Picked up a 1945 SA M1 Garand.  I LOVE THAT PING SOUND.  The receiver & bolt are in excellent shape, SA trigger group & op rod,  but I think the 16-inch groups @ 100 meters suggest my barrel is toast.

Any suggestions?  How costly is a re-barrel job?  I like the 30-06 and I don't need match accuracy but I'd love the boom and PING a lot more if I could keep the shots on a paper plate @ 100.

Generally, barrel and labor you are looking at $200 and up depending on how much you want to spend on a barrel.

I would recommend sending it to a known M1 smith or outfit like Fulton, Deans , Orion 7 etc and avoid your local podunk gun plumber like the plague...

Quoted: Generally, barrel and labor you are looking at $200 and up depending on how much you want to spend on a barrel. I would recommend sending it to a known M1 smith or outfit like Fulton, Deans , Orion 7 etc and avoid your local podunk gun plumber like the plague...

+1
I just dropped $265 on a rebarrel job. Luckily, I live near a former USMC armorer.

Quoted: Generally, barrel and labor you are looking at $200 and up depending on how much you want to spend on a barrel. I would recommend sending it to a known M1 smith or outfit like Fulton, Deans , Orion 7 etc and avoid your local podunk gun plumber like the plague...

+1 on Dean's. My friend has had about 5 or 6 Garand's rebarreled by him. Quick service and excellent work. Highly recommended.

Deans.....Fulton does good work but may take a while. Call them and ask. Orions does good work too but don't know about their turn around.

For nothing more than a barrel a good local smith can do the job too.

If you plan on buying more Garands in the future you should buy a TE and ME Gage as advertized on Jouster. I think CMP sells them too. That way you will know what condition the barrel is in before you buy.

Good shooting!

Before you go dropping some $$ on a bbl, there are other things that will affect accuracy. How tight is the gas cylinder? How tight is the receiver in the stock? Give the bbl a good, thorouogh  cleaning to remove any copper fouling. How is the crown on the bbl? How does the bbl gauge? It may be a combination of all the above as well. In short, getting a new bbl may get you no better. Have the rifle inspected by a competant M1 smith. It may be somthing simple.

Quoted: Before you go dropping some $$ on a bbl, there are other things that will affect accuracy. How tight is the gas cylinder? How tight is the receiver in the stock? Give the bbl a good, thorouogh  cleaning to remove any copper fouling. How is the crown on the bbl? How does the bbl gauge? It may be a combination of all the above as well. In short, getting a new bbl may get you no better. Have the rifle inspected by a competant M1 smith. It may be somthing simple.

I agree.  I replaced the stock and trigger guard (now I can't take it apart it's so tight) and my groups shrunk from 8"-10" down to 4".

Thanks gents!

Also check for any loosness in the gas cylinfrt, it should be a light driven fit on the barrel splines.  Any play here will wreck your groups.

Another place to look is the rear sight.  It shoudl have no side to side play when set to your desired elevation.

I have seen several of the Greek M1s that were horrible in these two areas, and had very poorly fitting stocks.  Good stocks and making the front and rear sights solid resulted in 2" groups with relativly worn barrels according to the gauges.

I agree with all the posters above about checking everything else.  It's not likely that you've got a shot out barrel and everything else is fine.  Chances are it isn't shot out, either, but "cleaned out".  Those steel cleaning rods do a lot of damage over 60 years!  Chances are you'll find wear elsewhere also.  

Replacing the barrel does not need to cost you an arm an a leg.  First of all, what barrel is on there?  My 1945 had a 1945 barrel (original to the receiver) and was, in fact, cleaned/worn out. The muzzle, especially, would swallow the neck of a 30.06 cartridge. You're supposed to see about 1/8" of the bullet!  Counterboring was not an option.

So, I started the hunt for a duplicate replacement.  The first place I'd recommend looking is at, of all places, eBay.  Right now there are 26 auctions occuring there. Just do a search for "M1 Garand Barrel" and you'll see them listed.  There are a bunch of years to select from and prices are very reasonable.  Once you find one and get it, just find a reputable smith who has worked on a lot of Garands.  They usually aren't too hard to find but ask questions.  This isn't your basic "Remchester"  after all.  If you're unsuccessful, then look online for someone reputable and simply ship it off for the swap.  

I did all of that to my Garand paying only $56 for the barrel (wonderful condition!) and had an armorer in PA do mine.  He's well known in his area as a great Garand smith and only charged me about $50 including shipping both ways to have mine done.  I can easily shoot 2" groups at 100 yards with it an iron sites.  It performed extremely well at 200 yards, too, at Camp Perry this past Summer and also was inspected by the CMP guys and I passed muster.  I placed 9 shots within 4" in the center from the prone position, slow fire, iron sites with that barrel.  I was really surprised.  (Don't ask about the 10th!)

Fortunately the Garand is one of the best documented rifles on the planet and parts are easy to come by.  Just don't fall into the trap of putting on an aftermarket barrel.  Stick with a GI replacement and you'll preserve the history and restore the accuracy of that great firearm.

Rome

Springfield will rebarrel them also. They quoted me just over $200 to rebarrel a Garand. Give them a call.

+1 for Dean's. He does great work.  My Garand was worked onwhile I was in Iraq and it seems that if I could bring him back a T72 or other Soviet bloc tank he would've done the work for free!  I had a T55 sitting outside my work area but the shipping with FEDEX would have been crazy.