Suppressing the Springfield M1A Rifle Video | Ammoland Inc. Posted on USA – -(Ammoland.com)- The Springfield M1A Rifle is a descendant of the US military’s M14 rifle that was descended from the M1 Garand. The rifle is a longtime favorite with shooters everywhere due to its accuracy, but has some shortcomings, most notably the ability to add a silencer to the rifle. This is due to a number of reasons. First being the rifle’s muzzle device. From the factory, the M1A’s flash suppressor or muzzle brake contains the rifle’s front sight. In order to change that out to use a silencer, whether a direct connect flash suppressor or some type of thread adapter to use a thread-on can, the shooter will lose his front sight.