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My head is spinning, too many choices! Seems like every scope I look at has some bad reviews! I just got an M1a, ammo on the way, checkmate mags got here today, 4 of them. Calling SA tomorrow see if they will honor my slightly outdated "loaded" coupon. Regardless, I will likely get the steel mount from them, and a bipod. At, in all likelihood, over 12 pounds this will be a 100-300 yard bench gun.
My scope budget is $300 to $500. I am leaning toward a leupold or a sig sauer whiskey. Leupold I trust, even the lower end ones, Sig Sauer I see few if any negative reviews, plus a great warrantee, but I have no experience with them.
Any constructive thoughts would be welcome.
 
I have a 3x9 ultralight leupy mounted on the rail of my fal using qd rings. Works great out to 400-500 and I can quickly remove and employ the irons. I would not want to have a permanently mounted scope on a battle rifle like a fal or m1a as they both have good robust iron sighting systems that are very effective.
 
I gave up on mounting a scope on my M1-A. I don't know about the aluminum mount, but the steel mount has given me nothing but problems. It will not maintain zero. I sent the scope to Vortex to have it checked, and it was fine. I went so far as to ship the rifle and mount back to SA. They mounted one of their scopes on it, sent the rifle back with a test target that looked fine. The scope mount had again come loose when shipped back. I lost track of how many times I reinstalled the mount, bore sighted it, and took it to the range. After a few shots the point of impact would start to wander. Just a waste of time and ammunition for me.
 
Looks like the general consensus is leupold. The 3-9x50 is talking to me, going to go direct to the company to buy it. Maybe the sadlak mount.
 
First: I do not own an M1A. My '03 and Garand are currently not scoped.

What would be your requirements that dictate a 50mm objective?

1) normally requires higher rings

2) as a result, requires lifting one's face off the comb: sacrificing cheek weld essential to accuracy (On a military gun used primarily for competition/target shooting this becomes even more important than on a hunting rifle that might be shot with far less frequency.)

3) added weight (as compared to an equivalent scope with a smaller objective).

Advantages? Well, since Leupold has been batted around on this thread, essential reading would be their treatise on the 50mm objective, capability of the human eye to digest images, etc. Their bottom line was that the 50mm objective grants MARGINAL advantage in low light, the difference so slim that a large portion of the population's eyes cannot even process it to any practical advantage over a smaller objective.

50mm objectives became all the rage when "beanfield rifles" (Kenny Jarret's forte') came into vogue. Late evening shots were the norm in the beanfields. Leupold was among the last (perhaps THE last) major brand to fold to the fad, and offer a 50mm scope, but they included in every scope box (50mm or not) a pamphlet outlining their engineers' well-considered reasons for dragging their feet to this very nearly unnecessary feature that causes a number of other concerns.

@osprey is on the right track with his Compact (Ultralight) 3x-9x. It is what I have on my AR and for the same reasons. @Andy54Hawken made a brilliant suggestion (and the route I would go with an M1A, since it is a gun "of a period"): Duplicate as much as possible THE scope the gun might have actually been used with.
 
Bought a diamondback vortex, still in the box while I reconsider it. It's a ffp 50mm 8-24 power. Checked out the leatherwood scopes with the ART online.
Got the A.R.M.S. #18 mount the other day, seems to mount up perfectly, but the front screw to lock the contact pad, cracked my handguard! Going to epoxy it on the bottom side and make a relief cut for the screw head.
Sent off my loaded coupon, got the leather cheekpiece and sling coming, with a brake and pliers.
 
I have a vortex hat 4-16x40 in a sadlak mount . I use a laced on cheek rest. Nothing fancy but I like how it shoots. The M1A is a heavy rifle I don't think there is any way around that while keeping your rifle looking as an M1AA
it is ironic that what I have now in my opinion is superior to the m14s I used in the service.
 

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