My first M1 Garand

[shaper]

Last week my son n law put a M1 Garand in my hands and said, here, this belongs to you now. Shocked, yes. Big grin on my face, you bet. He said it had some issues, I didn't care. Today he and I took the M1 to a member of our wildlife club. I believe this man knows just about everything about the Garand. Within one minute he had it totally disassembled and started telling stories about each part. I got home an hour later with a new receiver and barrel, and no more issues. Now I'm waiting for some clips to arrive so I can hear it talk.








garands

[am44mag]

The Garand is VERY high on my list of guns I want along with the M1 Carbine. It's just a matter of finding the right one and having the money for it. I doubt you'll ever regret owning that rifle, they are fantastic guns.

[Tatume]

My first Garand was a rack grade rifle from the DCM. At a local 100 yard match an older fellow overheard me saying I needed to have it glass bedded, and a match grade barrel installed. He asked "may I shoot it?" I said sure and handed him ten rounds of M2, two and eight, in clips. He stood and fired a clean 100, offhand, on the 100-yard reduced target (I've forgotten the X count).

[osteodoc08]

Why would he change out the receiver and barrel? What receiver and barrel did you have before? What do you have now? What problems were you having?

[kaiser]

I really wanted to buy an M1A (M14) when I acquired a Garand from CMP. After shooting the M1 for a year, I had no desire to "fork over" the extra money for a M14. The M1 Garand is as good as General Patton described it back in the 40's.

[country gent]

There used to be some rewelded garands out there, this was a popular way of aquireing a garand with out shooting in a couple matches to qualify for dcm cmp purchase. SOme were okay but a lot either weren't correctly welded ( bent or warped) or welds stretched unevenly. This resulted in a bent action that wouldn't function to binding. Ive seen a couple that the front sight was all the way to one side and the rear almost all the way to the other to zero the rifle.

Barrels from re imported rifles have shown excessive muzzle wear and some swallow a throat gage. Wear on the splines and threads at the gas port are also hard to fix.

[Parson]

My first one was issued to me in the USMC but unfortunately they didn’t let me bring it home

[bob208]

my first garand I bought in the 70's it is a reweld h&r. I shot out 2 barrels it now wears a .308 match barrel. still shoots good. I used it to qualify to buy one from the dcm. I drew a Winchester on that one. the next two I got when a bunch came in in the 90's I got a Springfield and a international harvester.

[shaper]

Thank you Country gent. The barrel was welded to the receiver. The receiver was too short from being cut through and re-welded and had a kink in it. The barrel had been re- welded from two different kinds of metal. With all of that I would never pull the trigger on it. With the new receiver and barrel I now have a safe and reliable shooter for many years to come.
My neighbors are as anxious to shoot it as I am.

[fatelk]

Sounds like you had a parts kit in need of a barreled receiver. Pretty cool to find someone to help you out like that. You'll love your new rifle!

I know the old Garand is obsolete in many ways, but they still hold their own pretty well for an 80 year old gun, in my opinion.

Kind of like the 1911 pistol: I was talking to some guys at a gun show a while back and one guy was proclaiming how obsolete the 1911 is, like he was expecting a big argument. I just said that of course it's obsolete to some degree, but the fact that there's any controversy about whether a century old complex mechanical device is obsolete or not illustrates the genius of a gun so far ahead of it's time.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

They are great rifles. If you can see it, you can hit it kind of thing. My youngest has mine out in Montana where I figured he could have fun smacking far off boulders and such. I imagine he went through the tin of Greek ammo I sent along with it. Sort of a family lend lease kind of thing.

[Harry O]

My first one was a DCM gun (bought at a gunshow, not from the DCM, but it had papers). I have gotten three CMP guns since then. One each went to my two sons. That leaves two for me, which is perfect. I just shot a J.C. Garand shoot about six weeks ago. Did poorly, but it was the first time I had shot them since I lost one eye. It is the very definition of BATTLE RIFLE.

[Mr_Sheesh]

My dad used to put the Garand down, but I suspect this was because he was a varmint bolt gun nob. Sorry, but the Garand isn't going to shoot QUITE as small of groups as a 28" super heavy barreled 25-06 that weighs 25% more than it does; This is like complaining that a Formula 500 car is a very bad car to take the entire family out on a Sunday Drive, though. It's facepalm fodder! Next why not complain that oranges make poor apples or the like? I want a good Garand, fun fun fun :)

[Kestrel4k]

[...]I know the old Garand is obsolete in many ways, but they still hold their own pretty well for an 80 year old gun, in my opinion. [...]
Humbly beg to differ on the 'obsolete' part; ;)


[...] It is the very definition of BATTLE RIFLE.

The Garand; truly my very favorite rifle design. :)

[lancem]

I like them!221621221622

[fatelk]

Humbly beg to differ on the 'obsolete' part; ;-)

I hear you; they don't seem obsolete to me either, but by modern military standards they were obsolete long, long ago.

To me it's quite a testament to a great design far ahead of it's time that it would even be debatable whether an 80 year old design was obsolete. I have more than one of them myself, btw. :)

[country gent]

A lot of "parade" guns were built with the barrel welded to the recievers ( tack weld) both 03s,06s and garands. these may also have had a lug of steel or brass pressed into the chamber and were meant to be non firing parade guns. a lot had the stocks pained white and white stained slings also.

You should have a solid rifle now that shoots well. A little bedding in the stock and under the trigger may really help. One big tip only disassemble when really needed, the action rocks out of the stock and the backs of the legs of the action will degrade the fit eventually. I have seen garands with the recievers shimmed in snug with paper or thin card board playing cards used to be popular also. this tightened the fit and held the action much better. But when stripping was needed the shims had to go back in the right place. Popping one of these shimmed rifles out of the stock resulted in shims everywhere. But a simple shim under the trigger group will tighten the hold a lot, you want the trigger guard to close with some force for the last 1/8"-1/4" of travel. The forged trigger gaurds are perfered here

[Mr_Sheesh]

A model T Ford is"Obsolete"; That won't stop one from running you over, doing a lot of damage, or stop people from trying to buy it on sight!

[Kestrel4k]

I hear you; they don't seem obsolete to me either, but by modern military standards they were obsolete long, long ago.

To me it's quite a testament to a great design far ahead of it's time that it would even be debatable whether an 80 year old design was obsolete. I have more than one of them myself, btw. :)
Certainly some of the features are /outdated/ - internal magazine (not JCG's fault) and full-length oprod; but as far as a battle rifle goes, its overall performance doesn't get left behind in any meaningful sense.

So overbuilt - all that steel - makes for a very long service life. :)

Edit: With regards to optics; upgrading the rear handguard makes for a first-class scout rifle:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/puquhup44xri6d5/Garand%202.5x%20%231.JPG?dl=0

When issue combat rifles get sound suppression as standard equipment, I fear the Garand will then be truly obsolete; it's /extraordinarily/ difficult to add a suppressor with that design.
But until then, nothing beats the 'ping'. :)

[fatelk]

I certainly wasn’t meaning to disrespect the M1 by calling it obsolete. It’s one of my favorite rifles, one everyone wants to shoot at the range. I wouldn’t feel under gunned with an M1 if it was my only rifle, though I’m not sure I’d care to pack one around all day. :)

[Kestrel4k]

Oh not at all; merely enjoying the conversation - one of my favorite gun topics. :)

[fatelk]

I see your location. The Willamette Valley is a big area, but we might be neighbors.

[shaper]

When I was very young, My best friend and I had our Daisy rifles close. His uncle was in Korea and came home with holes in his left arm from a machine gun. He told us a lot of war stories and our Daisy became a M1. and we kept the neighborhood safe. When I joined the Air Force I was disappointed when they didn't give me a M1 to qualify with. But I did shoot the 30 carbine. Still I didn't get to shoot the M1. years passed, my family grew and I kept hearing stories about the M1. I was able to purchase a hunting rifle but never the M1 I just could not afford one. Then out of the blue my son n law put one in my hand and said it was now mine. I can't begin to tell you how I felt. It's been a life time of waiting. When I got it he said it had issues. I didn't care. It was a M1 and it was mine. I was holding a big piece of history. Was it in combat? who knows . How many soldiers held it? no one will ever know. Right now it holds a place of honer in my house. It has some new parts installed that should make it a good and safe shooter. And I plan to do that just that as soon as the box of clips arrive. I am still looking for a bayonet and the cleaning kit that is held in the stock. The neighbors are also waiting their turn with it at the range. Obsolete? Never.