Posted: 5/20/2006 8:16:50 PM EDT
God bless the CMP, God bless the Garand and God bless America for selling surplus military rifles and cases of ammo to it's citizens.  I headed over to the CMP North Shore store over at Camp Perry today and I did not come back empty handed. Being a Garand newbie, I was a little overwhelemed at first with rack after rack of rifles. I had no idea what to get. Thankfully, it wasn't that busy at the store, and the employees were VERY helpful. One of them walked around with me and guaged dang near every rifle. All of them (except for the Collector Grade rifles, and DAMN those are nice) were pretty well used and abused. Out of all of them, I ended up with this Greek Field Grade (Springfield Armory reciever and barrel), measuring almost 3 on a muzzle gauge and mearing about the same in the throat. Out of those available (minus Collector Grade), this was about as cosmetically nice as I could find, while exibiting the least amount of wear. Some looked nicer, but they were pretty much shot out. One looked REALLY nice, but it was clearly shot to hell (it swallowed the guage) and I couldn't lock the bolt back. Heh. It took me a while to settle on this one, but I'm VERY happy with my purchase. I finished it off with a case of Greek M2 Ball (packed in clips and bandoliers) and left a VERY happy camper. Tommorow afternoon she gets fired at the range.     
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| The M1 rifle. A combination of steel and wood, robust yet elegant. Sleek yet imposing. Notice the balance as you shoulder it and find the front sight. Her chamber firing a potent and accurate round. Arguably a work of art, she is the P51 Mustang of battle rifles. |
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Do NOT-repeat_ NOT expect good accuracy out of this rifle. The trick to buying a CMP Garand is to buy it early, don't worry about the wood and the barrel, get a new stock and a CMP barrel. Then wait until Highpower week at Perry and get one of the armorers to rebarrel it for you for free. Seriously. I will NOT post what happened to me on this or any other forum. Let's just say I got a damned good M1 for short money. |
I don't expect anything spectacular. I bought it as a plinker. I am looking for sources on new (or close to it) stocks. |
 it's a MAG!!....oh, wait.... it IS a clip! reflex- sorry! you know I am a gun nut- when my "i hate guns" wife tires to correct me when I talk about M1's and the clips |
The CMP makes new stocks. |
No they use aftermarket ones by Boyds IIRC. DGR is your best bet for a stock set. Get the unfinished set and have at it with some Tung Oil and steel wool. They are pre fit from Dean using a USGI M1 rifle and hand profiled to original USGI specs.. Anything else pales in comparison.. Really.. |
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I forgot the best part of the story! On my way back, I stopped by my grandfather's house. He's a Marine who fought in Korea. He just about got a tear in his eye when I showed it to him. He was so proud. I'm 26 years old, and this one rifle made a connection that bridged the generation gap. He enthusiasticaly demonstrated it to me, knowing that I didn't know much about them. I could see memories racing back. It's enough to make a guy well up a bit. The funniest part was him watching me trying to open those spam cans. I'd never seen one. He just stood there and said "You damn kids, ya ain't worth a shit. Gimme that God damn thing, I'll show you how to do it". It's his way, and I love him for it. Spending time with him and talking about his time in the Corps over my new rifle was better than the rifle purchase itself. |
and that right there is worth more than $600 |
Truer words have never been spoken, J. Peterman! |
How the heck do you open them...correctly? My father has several cans of M2 stockpiled but we never seem to find our way down to the stuff past our other plinking ammo. Neither of us can figure the doohicky out anyway. My pa was a squid. It's the Navy's fault. <--- Eagerly looking forward to a CMP rifle this year, though like yourself I don't know a damn thing about M1s. Even worse, I don't know how to check for wear. Guess I found my reading topic for tonight. |
Break the key off the top. Use it to bend the tab on the side of the can out. Stick the tab through the slot in the key. Start turning. You're peeling a strip of metal off the upper part of the can. It will wrap around the key as you're going. Pretty nifty, if you ask me. |
He has a point.  Good story!  |
Now, that's interesting. |
Yes, sometimes throat erosion and muzzle wear criteria is over rated and not an indicator as to how well a garand will shoot. |
I boned up over at fultonarmory.com before my trip. According to them, it's really not worth checking the throat erosion. I checked the muzzles and if they looked good, then I looked at the rest of the rifle. |
You're right about the best part of the story. I always wanted to share my Garands with my Dad unfortunately for me he passed away before I got my first rifle. hat Enjoy the times you spend with your grandfather and your M1 don't forget to let him squeeze of a few rounds. I'll bet that you two will have the best time of your life. |
Don't do anything to your Garand until you have cleaned it up and shot it.  I have one stock that looked like crap, after I cleaned it up and wiped it down with Tung oil a few times it looks 1000 times better. It came out with a nice tiger striping of the wood. I can live with the few dings and nicks it has. And it's pretty dang accurate too. |