The rear sight is the standard T105E1, and mine required only a minor reposition to get it to “mechanical zero” where the index mark on the sight body is laterally centered on the index marks on the receiver. Springfield does produce an excellent scope mount-the 4th generation aluminum mount for an additional $155-but there’s no top Picatinny rail section atop the Tanker. Unlike its stablemates, though, there’s no easy way to mount an optic. It incorporates two matching six/five/six rows of small ports at the 11- and one-o’clock positions. And the 16.25-inch barrel also has a ported muzzle, the same design you’ll find on the other SOCOMs.

Instead of a plain ol’ post, the Tanker features an XS Sights post with a white stripe and a tritium insert. And it makes sense for Springfield, which has long been in the business of producing shortened M1As with its SOCOM lineup of carbine-length guns based on the M1A action.Ĭhief among these is the front sight. 30-06/clip-fed Garand, but the concept is the same. Sure, Springfield’s Tanker is the 7.62 NATO/magazine-fed M1A and not the. Regardless, you gotta admit it wasn’t a half-bad idea, and Springfield Armory is paying tribute to the effort with its new M1A Tanker. Somewhere along the line it got the moniker “Tanker” hung on it-even though the original intention had nothing to do with crews serving in tanks. This gun, the T26, was never adopted and probably never fielded. They wanted a version of the M1 with an 18-inch barrel, and as the story goes, more than 100 of these were produced by armorers in the Pacific, with a few sent to the States for testing and trials. Who could blame them? With its 24-inch barrel the Garand could hardly be called handy in close quarters. But it wasn’t perfect, and toward the end of World War II, some in the Army who were serving in the Pacific theater began looking for a shorter version for jungle combat. Developed by John Garand, it was the epitome of a service rifle: hard-hitting and dependable in all manner of hostile environments. The M1 Garand is perhaps the most beloved battle rifle ever fielded by the United States.

M1a socom accuracy review