AnthonyB
07-01-2016, 12:45 PM
All:
I attended the CMP AMC class on 20-22 June. It was a great class, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the M1. The first day was heavy on tours of the CMP storage facility co-located with the Custom Shop. There were crates and crates of rifles not fit for sale in their current condition, and two guys who were taking them apart for the parts to be refurbished. We saw some very rare rifles, and even saw a M1 that had been recovered in Afghanistan about six months ago. Most impressive to me were the HUGE crates of op rods, gas cylinders, and bolts sitting in the warehouse. The other tour was of the workshop where they reassemble the parts into rifles for sale. They had ten people or so doing that, and we saw rack upon rack of field grade rifles ready for shipping. At the end of day one we chose the receiver we would use to build our Special Grade rifles during the class. We couldn't choose all "correct" parts, so I chose a SA receiver in the 2 million number range. That was pretty much the end of day one. Day two started with us choosing op rods and trigger group housing, then assembling the trigger group. We had a briefing from the civilian who runs the CMP, and it was very interesting. They have only enough receivers to last about a year, but there are another couple hundred thousand in Korea and the Philippines that their governments want to send back to the US. The CMP has a plan to continue operations even if they don't get those rifles. The rest of day two we installed short-chambered Criterion barrels, timed them to the receivers, and then fitted the barreled action into new stocks. Final part of day two was timing the actions so that all worked properly, and at the end of the day we all had completed rifles. Day three we learned how to eliminate creep from the stock trigger groups, talked about other mods to improve accuracy, and then had our rifles test fired. Three of the twenty rifles failed to function properly; two required new gas cylinders and one a new follower arm. After test firing, we peened the barrels for a tight gas cylinder fit and were done. It was very interesting to me that every single person we talked to absolutely HATED the M1 Carbine. Their perception was that no one ever expected the cheaply manufactured Carbines to still be in use by recreational shooters 70 years later, and they had a real hard time making the ones they recently sold run properly. The guy who runs the Custom Shop told us he knew when he finished a Garand if the rifle would run or not. He said he could not say the same about a Carbine, and wasn't surprised when more than 50% of the Carbines he assembled had problems. We also learned they will run out of Greek surplus ammo this year, so get some now if you want it. All in all a very good class, and I am very happy with my M1 that arrived yesterday.
I attended the CMP AMC class on 20-22 June. It was a great class, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the M1. The first day was heavy on tours of the CMP storage facility co-located with the Custom Shop. There were crates and crates of rifles not fit for sale in their current condition, and two guys who were taking them apart for the parts to be refurbished. We saw some very rare rifles, and even saw a M1 that had been recovered in Afghanistan about six months ago. Most impressive to me were the HUGE crates of op rods, gas cylinders, and bolts sitting in the warehouse. The other tour was of the workshop where they reassemble the parts into rifles for sale. They had ten people or so doing that, and we saw rack upon rack of field grade rifles ready for shipping. At the end of day one we chose the receiver we would use to build our Special Grade rifles during the class. We couldn't choose all "correct" parts, so I chose a SA receiver in the 2 million number range. That was pretty much the end of day one. Day two started with us choosing op rods and trigger group housing, then assembling the trigger group. We had a briefing from the civilian who runs the CMP, and it was very interesting. They have only enough receivers to last about a year, but there are another couple hundred thousand in Korea and the Philippines that their governments want to send back to the US. The CMP has a plan to continue operations even if they don't get those rifles. The rest of day two we installed short-chambered Criterion barrels, timed them to the receivers, and then fitted the barreled action into new stocks. Final part of day two was timing the actions so that all worked properly, and at the end of the day we all had completed rifles. Day three we learned how to eliminate creep from the stock trigger groups, talked about other mods to improve accuracy, and then had our rifles test fired. Three of the twenty rifles failed to function properly; two required new gas cylinders and one a new follower arm. After test firing, we peened the barrels for a tight gas cylinder fit and were done. It was very interesting to me that every single person we talked to absolutely HATED the M1 Carbine. Their perception was that no one ever expected the cheaply manufactured Carbines to still be in use by recreational shooters 70 years later, and they had a real hard time making the ones they recently sold run properly. The guy who runs the Custom Shop told us he knew when he finished a Garand if the rifle would run or not. He said he could not say the same about a Carbine, and wasn't surprised when more than 50% of the Carbines he assembled had problems. We also learned they will run out of Greek surplus ammo this year, so get some now if you want it. All in all a very good class, and I am very happy with my M1 that arrived yesterday.