming for the holidays and put about 100 rounds through it. Learned a few things, but have a few questions.

1. My prescription for my glasses is intentionally just a bit weak to reduce fatigue when working on the computer. Bad for shooting...I haven't shot in years. Couldn't understand why I couldn't shoot a decent group at a 25m M16 zeroing target, then let my brother in law shoot it and it shot just fine for him :-). I'm guessing I need a shooting prescription if I'm going to be serious about it. This was never a problem on M16s (or scoped hunting rifles) in my younger days.

2. Lots of magazine malfunctions. I believe the magazine isn't an original SA, so it's a simple fix...get good ones.

3. Toward the end I got quite a few failures to extract. Either it was simply dirty (but I didn't think M1As were so sensitive to that?), or the Walmart .308 hunting ammo I was shooting in it was causing problems. Is this a common issue? When I loaded a round into the chamber by hand it always fully seated...it seemed that maybe the bolt was barely being blown open far enough to load the new round, but then didn't close with enough speed to guarantee the extracter would get around the lip on the brass.

If the rifle was working OK in the beginning, 100 rounds shouldn't make it dirty enough to fail to extract.

Specifically, what ammo were you using? A lot of hunting ammo is not compatible (bullet weight of 180 gr or more and type of powder) with the M1A and can cause damage to the operating rod.

I'm not an expert on the M1A but I thought that I would give you some advice from what I have learned shooting. Did you check the ejector? Its the last thing the brass hits before its ejected? In addition the round its self could be to weak to work the gas system. Or the gas system could be blocked with some carbon or lead making the system short cycle.

Try cleaning it.

Get some surplus ammo.

When you shoot don't worry about the gun just aim at the target and squeeze the trigger. A friend who used one in Korea said to spell out squeeze and for every letter move the trigger some more. S.Q.U.E.E.Z.E. Bang!
[UZI]

Thanks for the replies.

I can't remember the exact hunting ammo I was using, it was cheap 150gr stuff like you'd get at Walmart. I've heard to avoid heavy bullets with commercial powder.

I will clean it before I fire it again. I didn't have any extraction problems with the surplus ammo I shot first, but I didn't know if 50 more rounds worth of dirtiness might have been the problem with the hunting ammo. I've also been advised to pick up a USGI extractor, so I'll try to do that sometime. The only ones I found were at Fulton and they're sold out right now.

One other suggestion, you might check the gas plug to be sure it is tight.

Concerning the ammo, some commercial hunting ammo doesn't work well with M1As. The powder type and charge are the issues.

Springfield at one time had commercial extractors that did not have a sufficient dimple for the extractor spring to hold the extractor in place. The extractor and spring would sometimes fly off into never never land. Not all of the extractors were a problem. It is a good idea to have a spare extractor, extractor spring, ejector and spring on hand.

First of all congratulations. I have a socom 16 myself and I love it. Good advice has been posted above. Shoot surplus ammo. It's what M1A's were meant to be fed. Although I've personally never had a problem with any ammo I've put through mine. Federal, Black Hills etc. I'd check out the m14 firing line forum lots of good info, deals etc. As for the magazines the only place I'll buy from is 44mag.com CMI mags for a great deal brand new and they function flawlessly. I believe they are 24.99 each which is probably the cheapest you'll ever find brand new CMI mags for.

Thanks. I ordered mags direct from CMI, but I think that's even a bit cheaper than what I paid.

They were on sale for 19.99 for a while from 44mag.com