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View Full Version : Putting Together a John C. Garand Match Rifle Part 3



Linstrum
07-07-2009, 01:05 AM
It has been almost a year since I last worked on my John C. Garand Match rifle last August. I had to stop everything to take care of other things and a few days ago I finally got the time to get back to it.

I had been having a lot of trouble getting the shot groups down to even what a military-issue grade Garand can do. After I did all the standard accurizing procedures, like making sure that the operating-rod and handguards don't touch anything, etc, I built an adjustable gas cylinder plug to adjust the gas system timing to open the bolt after the bullet has left the barrel, and I did get the groups down quite a bit with that device, but at the point where the groups get smaller (but still far from acceptable) the gas operating system stops working and won't cycle.

Okay, I did everything I was supposed to do and it didn't work. GRRR! Time to start tearing my hair out!

Barrels are the biggest source of accuracy problems and even though I had installed a rather expensive new Criterion short-chambered barrel made by Krieger and cut the headspace myself with a match-specification chamber reamer, that still does not mean that the barrel is any darned good. Criterion barrels are among the best of the better grade of barrels, but even they screw up once-in-awhile. Instead of getting a barrel from another manufacturer I ordered another Criterion barrel since they do come highly recommended with enough credible testimony behind them not to give up. Three nights ago I unscrewed the suspect barrel and installed the new one and yesterday morning I cut the chamber with the same reamer and go-no-go gauges I had used on the first barrel. When I got the chamber where I wanted it I put all the parts back on the receiver and dropped it back into the stock and headed for the range with some handloads made using 42-grains IMR4895 pushing 153-grain U.S. military pull-down jacketed bullets from 1950s Lake City .30-06 ammo.

Anticipation!

At the range it was quiet.

There was just a young father with his 12-year-old son shooting a 1911A and SKS. That made my day to see a father passing on the torch to his son! They spent more time laughing and talking to each other than shooting, a good sign.

I set up my first target at 25 yards to be sure I hit paper to see exactly where the sights were set. I had set the rear sight on center using the engraved lines on the receiver and set the elevation by turning the elevation knob ten clicks up from the bottom position. My first shot was on horizontal center as expected, but a few inches to the left. Using the sight windage clicks I adjusted the original-issue Garand rear sight and my next shot was just about in the middle. I moved the target out to 50 yards and fired another shot and readjusted the rear sight again. I moved the target out to 100 yards and fired another shot and did the last necessary adjustment. The next four shots were all within 1/2" on center (a half-minute of angle) and showed a tiny trend to vertical stringing. That is the performance I am after and the first Criterion barrel could not deliver. This barrel did, and except for some cosmetic things to do, I am finished building this rifle. Too bad the first Criterion barrel is too long for a tent stake, that is about all it is good for at this point since it grouped a whopping 6" at 100 yards, well outside even the rather lax military specs. Before I throw it out, though, I'll keep it around to try out on another Garand receiver I have and maybe I'll find some combination of powder and projectile it likes well enough to get some kind of use out of it.


rl573

andremajic
07-07-2009, 01:25 AM
I'm going to be getting in a garand from the CMP sometime in Sept/Oct of this year.

If you don't want that barrel, I'd be willing to take it off of your hands.

I'm getting a field grade, so I'm sure that anything will shoot better than what comes on it. PM me the price you're looking to get for it. 6" groups are fine.

Andy.

garandsrus
07-07-2009, 10:08 PM
Linstrum,

It sounds like you now have a great shooter!

Have you tried the rifle without the adjustable gas plug? I don't believe that it would be Garand Match Legal with it installed.

John

Linstrum
07-08-2009, 06:00 PM
Andremajic & Garandsrus:

Hi, andremajic, you are the first one on the list if I get rid of the recalcitrant Criterion Garand barrel, I want to give it a good chance to redeem itself using various projectiles and boolits before I $#!+ can it.

Do you have a supply of en bloc cartridge clips for your Garand? As you are probably already aware, the rifle is a single shot without the en bloc. I don't know if the CMP still supplies en blocs with their rifles or not.

As far as the CMP Garand you are getting goes, don't think for a minute that it will be a poor shooter from the get-go out of the box. More often than not, I have seen decent accuracy with groups less than 3.5" at 100 yards in original-GI-issue Garands, and I think that odds are in favor that you will have a good shooter as-is when you get it out of the box. The best ground-pounder-grade Garand I have ever seen was one that gave 1" to 2" groups at 100 yards all day long, it was an International Harvester that was built during the Korean War. It was also the best finished Garand I have ever seen, it was a deep black Parkerized finish instead of the more traditional greenish-gray and the reddish-tinged very dark brown walnut was perfectly finished even though it used just plain boiled linseed or tung oil. Of course, the International Harvester built Garands sell for a premium, as do any of the non-Springfield Armory Garands.

Hi, John, nice to hear from you, it's been awhile since we crossed paths. Yup, you are quite right about the legality for official match shooting using a tuneable gas cylinder plug. When I re-barreled the rifle I took off the adjustable gas plug and put back the original cylinder plug that it came with. Thankfully the adjustable cylinder plug was not necessary to get the rather amazing accuracy it has. I have three Garands and I put the adjustable gas cylinder plug on another one that I recently installed an original brand new unissued WW2 GI barrel on. Back in about 1987 I was real darned lucky to be able to buy an original WW2-Springfield Armory marked (and I assume manufactured) barrel before they all disappeared. I paid through the nose for it, though, at the time it was $90 when just a few years prior they had been selling for $10, with a low of about $2 or $3 for both Garand and A303 barrels back in the mid-1960s! Anyway, yeah, the Garand I just put together using the Criterion barrel is completely John C. Garand Match legal, and I hope will be good enough to be a winner.

The Garand with the WW2-era barrel and adjustable gas cylinder plug is not a too terribly bad shooter, either, it was 3" at 100 yards and with the cylinder plug I got it down to 2". The down side to the adjustable gas cylinder plug is I have to use pretty close to full house loads in order to get the action to cycle. If I use less than about 45.5 grains IMR4895 with 147-153-grain bullets it will shuck out the empties but won't strip a fresh round from the magazine. With BruceB's load of 42 grains IMR4895 pushing a Lee 180-grain cast wheel weight boolit it does okay.


rl574

DaveInFloweryBranchGA
07-20-2009, 10:35 PM
Try recrowning the problem barrel before you do anything else. May be the problem.

Regards,

Dave

Linstrum
07-21-2009, 12:56 AM
Hi, Dave,

Thanks! You know, I never even examined the muzzle crown with an eye loupe to see if there was an abnormality or ding in it, although muzzle problems are not always from dings. That sounds like a good idea and its not too hard to machine the crown in the lathe.

One thing about the bad barrel that got my attention right off the bat was that the standard Garand load of 46 grains IMR4895 with a U.S. military surplus 150-grain fmj flat bottom bullet fired in it showed unacceptable high pressure, but not in the replacement barrel and my other two Garands. One Garand as well as the bad barrel and its new replacement barrel all have their chambers cut with the same reamer and set with the same go-no-go gauges. That would seem to indicate a problem with a tight bore, so I need to slug the suspect barrel to see what all is going on with it.


rl579

andremajic
07-25-2009, 08:30 AM
Hi, Dave,

Thanks! You know, I never even examined the muzzle crown with an eye loupe to see if there was an abnormality or ding in it, although muzzle problems are not always from dings. That sounds like a good idea and its not too hard to machine the crown in the lathe.

One thing about the bad barrel that got my attention right off the bat was that the standard Garand load of 46 grains IMR4895 with a U.S. military surplus 150-grain fmj flat bottom bullet fired in it showed unacceptable high pressure, but not in the replacement barrel and my other two Garands. One Garand as well as the bad barrel and its new replacement barrel all have their chambers cut with the same reamer and set with the same go-no-go gauges. That would seem to indicate a problem with a tight bore, so I need to slug the suspect barrel to see what all is going on with it.


rl579

Dang it, you guys, every idea you guys give him to fix his barrel lowers my chances even more from getting it!

j/k

I'm not sure what the CMP includes anymore, but I hope they give me some clips.

I'm going to mess with it a lot before I think about switching out the barrel. It should arrive sometime in September or October. I have enough tricked out guns so that I can keep a couple "historical" unaltered guns and rifles in my safe. The garand is a piece of history! I hope I get a nice one.

I shoot everything I have though. So, it's not going to be sitting in the safe collecting dust either.

Andy.