Seems a Springfield Armory M1A National Match with a stock made to look more like a M4 would be a good choice.
I own one,my go to rifle if the SHTF.
They already tried that. It was an effective platform but heavy and problematic. Also, even with the new chassis, it did stick out in a squad.
I’m quite content in reporting that I too own a DPMS Panther. A -F I N E- shootin’ rifle, IMHO. Depending on locale, it is one of my go to firearms as well.
(Well, before that tragic boating accident that left me empty handed ‘cept fer an ol Stevens model 94C 12Ga. single shot shotgun) . . . . . . those firearms will be missed.
Snoot
It'd be a great choice for shooting the 600-yard National Match Service Rifle course at 600 yards. On a range, on a sunny day, with windage flags flying and an ambulance handy nearby. But a rifle that weighs 11 pounds before adding a telescopic sight and mount, , much less night vision equipment and a suppressor, and has to be carried in a plastic suitcase to protect the optics? I went through combat arms basic training with the M14, carried M14s, M14E2s and M21 rifles on combat ops and got my first combat kill through an ANPVS1 starlight scope when I was nineteen; I am near 70 now. and you want to put a SOPMOD stock on it, eliminating the in-buttstock cleaning kit, and adding another piece of rattle-bait to the poor shooter's load, for a guy- or girl- who has to keep up with an infantry squad made up of folks armed with the M4 because the M16A2 was too long and heavy?
I do not have the answer. For myself, it'd probably be a 7,62 bullpup. For the Russians, and their bloddy decade in Afghanistan, the answer was the SVD Dragonov. Of what we have now, the M14-based M25, designed by and for Special Forces, NOT average first-enlistment grunts, isn't too bad. But I suspect that an entirely new weapons platform is forthcoming. And then some bright character will suggest giving everybody one....
When the Soviets finally pulled out of Afghanistan, they were issuing 3 or 4 SVD sniper rifles per squad. The maximum range of an RPG-7 antitank rocket launcher is 900 meters; a good SVD will reach out and touch a little farther than that, given good ammo.
And we may be fighting in cities and towns soon, MOUT in Army-speak. Up and down stairs, with ranges measured in both living room distances and city blocks away, with a three-and-a half foot long, 14-pound-plus rifle and ammo? Don't think so.