Just finished putting together my first Garand that I have had in a while.... Mostly HRA stuff, put together on an OK condition HRA receiver... Problem was that the Op rod was binding... polished the plug, and it was binding all over, along with pretty good resistance on the 60 degree incline/decline... DAMN... thought the rod was straight. Well, it was... the problem occurred on the bar between the charging handle and the bolt locking grooves. It was at least 3 to 4 degrees (you could see it visually contacting the receiver, that's how bad it was) out of horizontal.... took my soft mallet, 2 pieces of wood, and several sharp strikes, and now it is perfectly straight and passes the tilt test perfectly... just a lesson that the Op rod might not be the only bent part of the rod itself. FWIW