springfield 308 socom question

ripper007 · Member Joined: Mar 05, 2006 Posts: 199 Location: Colorado

Springfield 308 socom question

I have been wanting a spingfeild 308 socom for a while now.

every time I see one of these guns shoot on you-tube I get this good feeling about this gun.

its compact, carbine. powerfull. rugged, durable, and as far as I can tell , its a good shooten accurate gun.

I need some of your guys comments on this, I know your some of the best gun guys around. and you all know your guns.

I need to know all the good, bad and ugly of this gun.

I think I have made a post about this before, but alot of time has passed since then. and I hope more people have had the chance to try one of these guns.

I was also concerned about how much more the 308 m1A is over the socom. ?

Thanks in advance.

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5944

The SOCOM is a shortened version of the M1A which in turn is the semi-automatic only version of the Militarys M14 rifle, which in turn is the T44E4 rifle, which is based on the M1 Garand with some differences.

The M14 is one of the guns I've wanted for ages, actually I'm saving to buy one now. Very Happy

THE GOOD:
Its a battle proven rifle, with a long history, and it just feels good once you hold one in your hands. Wink

THE BAD:
I'm told you cannot get away with buying just one so plan accordingly is the advice I get. Laughing

THE UGLY:
Springfield Armory has a Lifetime warrentee which I've read on various forums they will keep even if its not in the hands of the original owner a few times over! Shocked

Here a basic SOCOM with black fiberglass stock is 110$ more expensive then the M1A with a black firberglass stock and 600$ more expensive if the SOCOM has the Rail system. Smile

Dimitri

roklok

I was at the local gun shop when a brand new SOCOM came in. The owner took the gun out of the box and was passing it around to a few of the customers, me included. As I was handling it ,I noticed a white line in the wrist of the stock. Closer examination revealed that the stock was cracked at the wrist and with flexing the crack would spread apart about 1/16 inch. It apparently cracked sometime during shipment. I dont know if something heavy fell on it or not, the box looked fine. I really like the M1A but I have to wonder about the durability of the synthetic SOCOM stock.

FALPhil

I have a short-barreled paratrooper FAL which is easier to handle, just as accurate, and has an adjustable gas system so I can shoot everything from subsonic ammo to Hornady Light Magnum with no hitch in functioning.

It doesn't have a bevy of picatinny rails on the handguard so that you can hang a bunch of gewjaws from, but then all those gewjaws look kinda gay anyway.

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5944

FALPhil!

Welcome to the forums. Howdy

The FAL vs. the M14 is a long topic with many different sides, however I think its a personal opinion. Both are good battle rifles. Smile

Roklok,

Firstly the stock being cracked from Springfield may be replaced possibly by warrentee if you explained it to them, as I said I've only heard great things about their warrentee.

Secondly I realized another problem with the SOCOM, well a problem for me, the barrel is too short to hang a bayonet on. Confused

Dimitri

Crackshot

If your close enough for a knife, you may as well leave the rifle home and just take the knife! Shocked

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5944

Crackshot wrote:

If your close enough for a knife, you may as well leave the rifle home and just take the knife! Shocked

Nothing like using your rifle as a big poking stick. Laughing

Dimitri

Crackshot

Ok Dimitri!

ripper007 · Member Joined: Mar 05, 2006 Posts: 199 Location: Colorado

I have heard alot of great things about the 308 socom,

at a local gun shop, they had one up for shooting at thier shooting rang.

guess it went very well. and every one that shot it was very pleased and like it.

I think the guy said they was using wolf ammo.

at one point , and it was the last time the gun was able to be shot. the owner told me that the gun blew up. ?? he said he was glad it was a socom 303 that it happend to. he said the gun held together and cuased no physical damage to the person shooting it or the gun.
I went back to ask if I could look at the gun. I was curious on hwhat the gun looked like.

to me ,it did not blow up. and they could never get the gun apart to see exactly what happened. the gun was still in perfect condition , no bulges and no indication that anything had happened to the gun. other than it would not function and that you could not open the chamber. it was locked tight.

the owner was not sure if the wolf ammo bullet was over charged or what. but he said he stopped buying wolf ammo and he will not use it anymore.
spring filed armory replaced the gun with no problem.

I see two good things about this.

what ever happened to the gun. the gun stayed together and did not burst or fall apart.
the company of the gun. replaced the gun with no problems.

Crackshot

Springfield is a top notch bunch! I own 2, 1 VERY customized M1A w/ Krieger barrel and McMillan stock.........so on and so on, the other is a standard Walnut. They did a great job of putting the custom together for me. Very Happy

If I win the lotto I will get a White Feather Carlos Hathcock.

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5944

John C Garand developed the M1 Garand to withsand 120,000PSI thats 50,000PSI higher then the standard prof load of 70,000PSI, Garand increased the load from 70,000PSI to 120,000PSI in 10,000PSI increments, at 120,000PSI the left lug cracked and at which time Garand fired a additional 5,000 rounds of service rifle ammunition without a hickup.

120,000PSI is DOUBLE the pressure of a standard round so thats like what double charging a 30-06 case. Shocked

The M14 shares the same high pressure design, (I do not however do not know if anyone actually tried testing it though). Hense when M14's suffer from over charges they are generally pretty safe (said generally because as a design its pretty strong and GOOD commercial companies make their rifles pretty much inline with the original specs but some more "shady" companies maynot). Smile

Dimitri

FALPhil

Ripper,

The last M1A that I heard of that was involved in a catastrophic failure with factory ammo was a full length model with an aftermarket barrel of unknown origin and the ammo was German NATO DAG. That was back in 2001. Any other failures would be documented on the many M14/M1A enthusiast sites.

Now, if it was just the bolt that broke, that is not the same as "blew up". I would not consider that a catastrophic failure. It would, however, worry me. I know that SA ran out of milsurp parts during the AW ban and that they manufacture or subcontract the manufacture of all their parts now. If they are putting non-spec bolts in their guns, this is not a good (as in quality) thing. I suspect that the Wolf ammo was not the problem.

My M1A is a preban, and except for the receiver and the stock all the parts are milsurp. To date, I have not had any problems with it, but I have only fired about 1K rounds of RSA NATO milspec ammo thru it.

Dimitri. Don't believe everything you hear about gun engineering. You would have to pack a case with C-4 to get this to happen:

The Springfield Armory receivers are cast, not forged. And, according to Clint McKee of Fulton Armory, they are not in spec as to geometry. In fact, on his website, Clint prefers the cheap Chinese Norinco receivers to Springfield Armory (it's a shame we cannot import them to the USA any more).

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5944

Springfield Armoury Receivers are case, as well as Fulton Armoury's own, only forged receivers out there are LRB's and with todays casting technology being decades ahead of what it was when the M14 was developed. Back then casting was a "poured" pot metal casting method, todays investment casting CANNOT be compared to the old methods. Smile

The differences in some dimensions are there to make it easier to cast, only notable "problem" with any of the functioning dimensions can be at times the scope mounting point on the left side of the receiver.

Dimitri