Hopefully this is the right place for this and I don't get beat up too bad.

This Saturday I finally got a m1 garand. I've been wanting one forever and every time I try cmp it seems they're out. Saturday an older gentleman was at the gunshow carrying around the rifle, he only wanted $550 for it so I took him up on it. Didn't look it over too good other than it had a 2.4m serial number, and he said it was Korean era.

Started looking at it good and its a blue sky mixmaster. Barrel erosion is severe, haven't shot it but I imagine at 100yds I wouldn't be able to hit much outside of a human wave. So immediately my idea is to rebarrel.

Looking at loads, the standard wisdom is to only use milsurp as commercial is too hot. I would be OK with this,  it it'd make me poor as I'd like to shoot it often. I have boatloads of 175ge smk 308 bullets, brass and primers, and looking at loadings it seems that a 308 load and recommended 30-06 loads for the garand are nearly identical.

So, at this point I'm leaning towards a criterion 308 barrel. Pricing seems great as most blue sky owners report great accuracy after a rebarrel. In the end I'd have $750ish in a great performing rifle (maybe). Still would like a grand in 30-06, but I can wait a while to pick up another, non mixed master gun for the collection.

What is an acceptable price for a good-condition but used USGI 30-06 barrel? I got on GB real quick to check and the shot-to-death barrels are running $50-$80 it seems. Ones with low-ish TEs are running $150-$200. The Criterions I'm looking at in 308 are running right around $180 or so shipped and they wouldn't have any TE/ME.

I understand an adjustable gas nut will help with op-rod related problems, however isn't there still a problem with the excessive recoil that's still generated from a higher velocity cartridge? Would it still be worth it if I couldn't use *true* full-power 30-06 loads and would use something between full power 308 and full power 30-06?

I would hold off with a rebarrel until you shoot it. It might shoot better than you think. If it does need a new barrel I think it would be less of a hassle to stick with the original caliber. Look around on the CMP forums and watch the auction sites and that should turn up a good one and maybe a period correct barrel. While you are searching for a good deal maybe it would be good to get out and shoot it as is and get familiar with the weapon. Other than the fact that I will eventually pick one up, I don't know much about .308 Garand's, that's what M-14 clones are for.

I don't know if it is true or not but I believe the CMP offers Garand rebarrel service. Hopefully other members can help with that info.

As to the adjustable gas plug mentioned above, I would go with that if you choose to shoot loads more powerful than ball ammo. I would contact the manufacturer and make sure it will work with what you plan to shoot.

I my M1 I pretty much use ball ammo and my hand loads specifically reloaded for M1's. I use the Hornady manual and it has a section devoted to the M1 and data for 178gr bullets. If I feel the need to shoot anything more powerful I just take the gas plug off.

How about some pics of yours?

$550 for a Blue Sky is a good price...    Like a previous poster said, go shoot that puppy.  Pie-plate size groups at a hunnert yards?  Then consider re barrel.

If dead set on 308  -  go for it.  I've got two running 308, one of which is a magazine fed conversion.  This won't be your only Garand!

Ray

there are a lot of ways to get your Garand rebarreled.

Springfield Inc., the commercial one, used to do it for a pretty reasonable price.
There are a half a dozen guys that are often recommended on the CMP website who do garand work.  A quick use of the search tool there should help ya.  Off the top of my head Orion 7 in Long Island NY does it, Tony Giacobbe" the Garand Guy", does it in NJ,  there are plenty more guys that do Garand barrels.

With the right tools you could do the job yourself.  May not make sense to invest in the tools for one rebarrel job though.  

tools;
action wrench (do it right or risk twisting your action)
barrel vise
headspace gages
good chance a pull through reamer to finish final headspace


ETA- after posting I see you're in OH.  There are a few guys near Perry too as i recall from my CMP forum reading. CMP also offers the service now but I'm not sure if the North store does it or just Anniston.  A phone call or email to them would certainly tell you.  Frankly if I was in Ohio I'd check with CMP first.

OH and yes, shoot it first, you might be pleasantly surprised.  You may not need to rebarrel depending on how much you plan to shoot it.  For the occasional plinker with Garand nostalgia a 4" group was in spec for the army even if the throat was not to army spec (they would have rebarreled).

The muzzle will take a 30-06 right up to the crimping, I don't have a ME gauge but my caliper says .311" on the muzzle. I have plenty of commercial 30-06 to try it out with, but no ball ammo at all. Maybe I'm too hard on it, but i can't imagine a barrel that takes a bullet to the crimp will be overly accurate.

shoot it first and see what you get..

To barrel to a 308 is no big deal. No different than 30-06 expect for its a shorter round  and some people put a blocker in there so you cant load 30-06. You cant fire it anyhow even if you do try to load 30-06 in it. So not really needed.

Ammo for 308 could be easier to find than 30-06 since mil is still using it for machine guns / sniper rifles and ar10's. Where the 06 is old surplus or standard commercial ammo.  

308 will recoil a little bit less than a 06 and i seemed to get better accuracy out of the 308 it could be me and little less recoil.

Is the loss in potential ballistics that significant if typical garand loadings are lower than commercial?

My plan is to use 175gr SMKs in garand loadings, as it's what i'm using in my other 308s. I'm reading max loads of 47gr with 30-06 for a garand using 175gr SMKs, and that's really not much better than what I have in my 308s, so thus my thought of just converting to 308 and having ammo commonality.

Also, another question I have is correctness of CMP field & service grade guns. I'd like to buy and keep a 30-06 garand, and would prefer it not be a mixmaster gun. My problem is finding one at a decent price as they ALL seem to be going for $800-$1000 unless there's a part mix.

You are not going to get a correct Garand through the CMP unless you go through the auction and that will be costly

What distance are you shoot the m1 at ?

If its + 300 yards than the 175gr smk's are a good bullet for it. If its under your just wasting your your pennies. You will see no real advantage over a 125gr, 147/150gr. or 168gr

I shoot both 06 and 308 i usually load 125gr for 100 yard practice since the range i have access to has a max 100 yard.  For dcmp shooting i use the 168gr up to 300 yards. Than for shooting at 600 and 1000 yards i use the 175grs.

200-300 yards mostly.

On the SMKs I bought a boatload of them cheaper than I can get virtually any bullet today, from my math I can load 175 SMKs in 308 for under 20 cents per round. Don't know how I can touch it even with cheap bullets unless I go with like m1 carbine bullets or something.

Deshay and the crew at the CMP Custom shop do offer rebarrel and everything else you could want. I took the class over the summer (build a Special class). I left mine there so they could convert to M1D...  I then sent an email inquiring about getting a 1903A3 rebarreled in a criterion barrel. Here is the response:

"If you decide to go with the standard barrel install, the price is $75.  The deluxe install is $150. We have new Criterion barrels in shop- $189.95. "

Based on the ease of putting together a Garand compared to a 1903A3, I would think barrel install would be same for Garand. It was very easy in class but the cost of tools (reamer, etc) is not worth it (for one).

You can either supply your own barrel or buy a Criterion from CMP.

Anyway, if this is helpful, go on CMP's site and get the number of CMP Custom Shop. They are the nicest crew you could ever talk to.

OP, Garands are 30-06... M1A's are 308. It should be a law IMHO. My grandfather rolls over in his grave every time someone puts a 308 barrel on a Garand.

Okay, so we all know we should only fire M2 ball (or equivalent) in a .30-06 Garand...

...but what are you supposed to fire in a .308 Garand?

Sorry if this is off-topic for the thread, but I just got to wondering.

Reload... then you can shoot anything you want in either.

I have tons of 308 brass, do not have tons of 30-06 brass. Guess it's just a minor cost difference but ammo commonality would be nice in a firearm i'd like to shoot regularly.