Re: I need to know by tomorrow about a national match
Disclaimer:
I NEVER buy complete SAI rifles.
But I go back with the M1A to about 1983 or '84, when I borrowed a friend's fat-stock USGI parts build gun to shoot a then-lifetime high score over the course using WW-748 reloads we had thrown together the night before.
A lot of it will depend on the barrel. After everything is said and done on the M1A, including the slightly overrated gas cylinder/stock ferrule unitization and glass bedding (the two most important besides obviously mechanical things like no slop in the front sight fit to the barrel), the difference between a reliable 1.6-inch at 100 yards gun and a sub-inch gun is the barrel.
Some will do it, some won't. I had a cheap ArmsCorp USA medium heavy NM barrel (undoubtedly USGI surplus) installed in a regular walnut stock build and it did 1 MOA quite reliably with a variety of 168-gr handloads and with M852. The next barrel, same type from SAI, seems barely 1 inch with the right 175-gr loads and no better EVER than 1.3 inches with 155s of any type, usually 1.5-2.1 inches. Perhaps it's an unfair comparison because I just haven't done 168 load development with it, and never did 175s and 155s with the other one (its accuracy had dropped off by the time I tried them).
If you get it for a good price, all the other NM stuff is probably worth it even if you're stuck with a 1.5 MOA barrel. Hold hard and you can still clean the 300 and 600 targets with one. You'll just have to hold twice as hard as the guys and gals shooting ARs that are 3/4-inch guns.