M1A Review: Review of the Bassett Machines High Picatinny M1A Scope Mount

First off, let me introduce myself. I am Kyle. I am a USAF veteran, was in Law Enforcement in AZ for about 3 years and have since returned to the Telecommunications Industry. I am, at heart a technician. In the USAF I was a Telecom Tech, but I was also a Security Forces Extra. I was basically an extra base cop during exercises and so on. At every qualification, I obtained “Expert Marksman”. In the AZ Academy I placed second (using a Glock 22 in 40SW), with first going to an officer using a 9mm. I grew up around firearms, ranging from 22s to 30-06 and everything in between. I am an owner of a new Springfield Standard M1A 22” in the Walnut stock. I take great care in researching and learning every firearm I have ever owned, with the M1A being no exception.

I researched the M1A for 4 months before getting mine. In those 4 months, 3 months were spent researching scopes and mounts. Lets start with m1a scope mounts. As anyone knows, the mounts for the M1A are vast and really do not sell for under $100, with the top end at $400. I don’t know what some peoples budgets are, but mine was differently not at the $400 range for a mount. Through my research I discovered Bassett Machine, located in Dripping Springs Texas. Their website is really easy to navigate, and I found the mount subsection. They show 2 different styles of m1a scope mounts. One being the “Standard”, in two variants, the second being the “Picatinny” style in two variants. Being a modular kind of guy, I chose to start with the Picatinny style.

Bassett offers a “high” and “low” rail. Both being around the $150 range, now we are talking. I also wanted a mount that would not need to be removed to use the iron sights, I am a big believer in backup plans and options. My wants lead me to the “high” rail style, with the people at Bassett confirming that if the “high” rail is mounted on a SAI M1A, there would be clearance to use the iron sights without removing the mount or scope. From what I was able to also find, is that depending on if the receiver is of different manufactures, that the “low” rail could work, but it was a case by case basis. From the photos on the internet, the Bassett mount seemed very straight forward. It had a single bolt to attach to the rifle, with no other anchors. This intrigued and worried me, as I am a big backup kind of guy. I also had researched that SAI also had a single point mount, which received constant bad reviews. So, my research brought me to the reviews of the Bassett mount. I searched for about a month, looking specifically for reviews, and found nothing bad, only great comments and experiences.

Bassett Machine also had the instructions on how to install the mount on their website. It is very straight forward, hold mount in your hand, mate it to the left side of the M1A receiver, hand tighten the single bolt to the threading and use the included tool to torque the bolt to the machined specs. Ok, so now what was this “tool” they spoke of. Well, during the development of the mount, they discovered that the mount needed to be torque to 22lbs. Well, if I am out at the range or in the field, I will bet I do not carry a torque wrench. They thought of this as well and found that by using the weight of the rifle, and using a small piece of metal attached to the bolt, it would not only create the correct torque for installation, if using the tool every time, the mount would return within ½ moa after removal. The ring mounting area is designed to accept Weaver and Picatinny rings. This is important when putting together an optics package.

While Picatinny rings are great, they are often more expensive then their counterpart the Weaver rings. Both mount use claws and tension for mounting, but the difference is in the angles of the anchor points. Well, looks like Bassett thought of everything. Also, with any other mounts, there is no need to remove the strip clip guide of tighten down 3 or 4 allen head bolts with a tiny allen wrench. I like not having to remove factory items to add to something.

Well, with the price, ease of installation, included tool and great reviews, the purchase was made. I received my new M1A scope mount about 4 days after my web purchase. Out of the packaging it looks and feels rock solid. I have held many of mounts, with the UTG brand mounts feeling rather flimsy and was surprised with it in my hands. It included instructions with pictures and the special tool. Installation was a snap, and using the tool was a dream. First range trip out, it help up the Venezuelan and Argentine Surplus ammo, about 500 rounds and no movement. I was able to first sight the irons in, without removal of the mount or scope then moved to the scope. For the price and the final product, I am very very happy with the Bassett High Rail M1A Scope Mount and would recommend to anyone.

M1A Scope Mounts on Ebay

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Review: Hawke SideWinder 30 Tactical Rifle Scope Part 1

Disclaimer: I just want to be clear, I was not paid or compensated in any way for this review and all expressions and opinions are my own. Heck, I even have to return the scope as soon as I'm done with this review.

A little while back Hawke Optics contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing one of their rifle scopes. I jumped at the opportunity in order to provide the m1arifles.com community some fresh unique content. Since I had the option to select the scope, I chose the SideWinder 30 Tactical Series 4.5-14x42 rifle scope.

A little about Hawke Optics

Hawke Optics is a UK based company who has been silently making their brand known through the shooting community and are increasing their dealer base here in the United States. You can find a list of dealers who carry Hawke Sport Optics here. Like I said before, in order for Hawke to spread the word about their optics, they contacted me to review their Tactical 4.5-14x42 rifle scope, so here we go!

The SideWinder Tactical 30 Series

The Specs:

The SideWinder 30 Tactical Series rifle scopes are one of the higher end rifle scope line for hawke optics. I'm not going to say it's their highest line of scopes like their Japanese made Frontier series but, according to their sales team, they are becoming one of their hottest sellers to date and I think I know why.

The rifle scope comes packaged well with it's own rifle scope case filled with cut out egg crate style foam that fits the outline of the scope and it's accessories. Included within the case is the rifle scope, instruction booklet, lens cloth, screw on lens covers, 2" side focus wheel, wheel pointer, and 4" sunshade.

 

 

The single tube scope is  30mm in diameter making it strong and durable. It also comes with a black matte finish making the surface of the scope less reflective. The tube comes nitrogen purged/filled making it water, shock and fog proof. The tube is pretty smooth and there are no over the top features with it's construction leaving a simple, clean and QUALITY feeling to the scope. The turrets do remind me of the Leupold Mark 4 LR/T style turrets, giving it that mark 4 look and feel.

The turrets have some nice features to them. They are 1/4 MOA and large for easy use. They also have a nice locking feature to them. Pull the turret up or outward and they are unlocked, enabling for easy smooth adjustments. Once your settings are complete, just simply push the turret in or downward to lock it in place. They are resettable but one thing I did notice was the fact that when adjusted, I couldn't count up or down with these turrets. The parallax knob rotates nice and smooth and ranges from 10yds-infinity. Attached to the parallax knob is the illumination know with 5 levels of brightness for both red and green reticles. I found level 3 to be the best during low light conditions.

The eye piece is also pretty nice. It contains a fast focus ocular lens adjustment with locking ring. Simply adjust until focused, then lock by moving the locking ring back toward the eye. It allows for a nice amount of adjustment before it reaches maximum capacity, allowing for a sharp, crisp view of the reticle and target. The power ring is a little stiff upon it's first few uses but then moves back and forth smoothly. It's not too stiff nor too loose but moves smoothly when zooming in and out.

The eye relief is outstanding. I have this scope mounted on my Springfield M1A Scout and eye relief is a must on my rifle. Once mounted, I took this picture about 4 inches back and the reticle is still visible and crisp.

The reticle is clean looking. It's a free floating, glass etched, mil dot reticle with hollow bars for easy bracketing with dot and tie aim points. The mil dot and tie aim points are spaced at 1/2 mil dot spacing. The hollow bars are spaced at 0.2 mil spacing and whole spacing.

As you can see, the glass on this scope is superb. The scope comes with fully multi-coated lenses for increased light transmission and low light conditions. It took me by surprise on how clear the scope really was when viewed for the first time.

Ok, now that we have covered most of the specs, we are now going to see how this scope holds up at the range. Once I zero it with my M1A Scout, I'll fire about 75-100 rounds of .308 ammo. That should be sufficient for testing the recoil hold up.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the Hawke Optics SideWinder 30 Tactical Rifle Scope Review.

Get Paid to blog here on M1ARifles.com!

Yup, it's true. I'm paying for your experience and opinions about the M1A/M14 rifle.

I'm using my GI bill to go to school and my m1arifles.com blog is slowing down as far as content goes. That's why I'm offering to pay for your M1A/M14 experience and opinions.

I'm willing to pay the following prices for content:

* A single 300-500 word article - $25 ($30 with pictures)
* A single video review or "how to" - $50
* Combination of both video and content - $75

The content could be anything related to the M1A rifle like accessory reviews, m1a history, product reviews, "how to" (ex. "how to disassemble your m1a rifle") new rifle/gun laws, marksmanship, or any other idea you might have.

Your name will be kept as the author on your content, however, you must agree to ONLY publish the content on m1arifles.com. You can't publish it elsewhere. This is to protect m1arifles.com with Google's terms of service regulations.

If you are interested, use the contact form here http://www.m1arifles.com/contact-us/ and send me your ideas for content. If I approve, I will give you the go ahead and wait for the content. Also, respond here in this thread and let me know if you would be interested.

**I will make payments to you via paypal, make sure you have an account, IT'S FREE.**

I look forward to your replies. Comment below

Jerry

Admin

www.m1arifles.com

M1A Deal of the Day: M1A Rifle Stock Tiger Camo Starting at $24

I was browsing ebay and stumbled upon this beauty. It's a USGI fiberglass m1a rifle stock set. Handguard is included. It is slightly used but the paint is pretty fresh. At the  time of this writing the starting bid was at only $24.99 with ONLY 1 bid. The seller's user name is ellicottdepot and has a 100% positive feedback rating which makes this listing the M1A deal of the day.

Time left: 4d 22h (May 09, 201019:25:22 PDT)

You can View the auction by clicking here.

Join the forum discussion on this post

M1A Rifles Contest: Winner of the Burris Fastfire II Red Dot Sight!

I know this is long overdue but it's better late then never. Congrats to our m1a forum member 'The Shootist' for winning the Burris Fastfire II red dot contest. He delivered over 120 quality forum posts and gave some in depth knowledge. Take a look at the video for PROOF of the prize.

Sorry for the sound being so low, I accidentally recorded with my mic on low.

I'm still trying to figure out what next month's prize will be. I'll be asking for suggestions from my newsletter subscribers, so be sure to sign up for the newsletter now.

If you haven't done so already, be sure to sign up for the m1a rifles newsletter now!

Another M1A Contest: Win a New Burris FastFire II Red Dot Sight

That's right! M1a Rifles is throwing another contest with a sweet prize. Don't miss out on this opportunity to win a New Burris FastFire II Red Dot Sight with Mount.

It's time to make the m1a forum hyper active again and this contest will do just that. So head over to this post to read the forum contest rules.

M1A Forum Contest: Win A New Burris FastFire II Red Dot Sight

You read the title right! Now you too will have a chance to win a new burris fastfire II red dot sight.

Here are the contest rules. In order to participate in the m1a forum contest you will need to do the following steps.

Step 1- Sign up for the m1a rifles newsletter

Step 2- Register with the m1a forum here http://www.m1arifles.com/m1a-forum/

Step 3- Participate in the forum and post/reply with QUALITY posts or threads. A post or thread with a simple "yes" or "how are you" does not qualify. You must have at least a full sentence . For example, "Hello everyone, My name is Jerry, i'm from California and I look forward to learning a lot from the forum!" That is an example of a quality sentence.

Step 4- Participate as much as you can until the deadline and drawing for the prize

Step 5- The drawing will be held March 15th, 2010 and the forum/newsletter member with the most posts wins!!

The prize is a NEW Burris FastFire II w/ Picatinny Mount

HURRY! SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER AND START POSTING IN THE FORUM!!!

M1A Deal Of The Day: Springfield M1A Fiberglass Rifle Stock With Recoil Pad

M1A Deal of the day is something that I will implement from now on here on M1ARifles.com. I will find the hottest M1A Rifle related deals on the net. These deals will be sourced from various sites like ebay, amazon, gun broker and more. All will be related to the M14/M1A. Items to be included will be M1A rifle stocks, slings, rifle scopes, rangefinders, cheek pads, bipods and more.

M1A Deal Of The Day: Springfield M1A Fiberglass Rifle Stock With Recoil Pad

I was browsing through ebay and found this beauty. A Springfield M1A Fiberglass Rifle Stock With Recoil Pad. Here is what the description has to say about this m1a stock.

Up for auction is a rifle stock for the Springfield Armory M1A sporting rifle a rifle that is legally sold in all 50 states and is not a banned rifle under e bay guidelines.

This stock was taken off a new rifle the owner went with a McMillan stock and did not want this.

It has the factory recoil pad and is black it has checkering on the rear and forearm area unlike the USGI issue Viet Nam fiberglass stocks.

Both sling swivels are included and this does not require the metal liner as does the wood stock.

No foreign sales please do not ask.

Thanks for looking and good luck bidders

Click Here to go to auction

The Bidding Started at $0.01

and is currently at only $10.50 with 2 bids. Hurry and jump on it before someone else runs away with this steal of a deal!

Click here to be taken to the auction.

Results For New BSA Red Dot RD30 Scope

Hey everyone!

Ok, hopefully we can find a new home for this BSA Red Dot Scope. I have randomly selected a new winner from the m1a rifles newsletter list.

The new winner of the BSA Red Dot Scope is  Alan Anderson!!

Congrats to Alan for winning a New BSA Red Dot Scope.

Alan now has 3 days to claim the prize by contacting us via our contact page or by replying to our email. If Alan does not claim the prize within 3 days we will then select another winner from the m1a rifles newsletter.

If you haven't done so already, be sure to sign up for the m1a rifles newsletter now!

M1A Rifles Contest – September’s BSA Red Dot Scope Prize Not Claimed

Hey Everyone. I wanted to get this post out today to let you guys know that last month's prize was not claimed. The winner never contacted me.

So this means I will select at random another winner from the M1A newsletter subscriber list for September's prize. I will be selecting and posting the winner Saturday October 24th,  around 1pm PST. Be sure to check back here and keep an eye out for a newsletter email.

Good luck to all!! Remember this is for the BSA Red Dot RD30 scope.

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