How The West Was Won

There is nothing that says America like mom, apple pie, Kentucky bourbon, and guns! You gotta love a country where you can go into your local Walmart and buy a rifle, ammunition, cigarettes, and beer and then use them all before you get home! I have been a gun owner for about ten years and a concealed weapons permit holder and member of the NRA (Charlton Heston is MY President) for about seven years. I own several firearms that my wife and I shoot on a regular basis but I never really went in for rifles.

Just this past week I finally broke down and bought a Springfield Armory M1A (AKA M14) and I think I might be in love with it. I had seen the M1As in films like Born On The Fourth of July and Full Metal Jacket and thought they were very nice looking rifles but I never thought that I would actually own one but own one I do. I haven't had an opportunity to fire it yet because there is an involved procedure that needs to be done before you can even use your rifle effectively. The first thing that needs to be done is that you have to find an outdoor range that allows high powered rifle ammunition (in this case the Nato 7.62 mm round civilian name is .308). The second step is a thorough cleaning with a special kit to remove all of the extra preservatives that gets put on a rifle when it leaves the factory. The third and most difficult thing is that the aiming sights have to be "zeroed". Zeroing the sites is basically like tuning a guitar. You take the rifle out and fire five shots at a target 100 yards away then based on where the five shot group ended up, you move the front sights to move the grouping closer to the center. After you zero the sights you are supposed to be able to adjust your sights to hit at any distance upt to and including 500 yards! I doubt I will ever be good enough to hit anything at 500 yards but it will be fun trying.

By the way, the M1A or M14 should not be confused with an M1 Garand or an M1 Carbine. The M1A/M14 is a direct descendant of the M1 Garand and are superficially similar although the Garand shoots the 30.06 cartridge that is housed in an internal magazine as opposed to the M1A/M14 external magazine. If you have seen "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers" you have seen the Garand in action as it was the primary infantry weapon in World War 2.

As soon as I can, I will try to post pictures of my rifle and maybe some targets (if they are not too embarassing) so you guys can take a look.