To be honest I know very little about the M1 Garand. I've never even fired one but I hear nothing but great things about them. I'm looking to buy one and I was wondering where would be a good place to buy from?

I was thinking about a new one from Springfield Armory but I read that they use cast receivers instead of milled.

From what I've seen online, Fulton Armory would be a good place to buy from. Anyone have one of their Garands? Do they do quality work?

Before anyone says I should get one from CMP, let me stop you right here. I'm not a member of any shooting club and I don't care to be. Also the rifles from CMP are not even close to the condition of rifle that I'm looking for. I don't want to pay $500 bucks for a rifle to only send it off to someone to get it refurbished. I'd rather buy one from a good gunsmith that builds these rifles with new barrels, stocks, and refinished parts. I want one that looks brand new. I'm not a collector, I'm a shooter.

I've also seen some nice rifles from Orion 7. Anyone seen any of their work or own one of their rifles?

Any other good companies out there that refurbish Garands to like new condition that do excellent work?

Thanks for your help.

I had Orion 7 convert a Blue Sky Korean import Garand with a shot out barrel to a beautiful .308 Tanker Garand, It fires every thing I feed it & shoots Less than 1MOA groups with ammo it likes. Top notch work & very nice People to deal with.

If it's money you want to spend try "Miltech".
miltecharms.com I'd go with Orion 7. I think Smith Enterprise will make an M-1 for you as well.

You may also want to try www.fultonarmory.com

miltech and Fulton are over priced.  Check out Orion 7 or Dean of Dean's Gun Restorations.  There's another guy out there called (appropriately) the Garand guy.  All will provicde you with a great rifle and great service.

As far as the CMP rules go, THEY'RE NOT THAT BAD!  It's really MUCH easier than it appears. For clubs, you can joing the Garand Collectors Club (look for their link on the CSP board @ www.jouster.com) for $25 a year.  As far as "proof of marksmanship", that's easy.  Pretty much anything will qualify (check with 'em first).  I shot a internet "postal" match with my Enfield.  Postal matches are great for this as you can shoot 'em any time, any place you want.  Just have the "RO" sign your score card.  

As far as your opinion of "condition" you should order a SG HRA.  Lots of guys are getting theirs and they are virtually in "new as issued" condition.

If you run across a Spingfield Armory Garand don't walk, RUN away.  Talk to the guys at Orion 7, Fulton or Dean's about what they think of 'em.  Yeah it's new milspec parts, but that ain't worth jack shizznit if the receiver's out of spec.

If you don't go the CMP route, (which you really should try to, hell the fact that you get guns delivered right to your door is soooo cool)I would check Dean, Orion 7 or the Garand guy.  Another consideration if you're worried about the "condition" of a CMP gun is to order a receiver from CMP (Springfield are $250, HRA are $275 Winchester are $300) ship it to Dean or Orion and have 'em build it from the ground up to YOUR specs (you can go "as-issued" to keep it legal for the Garand matches or you can go "tricked out" with glass bedding NM sights and trigger etc.).  That would be the best of both worlds.  You'd have a USGI receiver assembled by true craftsmen, AND it would be in NIB condition.  I would say go the CSP boards (THE internet resource for all things Garand)and ask around.  You'll find that other than overwhelming recommendations to go the CMP route, that Dean or Orion are the very best guys to go with.

I've received two Garands this year from the CMP (a SG SA and a SG HRA).  Yeah they have some nicks etc on the wood, but damn they SHOOT.

HTH,
Rich

Well let's see...You want a garand with a new barrel,stock,refinished parts,you don't want to buy a rifle from the CMP and send it off to get "refurbished," you want to buy one that already is refurbished....Orion 7 or Fulton Armory of DGR will be the places to go..But, It'll cost, Orion'7's base price is around $8-900.00 that's for basically a reparked service grade rifle, that they went through, Checked headspace,timing,Bore, replaced any worn parts, (they'll have good bores, not new) no new wood on these rifles,good stocks but, not new,the high end models (new stock,bbl,parts, basically hand built) go for around $1600.00 or so, but these will SHOOT,(like around 1 MOA)(your choice or calibers, 30-06,308) depends on how much you want to spend...(they also offer a few rifles in between for around $12-1400.00)I'd go over to www.jouster.com go to the M1/M1a forum there,there's also links to orion7, fulton, and DGR you can look at their prices.. ask around while you're there, look at the top of the page, check out "Lanes tips" lots of info on shooting, tuning, minor repairs/ gunsmithing, lots of info you might want to look at it if you've never shot one of these fine rifles, Dean,(DGR) Orion7, and Fulton are about the best in the business, they're not cheap, but I've never heard or read a bad thing about any of them...I will say this.. after you look at their prices, the CMP might not look too bad....They've been shipping out some nice, just about unissued, H&R's lately, go over to the Garand board and read the posts, some of these guys have rifles with bores that have no wear on them, really nice wood, most have been rebuilt, some haven't(and they're nice) these will probably shoot very well,what a deal for $520.00, delivered to your door....Good luck with whatever you decide....

Thanks guys for all the help and advice. The thing that worries me the most about buying a Garand is the fact I know nothing about them or what to look for. I see alot of them at gunshows that run anywhere from $600 to $900 but I'd hate to buy something I know very little about.

I've looked at Fulton Armory and Orion 7 and they have some really nice rifles for sell. Fulton seemed to have a little cheaper prices (though not by much) than Orion on similar built rifles. I'm gonna keep researching the Garand for awhile before I make a decision. (which is really hard when the money keeps burning a hole in my pocket..lol) You all know the feeling I'm talking about when considering a new gun purchase..lol

I guess this is like any other gun that I'm new to. I remember when a friend of mine brought his AR15 to work one day a few years ago to let me check it out. I knew nothing about AR's and never even handled one until then. Now I have 6 AR's and I built 3 of them myself.

Thanks again for the info guys. I'm gonna take your advice and check out the other boards to learn more about it.

Buy a copy of "The M-1 Garand owners guide" by Scott Duff. It is an excellent resource for the M-1 novice and casual shooter. It will tell you everything you need to know. It's $20.00 worth of knowledge that may save you a lot of headache and more than a little money. It has chapters on how to identify original parts, cleaning and disassembly, how to choose a rifle for purchase, how to sight in the M-1 and several other useful bits of info. Available at Fulton Armory, Orion 7, Scott Duffs web site and a few other sources on the net.

OK, so you don't want to go CMP...  I won't bore you then about, except for two stock dings, they sent me one that looks brand new.  Maybe I was just lucky....

Willing to spend some serious bucks?  Go for a rifle from DGR.  Starting at $1,300 they'll send you a breathtaking treasure that will drop the jaws of anyone fortunate enough to lay eyes on it.

I've bought parts from Orion, but I've never seen their M1 work.  I've heard lots of nice thing about them though.

Well, here's one of those beat up, shot out, now-refurbished Garands. Mine had a dinged up stock, and some worn parkerizing. Everything checked out okay and the bore had very low erosion (the gun is a 7-43 Springfield and the barrel is a 1-51 Springfield). I had Dean of DGR work his magic on it and for less money than Springfield, INC. wants for one of their cast-in-the-same-shitty-foundry-as-Century Garands, I have a pretty sharp and good shooting Garand with a little history.



And yeah, it looks just that good.

NightHawk....
GO HERE NOW!!!!!  

www.jouster.com/cgi-bin/sale/saleconfig.pl?read=11350

Guy's selling a DGR (Dean's Gun Restoration) Garand for a great price!  Can't beat that deal.

Rich

Quoted: I live 10 minutes away from Orion 7 *snip*

Umm.. how you going by plane? No way in hell even at cop speeds could you make it from your house to Middle Island in 10 minutes!