First, I put one of their throw lever mounts on my old ACOG, replacing the ARMS mount. Nothing special, except the new mount is about 1/16th lower.
Next, I tried out the GG&G BCOMP, a little goodie that mounts a mini red-dot sight, and includes a place to store batteries. It's intended to be mounted at the 1:30 position on the scope, so you cant your rifle 45 degrees and then use the red dot for close-in work.
However, looking at the old Hensholdt scope for my HK91, I saw some other possibilities. The unit is actually an eight-sided 30mm ring, and the mounting platform and battery compartment can be put in various locations.
The interesting part is that this is a STANAG scope, and the tube diameter is 27.5mm. However, with the ridge on the bottom of the tube added on, it comes out to 30mm (GG&G only makes this in 30mm size right now). So, thanks to some creative tinkering, and low turrets, I now have this 21st century mod installed on the ol' scope:
I had to mount it on the front half of the scope, so it's a few inches further forward than I'd like, but it doesn't interfere with anything, including the reticle illuminator it took ages for me to find. Here are top and right-side views:
The last GG&G item is another one of their throw-lever mounts, this time with the Aimpoint CompM4 on top. This is my M1A plinker (I think I'll try waste baskets at 100 yards), with the new scope:
The only problem now is the M14 stock. It's designed to work strictly with the iron sights only. Any optical device, no matter how low it's mounted, is too high with the low comb of the stock. Even the new "designated marksmen" M14 the military is getting has some sort of add-on cheekpiece to use with a scope.
Of course, you could always get an entirely new stock system. And this one, by J Allen Enterprises, is a complete "system" that you configure, right down the the seven decorator colors available.
One drawback is that it costs about 75% of what the whole rifle cost me in the first place. Scratch that, this is just a plinker.
Instead, I think I'll try this $50 adjustable cheekpiece that requires drilling two holes through the stock. With the pattern they include, I don't see it as a big mechanical challenge.
The cheekpiece should wrap up work on the M1A. Now to squeeze in some trigger time somewhere.