Posted: 2/22/2009 6:31:19 AM EDT
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I bought a M1 Garand rifle summer before last. Never had any real experience with an M1 rifle before. I've owned M1A and M14 rifles since the early 1990's and thought an M1 would shoe right into the program.
Anyhow, while the M1 is somewhat similiar to an M14 function-wise, it is a totaly different beast. Lots more goodies in an M1 rifle. The top ejecting clips a hoot  , and damage of a finger a very real possibility with a Garand.
My rifles pretty decent. Mechanicaly near perfect. The bore is clean and sharp, the woods all walnut, the finish is decent except the gas cylinder, which is a bit shiny. All in all a satisfactory M1 rifle. Just have not really bonded with this rifle like my M14's. The accuracy is not jut spectacular, but it's fair. Most of the accuracy issue being me not clicking with the gun. I do see room for improvement as far as mechanical accuracy goes. First, my buttstock/receiver tension is not the tightest. I'd like to keep my stock, although it's not original to the rifle, it looks good. Next the muzzle crown has some damage. Not too bad, doesn't interfere with the bore or rifling, but does look like it's been dropped on the muzzle a time or two. I can fix that no problem. Then my gas cylinder/front sight assembly is slightly loose on the barrel splines. I've investigated this deal, and looks like a minor peening of the barrel splines will fix that. So really, the only thing I'm not quite sure of is the buttstock fit. I've read some destructions on bedding the triggerguard/mag assembly, but no illustrations. I made some shims and expermented, however it really didn't seem to tighten it up much. Any advice from the great knowlegable ones would be appreciated. So what to do short of swapping stocks, to tighten my M1 rifle's stock to receiver fit? Thanx, 17 |
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I have the ring/jig used to glass bed the Garand to the stock.
Bedding a Garand is somewhat easier than the M14 variants in my opinion. I have the NRA pamphlet on accurizing a Garand. I can post some of the stuff up like trigger work. As far as the stock, a cheap and easy way to tighten the stock up is emory cloth folded in half, and placed between the rear of the receiver (behind the rear sight) and the wooden stock. Or some thin plastic. Just enough that it tightens up the trigger group lock up. Hard enough it takes a palm strike to lock it in but not a mallet hit. Recrowning and tightening up that gas cylinder will significantly improve grouping. The shimming of the stock will help some too. Glass bedding works great on some rifles to improve accuracy and on some very little. Trigger work: 
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an easier fix is to trade the rifle off to me  nope nope! My M1, back off! 
I waited a long time to buy one of these babys. yep, that's the reaction I expected. I've had two garands, one was wornout shit that didn't hit anywhere close to what I aimed it at, it would also on occassion fall apart while it was being shot, so I sold it off to a dude that had it rebuilt, the other was a damn nice rifle, so nice in fact that someone releived me of it. so..........I'm keeping my eyes open for another garand that I can afford, hell I've got plenty of ammo and clips already waiting. |
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an easier fix is to trade the rifle off to me nope nope! My M1, back off!
I waited a long time to buy one of these babys. yep, that's the reaction I expected. I've had two garands, one was wornout shit that didn't hit anywhere close to what I aimed it at, it would also on occassion fall apart while it was being shot, so I sold it off to a dude that had it rebuilt, the other was a damn nice rifle, so nice in fact that someone releived me of it. so..........I'm keeping my eyes open for another garand that I can afford, hell I've got plenty of ammo and clips already waiting. Let me help you out Ndenway, CMP 
I'm waiting on a couple of "items" that I ordered a little bit ago myself
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an easier fix is to trade the rifle off to me nope nope! My M1, back off!
I waited a long time to buy one of these babys. yep, that's the reaction I expected. I've had two garands, one was wornout shit that didn't hit anywhere close to what I aimed it at, it would also on occassion fall apart while it was being shot, so I sold it off to a dude that had it rebuilt, the other was a damn nice rifle, so nice in fact that someone releived me of it. so..........I'm keeping my eyes open for another garand that I can afford, hell I've got plenty of ammo and clips already waiting. Let me help you out Ndenway, CMP
I'm waiting on a couple of "items" that I ordered a little bit ago myself Give me an M1A over a Garand any day!!!! 
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I'm curious. What is the attitiude of the old school garand and M1A guys about the black rifle craze? I'll bet good money they are not black rifle fans! I am talking about the hard core mind you. Not collectors or weekend shooters. I built my first CAR15 in 1980 or so. That was back before the ban on M16 parts and you could buy a DIAS for $20. I think I had $300 or so in my gun. The most expensive part was the bolt carrier. I picked up my first Garand about 1981, a second around 1982, a third around 1985, The last developed into a full blown NM in a laminated walnut stock. Star grade barrel and NM marked op rod. The first M1A was around 1986 or so. I still have that gun and the others are gone. I did shoot a 187-8X (out of 200 on the 600 yd range in the 20 minute slow fire) the first time I shot that Winchester NM Garand I built. On the rapid fire courses I fouled up when I rolled over on my right side to push in a clip. I'm left handed. Garands are OK for left handers but aren't anywhere as good as the M1A. Do I like ARs? Absolutely. They go bang! After that, what isn't there to like about them?
It's just that I prefer the Garand type action on the M1A and a Mini14 Ranch I carry all the time. The Ruger isn't as accurate as my ARs but it's more conventional and similar to my favorite rifle - the M14 platform |
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an easier fix is to trade the rifle off to me nope nope! My M1, back off!
I waited a long time to buy one of these babys. yep, that's the reaction I expected. I've had two garands, one was wornout shit that didn't hit anywhere close to what I aimed it at, it would also on occassion fall apart while it was being shot, so I sold it off to a dude that had it rebuilt, the other was a damn nice rifle, so nice in fact that someone releived me of it. so..........I'm keeping my eyes open for another garand that I can afford, hell I've got plenty of ammo and clips already waiting. Let me help you out Ndenway, CMP
I'm waiting on a couple of "items" that I ordered a little bit ago myself Give me an M1A over a Garand any day!!!!
Why choose one over the other?  Get multiples of each. One of the best investments you can make. Beats the hell out of the stock market.
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I'm curious. What is the attitiude of the old school garand and M1A guys about the black rifle craze? I'll bet good money they are not black rifle fans! I am talking about the hard core mind you. Not collectors or weekend shooters. Started carrying an M16 for a living in 81. Didn't buy an AR based platform of my own till 95 or so. Bought my first Garand in 85. Own an M1A and a Polytech M-14S. Like them all. But the Garand, it kinda "whispers" to me as I tote it around and shoot it. Pure living and breating history man. Hard to explain. Shoot the ARs the most of all. But if I had to choose only one, today it would probably be the M1A Scout/Squad. Who knows about tomorrow? I consider myself to be blessed and fortunate to be able to not have to settle for only one.
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I'm curious. What is the attitiude of the old school garand and M1A guys about the black rifle craze? I'll bet good money they are not black rifle fans! I am talking about the hard core mind you. Not collectors or weekend shooters. hell man I've owned both types of rifles, along with some aks all at the same time. no safe queens in my stable, all my firearms are "working guns", meaning I shoot the hell out of them all the time, if they don't work, then I trade/sell/hock them off, I don't keep any firearms that don't work as intended. back when I built my first ar, m193 was $90/k otd at OA and just a bit more at southwest shooters, and the "russian hunting ak ammo" ran approx $20/200rnd lamenated cardboard battle pack, still got a few boxes of that stuff laying around, then the norinco/china sport ammo started coming in country, and shooting ars and aks got fairly affordable. |
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an easier fix is to trade the rifle off to me nope nope! My M1, back off!
I waited a long time to buy one of these babys. yep, that's the reaction I expected. I've had two garands, one was wornout shit that didn't hit anywhere close to what I aimed it at, it would also on occassion fall apart while it was being shot, so I sold it off to a dude that had it rebuilt, the other was a damn nice rifle, so nice in fact that someone releived me of it. so..........I'm keeping my eyes open for another garand that I can afford, hell I've got plenty of ammo and clips already waiting. Let me help you out Ndenway, CMP
I'm waiting on a couple of "items" that I ordered a little bit ago myself last time I looked on there, all they had were the greek shooter grade bring backs, and you had to be a memeber of a cmp club or somesuchthing. has anything changed since that time, do they have other garands now? |
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an easier fix is to trade the rifle off to me nope nope! My M1, back off!
I waited a long time to buy one of these babys. yep, that's the reaction I expected. I've had two garands, one was wornout shit that didn't hit anywhere close to what I aimed it at, it would also on occassion fall apart while it was being shot, so I sold it off to a dude that had it rebuilt, the other was a damn nice rifle, so nice in fact that someone releived me of it. so..........I'm keeping my eyes open for another garand that I can afford, hell I've got plenty of ammo and clips already waiting. Let me help you out Ndenway, CMP
I'm waiting on a couple of "items" that I ordered a little bit ago myself last time I looked on there, all they had were the greek shooter grade bring backs, and you had to be a memeber of a cmp club or somesuchthing. has anything changed since that time, do they have other garands now? Yes, there are different grades. Changes occasionally. I have a service grade on order right now. Yep, you have to belong to an associated "club". I happen to occasionally shoot USPSA matches. I belong to USPSA, it qualifies as the associated "club".
IMHO, you are NOT an American male unless you either have an M-1 or are actively working toward that goal.
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IMHO, you are NOT an American male unless you either have an M-1 or are actively working toward that goal.
You're most likely right, Chuck. The only guns I ever bought that got my dad excited and wanting to go to the gun range with me were my Garands. It might have had something to do with him carrying one in WWII and in Korea. |
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My M1 was purchased from an OKC gunstore, one of several the store was selling on consignment. Most likely it was a DCM or CMP musket from the past.
I paid too much for it, but I pretty much got what I wanted in an M1, mainly, one that works and looks good. I wanted a late production Springfield with a clean bore. This rifle is about as late as it gets, being in the 5.8 million serial range, made in 1955. For whatever reason, most of the rifle is postwar Springfield made, except the buttstock and buttplate. Digging around online shows my stock to be an early wartime Springfield part, and my buttplate to be Winchester made. I only paid about a $200 handpick premium over what I could have bought one from the CMP for, however, I was the eyeballs and hands in the hand select inspection! 
I was previously thinking about a Century Arms M1 Garand, but I chickened out after taking a close look at one, then doing a little research. The milsurp ones are way better made where it concerns the receiver. Was going to order a CMP field grade, but got worried they might send me a turd, so I just spent the money local and bought this consignment gun. Hell! Might have been one of you jokers traded in all those M1 rifles the store had for sale. I bet every one of them came from the DCM or CMP. No Blue Sky guns or any import marks on any of them. Oh. By the way, danc46 is now my M1 Guru!.....At least he has a book about them with pics! I ain't drinkin' no 'Kool-Aid' though. Think I got my stock tension issue resolved, or at least a plan to resolve it. I thumbed through my gunsmithing books, and found a chapter in one on US armorers M1 tricks. Shittier illustrations than danc46's book, but the text was understandable. I made some thin shims for the triggerguard assembly as per these destructions, and the thing will clamp tight now. I was lucky. I had saved the leftovers from a wooden ship model that included thin strips of walnut planking. That stuff is perfect to shim an M1 triggerguard. I just need to glue them in and I think it will be good for a while. Thanks for the trigger instrucs. Although the trigger is decent on mine it was entertaining to read. |
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Don't think I need any more destructions on accuriuzing my M1 right now, but I may be yelling for a look at the book again!
I worked in my 'man cave' last night until late. I have the wood shims glued into the stock(rifle still comes apart, thank God!). The muzzle crown survived re-crowning, looks much better. I also peened the sight splines so my front assembly is rigid now. Heck! I may have a 'match grade' M1 now!  Have to shoot it and see.
My son and I had fired this Garand off my rotten bench, achieving 3"-5" 100meter groups. Thats discarding all the 8"-10" groups we blew with sloppy shooting!
If we get a chance soon, I'll fire a few more bench groups to see if I gained anything. Couldn't hurt anything. The rifle had but little tension clamping the thing together. The front sight was definately loose, and the crown was undeniably dinged. |
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Well. The M1 does seem to shoot better.
Some bench shooting done this evening with Greek ball and Taiwanese ball definately showed some improvement. Seems to not be shooting random flyers now, and the groups were definately tighter. Just how much better I cannot tell you! Mainly because I just wasn't in the 'groove' this evening
I sort of wish I had done the improvements one at a time, with bench sessions in between so I could see what improved it the most. However I imagine the tighter stock fit might have been most beneficial. I know my old original Polytech shot like shit when it got loose in the Chinese wood. Clamped tight into a hunk of USGI walnut, the Poly came right back and then some. I think I just need more hands on time now. More practice with the Garand I hope will improve my accuracy. I really am much better with an M14! |
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So what improvements did you make besides chamfering the muzzle and tightening the trigger lock up?
Check your rear sight for looseness, side to side play. Sometimes you can peen the sight cover to tighten it up. It's cheaper than replacing the rear sight. Also, you can reduce the thickness of the front sight with a file and make it a .062. That makes a big difference. Hell, I wish I could help you sight that in and bring it in tight. But I won't be able to fire any large caliber rifle for 6 months or so. ETA - I'm still looking for that book. I'll scan the pertinent pages and post them when I do. |
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I cleaned up the muzzle crown, tightened the stock fit(glue in walnut veneer under triggerguard), peened the front sight splines on the barrel slightly to get rid of gastube/front sight wobble.
These three fairly simple repairs may have greatly improved my Garands accuracy! Maybe just the knowledge that I did something positive towards achieving some accurate shootability from the M1 maybe made it shoot better in my hands. Shit! Who knows? I was not shooting all that great today, but I did notice no flyers. Groups were tighter to some degree. It was cold, and I was tired. Something else occurs to me too. My M1 don't like Greek ball!!  I've noticed before that it would shoot almost any other ammo better, but I'm fairly sure now that my musket just ain't going to drive tacks with the Greek stuff.
Go figure! Supposidly the best M1 ammo is the Greek M2 ball, and my musket doesn't particularly care for it. |
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man, good shooting surplus ammo is a rarity,
hornaday came out with a garand specific match load last year, if you can find any of it, give a box a try and see how your rifle likes it. and then there's always reloading, I used to have an article from "American Rifleman" printed back during the 80's, it had loads tested in bullet weights between 150grs to 200grs, the dude measured FPS, accuracy, consistancy in where brass ejected/landed, seemed to remember the 180gr load doing the best; if you can find a copy of the article, it had a lot of good info on brass, powders, bullets and primers for a start in accurate garand ammo loading. |
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Well. The M1 does seem to shoot better. Some bench shooting done this evening with Greek ball and Taiwanese ball definately showed some improvement. Seems to not be shooting random flyers now, and the groups were definately tighter. Just how much better I cannot tell you! Mainly because I just wasn't in the 'groove' this evening
I sort of wish I had done the improvements one at a time, with bench sessions in between so I could see what improved it the most. However I imagine the tighter stock fit might have been most beneficial. I know my old original Polytech shot like shit when it got loose in the Chinese wood. Clamped tight into a hunk of USGI walnut, the Poly came right back and then some. I think I just need more hands on time now. More practice with the Garand I hope will improve my accuracy. I really am much better with an M14! OKAY....I am going to go out on a limb here. BUT it is ibvious you are unhappy with this rifle, so I will be willing to take it off your hands for virtually nothing and save you the frustration. NO! No need to thank me! Just being a good christian soul!
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man, good shooting surplus ammo is a rarity, hornaday came out with a garand specific match load last year, if you can find any of it, give a box a try and see how your rifle likes it. and then there's always reloading, I used to have an article from "American Rifleman" printed back during the 80's, it had loads tested in bullet weights between 150grs to 200grs, the dude measured FPS, accuracy, consistancy in where brass ejected/landed, seemed to remember the 180gr load doing the best; if you can find a copy of the article, it had a lot of good info on brass, powders, bullets and primers for a start in accurate garand ammo loading. Seems like 4895 and 3031 were the only two powders to use on Garands back in the day when I reloaded for them. They are far more picky than the M1A or M14 platform as far as bending the op rods with slower burning powders. |
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man, good shooting surplus ammo is a rarity, hornaday came out with a garand specific match load last year, if you can find any of it, give a box a try and see how your rifle likes it. and then there's always reloading, I used to have an article from "American Rifleman" printed back during the 80's, it had loads tested in bullet weights between 150grs to 200grs, the dude measured FPS, accuracy, consistancy in where brass ejected/landed, seemed to remember the 180gr load doing the best; if you can find a copy of the article, it had a lot of good info on brass, powders, bullets and primers for a start in accurate garand ammo loading. Seems like 4895 and 3031 were the only two powders to use on Garands back in the day when I reloaded for them. They are far more picky than the M1A or M14 platform as far as bending the op rods with slower burning powders. as I remember the article had ball powders that were safe to use in the garand also, if I remember right, the w748 being one of the better performers. but hell there's plenty of ball powders sutible for use in M1a and Garands nowdays, right off the top of my head I can think of four, AA2520, AA2460, W748, blc2 and there are plenty more with simular burn rates. the 2520 and 2460 actually used to list on the bottles/jugs that their pressure curve was specifically designed for use in the garand/m1a and other gas gun platforms. |
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Well. The M1 does seem to shoot better. Some bench shooting done this evening with Greek ball and Taiwanese ball definately showed some improvement. Seems to not be shooting random flyers now, and the groups were definately tighter. Just how much better I cannot tell you! Mainly because I just wasn't in the 'groove' this evening
I sort of wish I had done the improvements one at a time, with bench sessions in between so I could see what improved it the most. However I imagine the tighter stock fit might have been most beneficial. I know my old original Polytech shot like shit when it got loose in the Chinese wood. Clamped tight into a hunk of USGI walnut, the Poly came right back and then some. I think I just need more hands on time now. More practice with the Garand I hope will improve my accuracy. I really am much better with an M14! OKAY....I am going to go out on a limb here. BUT it is ibvious you are unhappy with this rifle, so I will be willing to take it off your hands for virtually nothing and save you the frustration. NO! No need to thank me! Just being a good christian soul!
Oh no. I'm basicaly happy with the M1 rifle I paid too much for.
I've collected old milsurps for years, and it's rare for a 50 plus year old rifle to be perfect. Plus, I have but little experience with a Garand. I had really thought the M1 Garand would be like an M1A/M14 excepting the magazine system, and it is sort of. But comparing an M1 Garand to an M14 is about like comparing a M14 to a Ruger Mini 14. They are similiar in some ways, but not even close in other details. The M14 being much much simpler in construction. The Garand is a milsurp rifle to me. Not my primary defense musket, not my chosen weapons system, just a cool old rifle. True, I'm not shooting my M1 all that good. While I've owned it for about 18 months or so, I've not shot it all that much. I knew it had a few minor issues when I bought it, however I love a project gun. I'm not at all disenchanted with the rifle. I do think my minor repairs have brought the accuracy up to acceptable levels, and I just need to work on me getting better with the rifle. I've done far less rifle shooting the last few years, and quite a bit more handgun shooting. My rifle shooting skills have declined from lack of practice, while I've become a helluva pistol shooter. |