Long or Short MBR

This purchase is a year away or so, but I am still going over in my mind which I prefer.

Do I want to get a long or short main battle rifle. I'm referring to the M1A.

It comes in several barrel lengths, but my thoughts are on the regular full-length, and the short 18" length. They both have plusses and minuses. But lets just list the plusses that they have an advantage in.

Long: more accurate, not as ear-splitting loud (short M1As are supposedly EXTRA loud.)



Short: handier indoors and in an out of vehicles, more appropriate for Red-Dot style optics on top.





And ignore the stock differences. I'm not a fan of the SOCOM fore-rail system, as it is very front heavy. If I were going to mount a scope of some sort forward of the receiver I'd much prefer the same get-up I have with the Garand and go with simple scout rail.

I have a long rifle that is accurate and can be made more so (the biggest deficit is my shooting skill) and I will get a bolt action for 2 long and accurate rifles. So this make me lean short for the M1A. But I can't carry 2 rifles at a time, and if I had to select only one as I was running out the door to evade the Zombies I'd want the best all round. So the long M1A. But come on... do I need the 500 yard plus if the poop hits the fan? So back to short M1A. Now how often will I find myself inside needing to maneuver around with a rifle? I mean really? Wouldn't a shotgun or handgun be better for indoor stuff? I'm not going to need a carbine length rifle. I won't be a part of some rifle squad going house to house anytime soon, even in the direst emergencies. And if I was, house to house is offensive operation, and I would be settling into defensive ambuscades and then scooting along, in dire cases. So we're back to the advantages long M1A barrels offer.

And to compromise to a mid length barrel is just absorbing the negatives of the long and the short into one gun, so let's not do that. But I am liking this stock from Troy Industries and sold through Fulton Armory:






I'd have to see and feel one in person, but the weight looks better distributed. It accounts for iron sights and gives you plenty of options for add-on optics. The barrel is "lowered" in the stock more and with the pistol grip and an added vertical fore-grip you are more in line with 21st Century infantry dogma where the Marine keeps his elbows in like a boxer's stance and the butt high on his shoulder so his head is upright. The old style shooting has your trigger elbow way out to the side and your head hunched down. Elbow out and hunched is harder to maneuver in tight spaces and see all you need to see with the advantage red-dot scopes offer. This is an M1A fully modernized. (and, heh, look, it has the mid length barrel in this example. hat trick.)

Assume whichever barrel length I choose, I will choose an identical stock types either way. Either the new-fangled, like above, or classic walnut.

I'm leaning short barrel. That way, I'd have a blot action .308 someday, with a 9x scope, the Garand with it's 2.5x scope, and the M1A with red-dot and no magnification. But my preferences have been known to change. I'd like to HEAR one. See if it really IS that sort of extra-loud.