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Posted: 10/18/2025 9:27:44 PM EDT
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I am looking for gunsmiths who have experience performing match upgrades on M1s to do a full overhaul. I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks! |
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Taken from the GCA Journal. M1 Repair Rebuild and accurizing: contact Bruce Dow at Dow Arms room Central Florida (352) 567 9800 dowarms@[email protected] No personal experience, his ad appears in the Service section of GCA. |
America is at that awkward stage, it’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards....Claire Wolfe
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I would recommend any of the 3 listed above. I've done business with Bruce Dow, mainly for Garand parts. He's getting up there in age but has help in the shop. I met him a long time ago when he used to come to Columbia,SC gunshows selling parts and accessories and minor service work for military and match rifles. Fulton Armory also comes highly recommended and is in Savage MD. Also, if they will take your Garand, the CMP custom shop in Anniston Alabama, is about as good as it gets. |
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Unless you need a new barrel, you can do alot of it yourself. Get the Kuhnhausen book. Send your trigger group to Ben Shapiro (Hueygunner). Rent the tools to recrown your barrel. The rest you can do following instructions in the book. And far more rewarding than having someone else do all of it. |
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Originally Posted By Sturmhund: Full match conditioning. If you want to shoot in CMP tournaments, full match conditioning isn't allowed. Making your M1 all that it can be, then shooting in NRA service rifle tournaments against scoped rifles that don't recoil, for fun, have at it. Match conditioned M1 Garands have gone the way of the dinosaur, the same as "Super Match" M1-A's. They are great rifles, but they aren't competitive against match grade AR-15's using 4.5X scopes. Competition rules have relegated them into specialized events, that force them to be less than their full potential would otherwise allow. I shot match conditioned M1's and M1-A's, from 1983 to 1993 to good effect. I switched to a bolt action .223 in 1994 taking first place in every tournament I entered on the SR-52 target (200 yards reduced, 600-yard target), shooting three 200/200, high X count targets out of 7 events that year. My worst outing was a 196/200 in the slow fire events. If anyone thinks dealing with .30-06 recoil is a challenge in the rapid-fire events, try running a bolt action. Approximately 10% of all competitors through the 80's would run bolt action M70's or 40X match rifles, .308 or .30-06. It was impressive to watch a seasoned competitor run a bolt in the rapids, using stripper clips to reload and still having time left over before the targets disappeared. This is a lost art. At that time, bolt action match rifles had an accuracy advantage, better fitting stocks, better sights, better triggers, heavier and longer barrels. The option to load your bullets closer to the lands, provided they fit in the magazine and using powders that would hurt a semi-auto action over time but gave 100+ more fps which helped. I had two M1-A's and one M1 Garand completely rebuilt over 25 years ago and have only fired them to establish a 200 yard zero. The M1-A's had been my competition rifles for years and needed freshening up. The .30-06 M1 never shot that well, despite being a NM rifle, it got a new barrel and bedding as well. These rifles aren't eligible to compete in CMP tournaments because they have heavy barrels and bedded receivers. |
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Most of the truly great M1 Garand builders are gone or retired. I’m sure most of the builders mentioned can do good work, installing barrels and bedding actions. There are so many more lost techniques to making a Garand a true match rifle. I have two rifles built by Don McCoy, the true master builder in my opinion, and they are definitely in a league of their own. The way the gas cylinder is peened and floated in just a way, the op rod tweaked and bent to slide in and out of the gas cylinder with the minimalist of friction. The handguards fitted, bedded, glued and screwed. One of my rifles is rear lugged the other is double lugged. I shoot my McCoy’s regularly in the CMP Unlimited Garand category. I’ve even shot them in XTC completion and they are fully capable of shooting good scores if you know how to shoot them and hold hard. Ted Brown still does some work. I love the CMP but have not been impressed by the last couple rifles I’ve seen personally go through their custom shop. Look for Garands already built by Don McCoy, Roland Beaver, or Gus Fisher. |
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