Awhile back, I decided it was time to put a scope on my M1A. I’d always wanted an ACOG, so this seemed like a logical time to buy one, despite the fact that everyone told me the two would not be a good match due to the ACOG’s relatively short eye relief and how high the ACOG would sit. Undeterred, I decided I’d find a way to make it work. I initially wanted a TA31 due to its wider field of vision. I instead chose a TA33R-9 due to its increased eye relief and lighter weight. The fact that it had a .308 BDC also made it a more logical choice.

Knowing that the ACOG would sit high, I decided to buy a low sitting mount. I went with the ARMS 18 mount. I’d heard of people having problems with stove pipes, so I shot my M1A with the ARMS 18 mount attached before I bought the ACOG. Not a single stove pipe! I figured I was good to go in the mount department. I saved up my pennies, bought the TA33R-9 and figured I was good to go.

When I put the ACOG on, it was immediately obvious (as you can see from the above pic) that I would need some kind of a cheek riser to get a decent cheek weld, and that I would have to put my face pretty far forward to get a good sight picture. Unfortunately, my problems didn’t end there. When I got around to shooting the rig, I had about a 20 percent stove pipe rate. What happened? I was shooting the same ammo as last time, so I couldn’t understand why the problem was surfacing. That night I cleaned my rifle, and it became obvious what happened. The spent casings weren’t getting stuck on the ARMS 18 mount, but were hitting the ACOG base!  The brass was hitting the mount and not making it out. I figured this out when I saw that there were some small brass colored gouges in the base of the ACOG mount. Not only was the rifle stove piping, but over time the ACOG mount would be ruined through regular use. There isn’t enough real estate on the ARMS 18 mount that I could move the ACOG to a position where it wouldn’t get tagged by the spent brass. If I had been using traditional scope rings, the ARMS mount would have worked fine. But the ACOG mount was just too long. It looked like I was going back to the drawing board.

I looked into getting both the Sage EBR and Troy MCS stocks. These would help with the issues of the ACOG sitting too high and too far forward. But with the EBR I’d still need another scope mount. This was starting to get a bit pricey. Plus, I like feel of the M1A stock I already have. I did manage to stumble across the Troy Battle Rail. Primarily of interest was the fact that I could move the ACOG back a bit further towards my eye than before. Not only would this help with eye relief, but it should move the ACOG back far enough that it doesn’t get tagged with spent brass. I bought the Battle Rail and was pretty pleased with the construction. The height of the ACOG was still an issue. I could get a good sight picture when using a chin weld.