Getting a CMP M1 Garand

[DisinterestedThirdParty]

Hi there....

I'm looking to get a Garand from the CMP program.

I understand there is a list of requirements necessary to be eligible to buy one.

I am on the waiting list for the local gun club which I have verified is part of the program. Hopefully I'll get the membership early next year. Otherwise I'll just have to spring for someplace else...suggestions welcome.

As for the shooting part, I shoot the club's IDPA program. From what I read, that SHOULD be enough provided I get an official to sign off on this. Is this correct?

I'm assuming that other folks here have gone through this program to obtain a rifle. If that's the case, what has your experiences (good/bad/eh) been? Is it worth my while to drive down to AL for this?

Finally, is this a worthwhile way to get a DECENT Garand? Should I look for one on gunbroker or someplace else? I'm not a competition shooter; I just like to shoot and want one that shoots well.

Appreciate it!

[Jupiter7]

Go to the cmp forum they have a south store specific area, good for recent store visit reports to see stock availability. Yes, it's worth the drive to AL, go during the week. You can join the m1 garand collectors association(GCA) for $25 and that will count towards membership. Carry permit is what I used for training certification proof. Photocopy of birth certificate for citizenship.

Right now, service grades, field grades and service grade specials are in short supply on shelves. If you're wanting a good looking shooter over historical correct then the CMP Special with new barrel is the ticket but costly at $995, well worth it. Budget for a can of ammo($120) and box of clips($20) and sling.

i picked up a SA FG a few months ago with June 1944 reciever and rebuilt in 1963. Gauged a 2TE and 3ME. Only non SA part I could identify was a Winchester trigger guard. At $525, I consider it a score in the current market. Still has rack numbers and lots of cosmoline.

[Hip's Ax]

Yep, just join the Garand Collectors Assn and your good to go for the club membership portion. If you shoot those pistol matches and have a results sheet then I would expect that to cover the competition shooting requirement. I have not bought anything from the CMP is some years now but I bought a lot of rifles and ammo there years back. Last thing I bought was a field grade that I used for a match rifle build and that field grade was in pretty good shape. That was about 2008 I think. Go CMP, you won't be sorry expecially if you can go to the store and pick it out yourself, I have never done that.

[ShooterAZ]

I suggest joining a local affiliated club. That way you can participate in local Garand matches if you so desire. While the CMP is still a good deal, their prices have gone way up in recent years. My best shooter is a CMP Greek rack grade I picked up some years ago for $295. The stock looked like it got ran over by a tank and was oil soaked, but the metal was essentially perfect. I simply replaced the stock with "correct" USGI, and now it's one of my favorite rifles.

[baogongmeo]

I've only been to the south store one time but want to go back.
It is a 12 hour drive for me and two of us went and split the costs.
When I went the racks were full and it was a bit overwhelming at first...have an idea in mind what you are looking for in a rifle.
First off I wanted a barrel with low throat and muzzle wear,second a correct barrel for the receiver,thirdly the more correct parts the better and then decent original finish and a correct stock last( I figured that the stock would be easy to replace). If one is looking for a WWII rifle or specific serial number range then that narrows down your choices a bunch.
When you get there go to the armorers counter and tell one of them that its your first time there and are wondering if there is anyone who could help you pick out your first Garand...they will probably point a regular customer out for you to ask and most of them will probably be delighted to help if they're not in the middle of something.
If they have the box of web slings,buy a few of them and stock up on ammo...see if there are any in store only deals on ammo and buy as much of the spam cans as you can afford,unopened they are only going to increase is price. They had been sitting on a bunch of aluminum cased 410 ammo for the survival guns that they'd priced $300 for a 450 round case and a couple of days ago they marked it down to $45 a case to get rid of it. It went quick...I would have stocked up if I'd been there.

[baogongmeo]

I told you wrong on the 410 ammo,it's $50 for 500 and it's back up on the E-store.

[nicholst55]

Hi there....

I'm looking to get a Garand from the CMP program.

I understand there is a list of requirements necessary to be eligible to buy one.

I am on the waiting list for the local gun club which I have verified is part of the program. Hopefully I'll get the membership early next year. Otherwise I'll just have to spring for someplace else...suggestions welcome.

As for the shooting part, I shoot the club's IDPA program. From what I read, that SHOULD be enough provided I get an official to sign off on this. Is this correct?

I'm assuming that other folks here have gone through this program to obtain a rifle. If that's the case, what has your experiences (good/bad/eh) been? Is it worth my while to drive down to AL for this?

Finally, is this a worthwhile way to get a DECENT Garand? Should I look for one on gunbroker or someplace else? I'm not a competition shooter; I just like to shoot and want one that shoots well.

Appreciate it!

Go here to read the eligibility requirements. Did you ever serve in any branch of the military, or do you belong to a veterans organization? Both qualify you.

[jadcock]

Help me out here. I love milsurps. I have two M1s, two nice 1903s, and a very clean 1917. I live 2 hrs from the south store. I have been there twice and both times I was extremely disappointed. NO clean m1s out, 0 1903s, 1 1917 that look like it had been sitting in salt water since the great war, and NO m1 carbines. I understand the 1917s and 03s have dried up, but no carbines? That's what I went to get. Was I missing something? I saw nothing but junk. Is the good stuff in the back or something. The employees were very rude also. My stuff is better than anything they had. Please tell me my impressions were wrong by someone with better luck. Honestly, it was so bad if I lived in Anniston (I did when I attended JSU), I wouldn't go there again from what I saw.

[ShooterAZ]

If your south store visits are recent, this doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that CMP employees were rude, they have always been very courteous to me. Over the years CMP has had huge quantities of Military Assitance Program rifles (M1's, Carbines and 1903's) returned from various countries including Greece & Italy. They have also sold huge quantities of said rifles as well. The carbines didn't last but a few months. The recent 1903's and 1917's were primarily returned drill and ceremonial rifles and quantities were somewhat limited. Bottom line is that CMP will probably be running out of surplus rifles soon. Get em' while you can, there isn't an endless supply.

[baogongmeo]

Help me out here. I love milsurps. I have two M1s, two nice 1903s, and a very clean 1917. I live 2 hrs from the south store. I have been there twice and both times I was extremely disappointed. NO clean m1s out, 0 1903s, 1 1917 that look like it had been sitting in salt water since the great war, and NO m1 carbines. I understand the 1917s and 03s have dried up, but no carbines? That's what I went to get. Was I missing something? I saw nothing but junk. Is the good stuff in the back or something. The employees were very rude also. My stuff is better than anything they had. Please tell me my impressions were wrong by someone with better luck. Honestly, it was so bad if I lived in Anniston (I did when I attended JSU), I wouldn't go there again from what I saw.

If you can you want to time your visits in times of plenty...watch the CMP forums,nearly every day that their open someone is posting what the racks are like.
If I lived 2 hours from Anniston I'd been standing in line waiting for them to open when they put out the Bavarian carbines,03s,40xs,MID scopes,$90 cases of Remington 22lr,and the cheap linked '06.
The Kimber 82s were a good buy also and were in the stores for months,don't forget the Redfield Olympic sights and 52 Winchesters.
Don't giveup on them...watch the chatter about what is in-house and if nothing else stock up on ammo,the surplus '06 is going to get scarcer as time goes on.

[jadcock]

Thank you. I'll try again. I was just looking for a clean carbine. I don't shoot jacketed stuff in any of my rifles, but if it is cheap enough, I might get a little for hard times.

[baogongmeo]

Thank you. I'll try again. I was just looking for a clean carbine. I don't shoot jacketed stuff in any of my rifles, but if it is cheap enough, I might get a little for hard times.

Recently all of
the carbines they've had have been sold on the CMP auction and I do not know if there are any up at this time.
Earlier this summer they had large(like 1300 round or so)cans of 30 carbine ammo for around $.40 per round...good price for U.S. surplus carbine.
If I lived as close as you do I would check the CMP forums every day and when someone posts that carbines are in the store then I would waste no time getting there.
If you go check to see if they still have the boxes of rusty carbine mags for $5 or $6 each...I've heard that they weren't that bad,just covered with cosmoline and if you picked through them could get some nice ones cheap.

[higgins]

The pickings may be slim at CMP, but one advantage of buying there is that you know you will get a Garand from either the U.S. military or another country who most likely had decent armorers. You will also get a rifle that has been checked out by the armorers at CMP, test fired, etc and fairly described. At a gun show or gunbroker, you could very well get an M1 that was crudely refinished, "repaired" with junk parts, or one put together from parts by a basement parts assembler who knew just enough about Garands to put one together. It would probably not have been gauged where necessary, test fired, or if it was it was called good if it fired when the trigger was pulled.

Between these parts guns and refinished imports that were in rough shape, I'd rather get a CMP rifle. In a situation like this I think of a guy who used to regularly have a table at a gunshow I used to attend who did just what I've described above. Pointing out to him that his "all Springfield" M1 had a Winchester trigger group, or that the carbine his uncle brought back from Korea had an import marking on the barrel, made no difference to him. Sadly, he sold several rifles to people who had not educated themselves.

[CastingFool]

I looked into buying an M-1 from the CMP a few years ago, and found out that if you're an honorably discharged veteran, some of the requirements were waived.

[DisinterestedThirdParty]

First, thank you all for the information. To answer a few questions:

1) Sorry, not a veteran. Thank you for your service to all of you who are.
2) The local gun club I am on the waiting list for is affiliated with CMP, so if I ever get in, that should be no problem. I'd join the Garand Collectors bunch, but I'm in no hurry as I've got about 1000 reasons why I can't buy it right now.
3)Is there some way to check that everything is ok AND they have a selection on the rack? I was planning on a detour from the Florida trip to do this, but it's still a ways away from SE MI. I'd hate to go through all this and find empty racks or my carry permit is NFG.
4)Yes, all I really want is a shooter, nothing more. 7 out of 10 in the black from the bench at 100yds works for me.
5) Given #5, picking one off the rack, is there really anything to look for when going to the store? Show stoppers? Are not all these rifles checked out and ready to go?

Again, thank you all for the information. A LONG time ago, I had a Garand. It was out of the Korean import batch that came over in the 80's. It was extremely rough and I just could not get it to shoot well. I sent it off to (I think) Frankfort Arsenal and it came back requiring a lot more money than I had. I sold it. And I very, very much regret that to this day. I now have a "I don't care if we're starving, I will never sell another gun again" policy.

D3P

[country gent]

There is also the cmp North store located at Camp Perry Ohio in Port Clinton Ohio. You can check online and see what at either store. During the Nationals the north store loads up on available items for the crowds arriving.

[DisinterestedThirdParty]

There is also the cmp North store located at Camp Perry Ohio in Port Clinton Ohio. You can check online and see what at either store. During the Nationals the north store loads up on available items for the crowds arriving.

Holy National Match Batman!

I wasn't aware there was one there! Oh goodie, that's close enough for a round trip in a day.

Now to come up with the $1000.....

[6mm win lee]

While you are waiting go pick the guys brains over on the cmp forum. Plenty of information. Here is the link if you do not already have it. Best of luck to ya' and good shooting.

http://forums.thecmp.org/forumdisplay.php?f=7