If you’ve ever attached a scope to one of your M1A rifles, you may have had a tough time getting a proper cheekweld on the rifle while attempting to gain a proper sight picture through your scope. This comes down to the height of the optic over the buttstock. As the M1A was designed to shoot with iron sights, the stock positions your face and eyes along that plane. When we add an optic, we’ve now changed the position of where our head needs to be in order to attain a proper sight picture.
This is where the Bradley Adjustable Cheek Rest comes in. The Bradley Cheek Rest allows you to quickly and easily attach a cheek riser to your M1A rifle and then adjust the cheek comb to perfectly fit your unique anatomy and rifle set-up. This could be the missing piece that takes you from newbie to sharpshooter. Accuracy is all about repeatability, and the Bradley Cheek Rest is instrumental in attaining the proper position behind your rifle to get the most accuracy possible.
My Project
I am such an avid admirer of the M1A rifle and all its variants. I own five different M1A rifles in just about every flavor imaginable, and I love to tinker with them. The last bone stock M1A I have has been dying to have a proper optic to really stretch out its performance. I had a few parts and pieces lying around for the project, so I decided this was a great rifle to set up and try out a Bradley Cheek Rest.
While the majority of Bradley Cheek Rests are made from synthetic materials, this one is made from high quality leather. The leather is beautiful and matches the wooden stock of the M1A wonderfully.
The cheek rest itself has three pieces to it: a foam pad that rests between the stock and the leather to fully protect the finish on your rifle, the stock attachment pieces which use Velcro to attach, and finally the adjustable cheek comb. I really appreciate the easy attach and detach nature of the Cheek Rest. There is no permanent installation or alteration of your rifle required; the rest simply attaches with Velcro wraps that secure it to the stock of your M1A.
There are four positions that you are able to adjust up or down on the cheek comb to dial in your position on the rifle. The cheek comb is secured by four screws: two on the left and two on the right. To adjust the cheek comb, you simply remove the screws, adjust the comb and secure the screws back into place. I found the tallest position on the cheek comb to be the perfect height for my set up and my anatomy.
Range Time
Once I had the rifle all assembled and the cheek rest adjusted, it was time to hit the range to really feel it out and get some experience with the new cheek rest.
For my rifle’s stability set up, I used the M1A M2 bipod that is specifically made to attach to the M1A rifles gas cylinder. It’s a really cool bipod that folds up and out of the way on the forend of the rifle and easily deploys into a solid position with adjustable legs. For my optic set-up, I used a Sadlak Industries aluminum mount with a Leupold VXR Patrol 3-9×40 optic. This optic set-up allowed me to position the scope as low as I could, just clearing the rear iron sight on the M1A.
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I set up my target at the 100-yard mark, loaded up with Remington 180-gr. .308 Match ammo and settled in behind the rifle. The venerable Nation Match now felt like it just got a horsepower upgrade and the handling of a modern sports car. I was comfortable and confident behind the rifle, easily gaining a sight picture without having to search for the proper head position. It was comfortable and repeatable.
The Bradley Cheek Rest felt comfortable, even in the 102-degree Arizona heat. The leather was soft yet grippy, keeping my cheek on the comb. Pressing into the cheek riser didn’t interrupt my sight picture, as the leather is very robust and stays in place precisely as installed.
Conclusion
The Bradley Cheek Rest is a solution to many users’ needs of keeping a rifle mostly stock while adding the customization of an adjustable cheek comb. If you are an avid long-range shooter or someone who is interested in gaining more accuracy from your rifle, I would highly suggest you check out the Bradley Adjustable Cheek Rest. Not only will your rifle look great, but it will perform to its maximum potential.
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