M1A: Marketing Strategies and Fairy Tales

After 28 years, even Springfield's vast supply of surplus parts has been exhausted and, with few exceptions, the gun's components are newly manufactured parts. Demand was such that tooling up became profitable long ago. Boyds (walnut), Wenig (M21) and McMillan (fiberglass) now provide the high-grade stocks, though painted government-issue fiberglass units are used on the Standard and Scout models. The company continues to make its own precision investment cast receivers from 8620 alloy steel.

Springfield's marketing philosophy has always been to focus on a handful of core designs of acknowledged excellence (such as the M1911 pistol) and tweak them to perform at their utmost and be applicable to a broad range of shooting needs. The simple strategy has proven enormously sound.

The histories of the company and its most popular longarm read like an interweaving of classic fairy tales. Springfield Armory, now in its third decade selling a product no one was certain of, is something of a Cinderella story. The M1A--a variant of the design the military didn't want but the public can't get enough of--seems the Ugly Duckling that now stands revealed as a beautiful swan. But for Springfield Armory, it has also been the Golden Goose.