It is one long boomstick, just like its spiritual father, the M1 Garand. The original/standard M1A sports a 22-inch barrel with a flash hider, a one-piece walnut stock with a wood or plastic handguard, is 44.3 inches long, and weighs over nine pounds. Springfield Armory introduced the semi-auto version of the M14, the M1A, in 1974, and is currently producing dozens of variations of the design.

125” wide, which means it works great as an emergency sight, but lack precision for typical rifle ranges. The front sight post is from XS and has a tritium insert. The stock has QD sockets at the muzzle end as well. The rifle comes with two 1.5-inch and one three-inch polymer rails for the M-LOCK slots. The most feature-packed version of Springfield’s SOCOM 16, the CQB W/Vortex Venom comes with a receiver-mounted red dot, pistol grip stock, and night sights. 308 Win/7.62x51mm (7.62 NATO), which with modern powders and ammunition technology is just as capable as the World War II-era. Unlike the M1 Garand, which was its progenitor, the M14 is fed by detachable box magazines, standard capacity being twenty. Consider it an older brother to the SOCOM 16 CQB. Keep that Mk 14 EBR in mind, because we’ll be circling back to it. However, it has seen continued military use in niche roles-currently as a scoped DMR (designated marksman rifle) in the form of the M21 or Mk 14 EBR (Enhanced Battle Rifle). The M14 was ultimately replaced by the M16 during that war as a standard issue rifle. With a polymer pistol grip stock adjustable for length, muzzle break, night sights, integral red dot as well as an additional optic rail, the SOCOM 16 CQB W/Vortex is as far from your daddy’s M1A as it is possible to get.Ī very quick primer on the M1A-it is the semi-auto commercial version of the select-fire gas piston-operated M14, which saw service with our armed forces after the Korean War and into the early days of the Vietnam War. Let’s dig in, shall we? The Springfield Armory SOCOM 16 CQB W/Vortex Venom was introduced about four years ago, and Tarr believes this version of the M1A is the ultimate modernization of the design-it brings the M1A as far into the 21 st century as is possible. So, it would seem that, with this rifle, Springfield has either done something right or something terribly, horribly, unforgivably wrong. And here we have to circle back around the purists (cough*cultists*) devoted to the M1A in its traditional guise-almost to a man they seem to hate and despise the looks of the SOCOM 16 CQB. Introduced about four years ago, I believe this version of the M1A is the ultimate modernization of the design-it brings the M1A as far into the 21 st century as is possible. Which brings us to the subject of this article-the Springfield Armory SOCOM 16 CQB W/Vortex Venom. Compared to the modern service rifles of today it is a dinosaur. The M14 is the very definition of the old-school big bore battle rifle, with iron sights, wooden stock, and oddly placed and configured controls, chambered in a powerful thirty-caliber cartridge when militaries were starting the move toward intermediate cartridges. While it is supposed to be a modernized M1 Garand, when it was introduced the M14 was far from modern or cutting edge, which is why it was replaced in service so quickly. It only saw service with our military as a standard issue rifle for a short time (1959-1968), and perhaps it is because of that short service that the design has claimed almost mythical status with its devotees. Badmouth it in front of them at your peril.

And the people who love the M14/M1A really truly love it with a cult-like devotion. It is definition number three that concerns us today, because we’re going to be talking about the M14, or rather the commercial version of the M14 that is the M1A. A misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person of thing.

A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or 3. A system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object, 2. Officially, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of “Cult” is 1.

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