If the government hadn't stupidly banned the import of Norinco M14s, the low price of entry would have enticed me.
Since they did, the Garand being very available gets my vote. The Italians are cool but seem like a much more difficult project for me because I would need to convert a Garand receiver since my state has banned most of them by name.
Weird reasoning but the things that an M1A is better at I have ARs for.