Ray,
I lost a roller on one civilian M1A. I noticed when the bolt skipped the track and was locked up in the back of the reciever.

I think people should undertand there is a significant difference between the rifles offered by the civilian (never affiliated with the Government Springfield Armory) M1A and the forged USGI M14.

The sub-100k serial number M1As had a lot of surplus USGI forged parts, but as parts dried up SA, Inc. started to sub-contract for them. If you dig deep you'll find that SA,Inc. imports a lot of its cast parts from Korea. This shouldn't come as a surprise from a company that has a history of sticking its name on imported guns (SAR-3, SAR-8, SAR-48, XD line, the O/U Scout, etc).

I had a couple of early M1As and they worked fine. I personally don't think anyone reading this is going to run enough rounds through one to crack the cast receiver. HOWEVER, I always worried about the other parts and what would happen to the cast receiver if I had an overloaded / over charged round.

The USGI M14 was a 1936 M1 (Garand) Rifle product improved. The US Military would have been better served with the T48 as Andy said. I fully appreciate our heritage as "riflemen" dating back to before the American Revolution, and that the FAL has crude sights by US military standards. I don't' understand why we couldn't have just fitted the FAL with an improved set of sights and called it good.