I am going to be going to one of the CMP's AMC classes and am having a tough time deciding which grade of rifle to go with. I can go with a field grade or a CMP special. I think I would prefer an older stock in good condition but I do like that the special comes with a new barrel. I just can't make up my mind. The special is $200 more. Anyone here have any thoughts as to one over the other?

I got the special,when i went through. If you just want an older stock, theyre readily available online.

I would get the one with the best barrel
i could find.

I got a special a few years ago.

Shoots pretty reasonable groups.

The real question is caliber, and what you want to use this M1 for, which, taking a stretch here, I assume you want to shoot it, a lot.

My recommendation would be to build a Special Grade M1 in .308, off a USGI receiver with in-spec USGI parts and new CMP wood (Dupage or Boyd's).

It's doubtful you'll ever shoot out the barrel or otherwise overly abuse this M1 in your life-time ... such that you'd be hesitant to pass it on to your heirs.

Nothing against the traditional '06 chambering, ... I'm only suggesting .308 because 7.62 mil-surp ammo and its commercial .308 equivalent are both ubiquitous and inexpensive at this time ... A good reason to stock up.

Good luck!

I went with the Special when I took the class, and am very glad I did.
Since you're building a rifle from mixed USGI parts, adding a new Criterion barrel and a new CMP (Dupage?) stock made sense to me. It's a new Garand for all practical purposes, might as well make it as new as you can.
You're not simply assembling a bunch of parts as you do when building an AR: you're going to be actually fitting the parts as you go, lapping the bolt and cutting the chamber on a new barrel, fitting up a new stock, fitting the gas cylinder and all the internal parts, making a match-legal trigger, etc. The gunsmiths teaching the class are a wealth of information, and extremely willing to help you build a really good rifle. They won't do it for you: they help you do it.  
You'll have a blast. I wish I could re-take the class.

Excellent advice, this.

Talladega is really close, if you NASCAR. That place is HUGE

And a few miles from the Talladega track is the new CMP range where you can go zero your newly-built Garand. Well worth the trip. Stop by the CMP store and pick up your annual allotment of ammo, then head over.
Hopefully OP will have better weather than I did after my AMC: it was just above freezing with a stiff breeze. We pretended it was springtime in Korea.

Every post like this makes me feel better and better about spending the money to attend an AMC in April. I have four M1s, one from each manufacturer and feel like I still have a ton to learn. I'm going with the $200 upgraded rifle when I take the class. Will report how it goes.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I recently got back from the AMC class and greatly enjoyed it. One thing that really confused me was the two options for rifles to build and the CMP web site doesn't explain the options correctly. The $200 difference only comes down to the condition of the receiver. They have a table full of receivers to choose from, half of them are the field grade and are marked as such and the other half are service grade. If you go to this class I wouldn't put one over the other without looking at both first. Some field grades are in very good shape and vice versa for the service grades. I went into the class knowing nothing about M1 Garands and picked up a Springfield Armory 1,75X,XXX serial number. All receivers were Springfield Armory and serial numbers were all over the place.

Don't bring your own parts in hopes of putting them on these rifles. You can change parts out after the class is over, if you want. Your strictly building a shooter M1. That said I found it really interesting to lap the bolt, headspace and ream the barrel. You do all the work when building these rifles but the gunsmiths there are MORE than welcomed to help you. In the end you go out to the CMP's range in Talladega to function test the rifles and if you brought your own ammo sight it your rifle at 100 yards. I was getting 1 MOA from the rifle. I think with a little more trigger time I could get better then that though.

There is a lot more to this class then what I wrote and I'll try to add more later if there is any interest. If anyone has any questions I'll do my best to answer them.

Thanks for the follow-up! Great info about the AMC class.

Yes, please more info as you get time. Happy Easter!