The Best M1A Scout Rifle? Springfield Armory's SOCOM 16

Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We earn from qualifying purchases.

The illustrious Jeff Cooper dreamt up the concept of the scout rifle back in the early 1980’s. For anyone who might be living under a rock, Jeff Cooper was a once-in-a-century gunman. A Marine Corps officer who served in both WW2 and Korea, Cooper arguably did more to advance the art of gunfighting than any other single person in the 20th century. If you’ve ever run a handgun two-handed like you meant it, then you have Jeff Cooper to thank. Know what it means to pack a 1911 in Condition 1? LTC Cooper quantified that stuff as well. People were shooting and killing each other long before Jeff Cooper came along. However, Cooper made it a science.

Cooper focused on all aspects of gunfighting. His handgun tactics formed the basis for most modern pistol combat training. He had some strong opinions about rifles as well. Rather than try to paraphrase what those were, I’ll just let him tell you. This is excerpted from Cooper’s book, The Art of the Rifle-- “Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons.

The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely upon the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny, since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized.

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.”

And there you have Jeff Cooper in a nutshell.

The M1A Scout Rifle

One of Cooper’s many contributions to the world of combat shooting was what he called the scout rifle. Per the master himself, the scout rifle was to exhibit a series of characteristics. Among them were a caliber around .308, a bolt action, a nice 3-pound trigger, and a maximum weight of eight pounds. Overall length was not to exceed 39 inches with a barrel length of 19 inches or less. Cooper’s creation was to have a forward-mounted low-power optical sight to preserve peripheral vision and allow ready access to the rifle’s action in a crisis. The ideal gun should have backup iron sights and a synthetic weatherproof stock. The scout rifle should be magazine-fed with a magazine cutoff allowing single shot operation. Lastly, it should be capable of using a Ching Sling as an accuracy aid and offer at least 2-MOA precision on the range.

The shooting world was absolutely captivated by this thing, so much so that there was a pair of professional conferences convened to iron out the specific details. The first took place in 1983 at Cooper's Gunsite Training Center in Arizona and included gunsmiths, stock makers, firearms journalists, marksmanship instructors, inventors and hunting enthusiasts. A second similar event was held in October 1984.

Predecessors

These technical dicta were always subject to technological advances and available hardware. It’s actually a curious thing to dissect existing platforms through a scout rifle lens. The argument could be made that the Nazis were the first. During WW2, the Germans experimented with a variety of optical sighting systems for their infantry weapons. The superb Zf4 combat sight ultimately informed the tactical glass we all use today. This 4X optic was mounted on the Kar98k, the G43, the MP44, and the FG42. Featuring a simple post reticle and enough magnification to maximize the effectiveness of the host weapon, the Zf4 was truly a prescient design. By contrast, the Zf41 was a steaming pile of crap.

Zf was shorthand for Zielfernrohr. This ample mouthful of Kraut-speak simple translates to rifle scope. Where the Zf4 features a proper 4X magnification, that of the Zf41 was only 1.5X. Looking through the Zf41 seems a bit like trying to peer through a large-caliber drinking straw.

Though the Germans tested the Zf41 on most all of their infantry rifles, none advanced past prototype stage save the bolt-action Kar98k. The Zf41 was a long eye relief optic that was fitted to the front sight base of an otherwise unmolested rifle. When originally conceived, the plan was to mount the Zf41 on most everything. The Germans built some 100,000 copies by war’s end. That made the Zf41 the most-produced German optical sight of the war. They just never did work terribly well. However, the Zf41-equipped Kar98k rifle did closely approximate LTC Cooper’s scout rifle concept delivered nearly four decades later. 

Details

For a time, the only scout rifles on the market were custom-built one-offs handmade by artisan gunsmiths. However, as demand grew, the gun industry responded in kind. Eventually, Steyr, Savage, Ruger, Mossberg, and Howa offered dedicated scout rifles right from the factory. These were all bolt-action designs that incorporated most if not all of Cooper’s holy dicta.

And so things languished for the next couple of decades. Ages ago, I actually crafted a DIY scout rifle myself out of a Mosin-Nagant M44 carbine, a synthetic OD green stock from Archangel, and a forward-mounted, long eye relief scope. This thing kicks like Chuck Norris on crack, but it checks most of the scout rifle blocks at a very reasonable price. Back when I built mine, those M44 hosts were just stupid cheap.

This deep into the Information Age, technology is evolving at breakneck speed. Autoloading firearms have all but supplanted the bolt-action sort for serious tactical use. It is therefore not surprising that somebody might take a shot at dragging the scout rifle into the 21st century. As a logic exercise, I would propose the Springfield Armory SOCOM 16 CQB as a starting point.

Source Material

The M14 rifle was the US Army’s primary infantry combat tool for less than a decade beginning in 1957. The M14 was originally intended to be all things for all users. Its proponents envisioned using this one weapon to replace the M1 Garand, M1 carbine, M3A1 Grease Gun, and Browning Automatic Rifle. It was a noble goal, to be sure. However, like most compromises, the practical results left everyone a bit clammy.

Despite its limited service life, the M14 developed a rabid following. It is an objectively attractive weapon that offers a significant enhancement in capabilities over the previous M1 Garand. However, the M14 was 44 inches long and weighed nine pounds empty. It’s no wonder American grunts flocked to the M16.

The M14 has soldiered on in military service in various capacities all the way to the present day. However, where the gun found its real acolytes was among American civilian shooters. We couldn’t get enough of the things. Springfield Armory happily filled that need.

Modern Treatment

The Springfield Armory SOCOM 16 CQB mashes everything about the M14 rifle down into a more compact, more maneuverable package. Featuring an indestructible synthetic collapsible stock from Archangel and a redesigned front end, the SOCOM 16 is what the M14 always aspired to be. In fact, the SOCOM 16 CQB brings many of the same capabilities offered by the Army’s brand new M7 battle rifle to the table at a much lower price. The SOCOM 16 feeds from the standard steel 20-round M14 magazine. Drum magazines are available, but they get heavy.

What really pushes the SOCOM 16 into scout rifle territory is its forearm optics mount. The buttstock features a pistol grip and ample M-LOK slots for accessories. There is also a rear mount for a micro red dot. However, that length of forward-mounted Picatinny rail is perfect for a long eye relief optic. I opted for a Trijicon MRO.

MRO stands for Miniature Rifle Optic. It is a fairly simple beast rendered in an inimitably rugged chassis and sporting Trijicon’s peerless glass. The sole control is a top-mounted turret that governs intensity. Options range from NVG dim all the way through to serious daylight bright. There are off positions interspersed among the active detents, and the thing will run constantly for two years on a single button cell battery.

Straight from the factory, the SOCOM 16 CQB will not readily accept a sound suppressor. However, I found an adaptor that takes the place of the factory muzzle brake. Now my SOCOM 16 need not be terribly noisy.

It is Alive!

With the MRO mounted up top, the SOCOM 16 CQB is indeed fast, powerful, and mean. Running the big gun with both eyes open offers unrivalled situational awareness. The complete package is heavier than a comparable M4, but it hits like Mike Tyson downrange.The MRO is available in either black or FDE as well as with a simple dot or a circle dot reticle. All of the dots are 2-MOA across. Dots can be had either green or red.

I am 59 years old. Though I was born with perfect aviator eyes, time has taken an inevitable toll. As a result, I can no longer hope to make accurate shots out to 500 meters with open sights. That fact alone makes any red dot-equipped rifle a fairly short-range tool for me. However, the sordid reality is that none of us will ever be called upon to make a real defensive shot at more than CQB ranges in the civilian world. Anything further would be indefensible in court. As a result, the SOCOM 16 with the MRO is the perfect real-world defensive weapon should the threat be hiding behind anything substantial or wearing soft body armor.

Recoil is heavier than might be the case with anything in 5.56mm, but the manlier 7.62x51mm round transforms an awful lot of what would otherwise be impenetrable cover into concealment you can effectively shoot through. There are indeed times when that enhanced downrange thump could be terribly important. If nothing else, the heavier caliber opens up way more hunting opportunities. I could easily keep my rounds inside a juice can lid at across-the-room ranges and within a pie plate out much farther. 

Ruminations

For the purist, my SOCOM 16 CQB certainly falls short of LTC Cooper’s criteria to be deemed a true scout rifle. The whole rig is too heavy, the optic has no magnification, and there is no mechanism whereby the rifle can be readily transformed into a single shot. However, the length is right, and none of the combat veterans I have known ever complained about having too much ammo. It’s not an undue logic leap to say that the rifle fulfills the spirit of the thing if not the letter.

Today’s state of the art in electro-optics and sound suppressors would have been unimaginable back when Jeff Cooper first dreamt all of this stuff up. The actions are all about the same, but technological advancements have us all shooting faster and straighter than was the case back in the days when Keith Richards was just prematurely aged and not actually petrified. As a result, the Springfield Armory SOCOM CQB seems to do a fine job of carrying the scout rifle mantle well into the Information Age.

www.Springfield-Armory.com

---