Help Needed for M1A Sharpshooting

Cave76

Cave76

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Hey Folks,

Got some questions for those in the know.

I'm looking to compete in the BCRA Tactical Rifle Comp this July with my trusty M1A. Need to know a few things.

a. The stock on my rifle is a piece of grey fiberglass garbage. What are some good options to replace it with, that wont screw up my accuracy?

b. I'm a pretty solid shot. What can I do to really dial it in?

c. I'm accustomed to shooting iron sights, so to be embarrassingly honest, I know f**k all about sighting any scope other than an ELCAN. Any help/advice?

d. How long does it take to train a spotter from scratch? My girlfriend wants to spot for me, and I think that if it's practical, I'd love to spend the extra time with her.

Now fellas, I don't think I'm gonna win this thing. I'd be up against some serious pros. I just wanna conduct myself well enough that I don't end up looking like a fool for showing up in the first place. I love to shoot, and the idea of shooting for fun, rather than for work, sounds like a blast.

Cheers guys.

C/76 :sniper:
 
B is hard to answer really, unless we can actually see your shooting and ID any habits, we can't really help with that one. I would seek out a precision target shooter and ask him to go to the range, watch you shoot and give a few pointers on how to tighten up your groups. In experienced instructor/shooter can tell what you are doing wrong immediately, like jerking the trigger, flinching, ect.
 
Well, I don't know about the other questions, but I'll tell you how to go about sighting in your scope... or how I would go about it anyways, and you can take it from there. You will get a mountain of advise here, so glean the best bits from whomever you deem trustworthy.

First the scope itself. Test your windage and elevation travel by cranking your dials all the way in one direction until they stop (don't force 'em) then count the clicks while you turn the opposite direction until they stop. Lets say hypothetically you counted 100 clicks, then just turn the dial back again until you've counted 50. Then you are in the center of your adjustment range. Do for both windage and elevation. This gives you the most "room to correct" in every direction.

You have some kind of mount obviously, so when you get the scope on, and the rings tightened up, you can start, but probably will be lucky to hit a barn just yet. I spent 40$ on ammo the first time I tried to sight in a scope on my Norinco because I ignored this time honored advise: Take your first shots from 25 yards! It's likely you are going to be really badly out of alignment right off the bat,and the further out your paper is, the more shots you will waste, maybe not even knowing if you are high or low or left or right. Fire off 3 at 25 yards and you should be on paper.. adjust to center.. then move out to 100 yards. When you have it shooting center from there, then you can go out to 200 and zero it there.. or zero at 100 yards, whatever suits you really.

Hope this helps you out. Good luck at the competition. Don't give any thought to looking like a fool. All of the old timers at these events were first timers at some point.
 
It sounds like you'd be in a world of no fun if you brought out the M1A to the Tactical shoot this summer. To be even slightly competitive with the thing you need a pretty well tuned rifle with handloads and a TON of practice. What I recommend is that you show up to the TWO service rifle shoots and have fun there with guys that are shooting pretty much the same rifle. You can even shoot irons (I shot all last year with a borrowed M1 Garand and irons - tons of fun!!)

Seriously....tac shoot - don't bother, service rifle - hells yeah :rockOn:

Ante
 
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