M1 garand knowledge

[FLINTNFIRE]

So a few years ago I bought a pair from CMP , fast forward to this year I go to shoot them and 1 does not latch clip in , Why? I already know as I have took it apart but am looking for guesses and answers and dialogue on the old M1 , any knowledge and all thoughts are always welcome

[M-Tecs]

Lots of possible reasons but the more obvious are listed here https://www.garandgear.com/m1-garand...-clip-problem/

[FLINTNFIRE]

I have read that , but what is your thoughts ? , I can find lots of discussion on the internet , but what is your practical knowledge and experience in the matter along with other aspects of the rifle , I can post links , I know how to google , the question is how do you , yourself trouble shoot and repair , or in other words your experiences and solutions .

[Kestrel4k]

I have seen a loose gas cylinder letting too much gas escape, some bbls are tighter than others in that respect.
But the most common issue is a weak clip latch spring in my experience - easy to troubleshoot, and the temp fix is also easy.

I /love/ Garands, all that steel. Those unique parts all running like clockwork. I've worked through maybe 60-70 of them over the years, buying & selling.

[country gent]

Could be a timing issue do to wear on the spring follower.

[K43]

I've only seen:
Weak Clip Latch Spring. Worn Clip Latch tip.
Worn or bent Op-Rod Catch arm was missing the tip.
Stock fit: I fixed two with inletting issues: One the Clip Latch lacked clearance on new stock. A different Blue Sky Korean import didn't have enough clearance in the little belly forward of the magazine so an inserted clip couldn't push the follower all the way down.

[FLINTNFIRE]

I have seen these issues to , but good responses , this forum like all forums needs lots of interactions between members , more threads more discussion and knowledge shared .

I have had the weak clip latch spring , early ejection is a sign , this though the clip is not latching , as the clip goes down to latch as it latches the bolt travels forward a touch roughly 1/4 to 3/8 .

I looked at it and found that the CMP sent it out without a accelerator on the operating rod catch , if you watch the interaction of parts as the en bloc goes to its position the operating rod catch releases the op rod and allows the bolt to go fwd without the accelerator it does not push the op rod off the catch .

So how does the cmp fail to do a simple timing check let alone a function test ? By the way it is a easy fix and only about $35 to repair , but the flip side is why was this not noticed when it was looked at.

Love the M1 as it was what my father carried and used during the Korean action , and he speaks very highly of it .



Interested in your stories and experiences with your M1 rifles and or knowledge you have on them .

[czgunner]

Interesting. I bought a "Special" and have issues locking the clip in. They lock in, but i just about have to stand on the clip to get them locked in. I'm looking forward to seeing your fix.

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[Der Gebirgsjager]

I love 'em! Had nine for years, but am now down to six. All Springfields except one, an H&R that I built from parts. Two came from DCM (the forerunner of CMP) and three I re-barreled myself. If properly maintained they are a highly reliable rifle. A bit heavy when carried for miles and miles, especially compared to today's aluminum arms. In it's day it was just about the world's premier military rifle, and when it came to improving it they increased the magazine capacity, shortened the gas system a bit, and came up with the M14 rifle. If you like the M1 you'll really like the M14!

DG

[FLINTNFIRE]

My fix was replace the operating rod catch as the accelerator is supposed to stay in there , have seen where it is said to remove it for use in hunting , but all I can say is in this rifle it was a non starter without it , hard to latch could be several things , mostly discussed in M-TECS link he posted above at garand gear .

Check for burrs , make sure it is properly lubed and do a inspection of function while pushing in a magazine ( I use a en bloc loaded with fired brass ) stock of course being off so you can see what is binding , spare parts are still available but are getting more costly and less in stock .

DG , I have owned a semi auto copy of the M-14 , I liked it well enough but during the ban of years ago when magazines were expensive I let it go and standardized on M1 rifles as I had 308 covered in a L1A1 , I was going to buy another but now the state I live in restricts almost everything fun .

I to have owned 9 , my first was one with funny writing on stock in paint had lockbar sight and all the early features , it was well worn but still shot great , bought it from Springfield Sporters along with a carbine , have 4 still as I have given away others to son and to son in law and sold a few .

I have the finish reamer and tools for doing mine when a rebarrel is needed , have you seen what the barrel prices are now ? I bought 3 at the best price I could find about $190 a pop .

M1 match this coming month at the range on the 25th , shot at the last one was nothing to write home about , older eyes is a good excuse , but the truth was laying in prone about kills me off anymore , hoping to do better this next time , more practice needed , should buy a good shooting coat but this is for fun and am not going to shoot in any other competitions .

All are welcome to shoot at match rifles are there if one needs one to use , cost is pretty cheap for the shoot , but turnout is always low anymore .

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Yes, I bought 4 or 5 barrels from Criterion years ago at what seemed a good price. I obtained a pull through reamer and was very pleased with the results. One can get the headspace exactly right and I set mine to where the bolts would just close. Back when I started working on them spare parts were plentiful-- not so any more. Op rods are scarce and expensive. Even authentic stocks are expensive. Fortunately, I've got everything I need and in some cases a spare or two.

For-fun competitions are the only kind. Just the joy of shooting a good M1 is reward enough. I've never owned one with a scope and really like using the issue peep sight. The M1's sights are just about the best I've encountered on any rifle.

So you had strange writing on your stocks? Did it look like this?



Probably not. These were on returns from S. Korea.

I know you invited general chit-chat about the Garand, and there is so much of it one hardly knows where to start. Just some miscellaneous stuff that comes to mind....some of the best arsenal ammo was made in Greece, and some of the strangest in Pakistan. I got some of the latter ammo from Midway (if I remember correctly), and it was a one time purchase at a really good price. However, the stuff was heavily coated with dust. It came in clips and bandoleers but was very dirty and I didn't want to run it through my rifles. On the other hand, I didn't want to trash it either, so I painstakingly cleaned each round and clip, then repacked it all. It seemed reliable, the few I fired. Then I salted it all away somewhere and haven't seen it since.

Also interesting from a collector's point of view...Garand bayonets. I've got one of the original WW I length blades that is stamped "USN 1942", a couple of the originals that were cut down for WW II, a couple of the M5 models that were made with the knife blade and probably came during or shortly after the Korean War, and a couple of the WW II versions that the S. Koreans ground down to shorter than the M5 to almost hunting knife style. A big maker of bayonets was AFH, and research will reveal that it stands for "American Fork & Hoe". Further research will reveal that it was a company that originally made the tines for agricultural plows, so when WW II came along bayonets were almost a natural for them.

They made close to 6 million +/- of the M1s, and after Ordinance started working on the next rifle they began giving them away to our "good buddies" all over the world. I sure would like to see some of them come back home, but it seems that even though the military thinks them long obsolete the politicians are afraid to let us have them. This is really crazy, since everyone and his brother has an AR-15 now (I don't--but I'm strange).

I remember back in 1961 when I went through Basic Training I was issued an M1 made by International Harvester. It was so worn from having been used by so many training cycles that the best I could do was to shoot sharpshooter with it. "No sweat," they said. "When you get to your permanent unit you'll be issued another rifle and have to requalify anyway. True. I was issued a Winchester and easily qualified Expert. Subsequently I had a Springfield, and eventually a 5 million series serial number H&R which was virtually new. No, they wouldn't let me bring it home.

DG

[FLINTNFIRE]

Similar but larger how do you call it Chinese or some asian writing , red and yellow paint , I have shot a lot of different foreign ammo , Korean , Taiwan , Greek , Yugoslavian , and others some corrosive some not .

Yes those Criterion barrels are up in price , my lowest serial number dating to 41 has a 67 winchester barrel , I was supposed to get the ww1 long 1903 bayonet with one I bought from a coworker but he could not find it when I went to pickup rifle .

Have some of the steel core stashed away on enblocs and some of them waiting to be loaded , range I belong to holds 3 matches a year , it is fun .

Remember the shotgun news with full page ads with parts , should have stocked up cheap , but wages and work was tighter then and now it is get what is available when and where you can find it .

[country gent]

There used to be a "block available to convert the standard garand barrel to a scope mounted sniper barrel cant remember if c or d versoin. Wasnt a bad job to install it. set barrel up and get running tru, length and sizes were important as the length had to be maintained to keep timing and the diameter. I set them up with a shrink fit heated the block and set it on when it cooled it was tight and a permanent install. I set the barrel up with the front sight dovetail level in my barrel vise then the block on and leveled. The rear hand guard had to be shortened also.
I have seen garands in several calibers 243, 308, 30-06
My garand I started in NRA high power with wears a 4 groove 1-10 douglas med heavy barrel in 308 Its a tack driver but the barrel is getting long in the tooth now.
The 243 was at a match had just been rebarreled with a 1-7 twist barrel and she was shooting 107 sierras across the coarse.
I believe with a little trigger tuning the garand is a fine rifle as is.
Patton labeled the Garand the finest battle rifle ever devised.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

My memory isn't what it used to be, but there once was a fellow on here (forum) who had an M1 that his father had sporterized. I've seen several attempts to do so, and they usually aren't too pleasing, but this one was a work of art. Maybe it's in the forum archives if one was inclined to dig for it. I think it was a .243, and there were several photos.

All opinion, of course, and you know what they say about opinions, but to me the M1 is less than an ideal sporting rifle. Just too heavy and a bit cumbersome, but just about ideal for the purpose for which it was intended. Some of the .30-06 bolt actions I had "back in the day" came in at about M1 weight, but as life progressed I became more of a Win. '94 fan! I know that there are those who do hunt with them, but I'll save mine for target sessions and not the woods.

I only keep one in my gun cabinet, and the others are in storage. That's because I've got four 10-gun cabinets full up, and I'm a little worried about the weight on the floor! Here's a photo or two of the one I currently have at hand, a Springfield with a birch stock. The stock is lighter in weight than the usual walnut, so I went to great lengths to repair it when I found it to be cracked. I used Brownell's brass pins and Accra Glas. What was strange was how it split, a crack running down the top of the wrist and then back up along the top side of the stock. There are the two pins you can see, and a third that runs downward vertically from the top edge of the stock mostly concealed by the receiver. I could easily replace the stock as I have several spares, but I was so pleased with myself and the repair that it grew on me and I enjoy looking at it. I've shot it several times since the repair and even though it's unmodified it's very accurate. It does have one of the new barrels. Some guys would be bugged by the little visible brass spots, but I've come to like it; sort of like brass tacks on American Indian rifles, brass grip frames on a Colt Navy, Henrys, etc. Character and history, I guess.



Guns, parts, and supplies seem to run in cycles of availability. When I got out of the service I really wanted an M1 almost as much as a girl friend! There were some on the market that were returns from Britain, and they ran over $80. That was an awful lot of money for a guy making $1.50 hr., and when most surplus military rifles were running $17 to $35. Then, I think it was sometime in the late '70s, Gun Parts Corp. advertised some receivers that they said had been condemned for various unspecified reasons. They were very cheap and I bought three or four of them. One was a very low serial number, like 24,000 something, and a buddy just had to have it. Two were a little pitted below the wood line, but other than that and not much finish remaining they had no apparent damage, and they were eventually made into nice rifles. The fourth appeared to have been run over by a truck or similar and was squashed. So, if you've ever seen the photos of the M1903s in Hatcher's Notebook, the later high number receivers that were smashed and deformed but didn't break, that's sort of what this M1 receiver looked like. In fact, at some point it had been painted red-- reason unknown. Well, I decided to try to straighten it back out and did some body and fender work on it, expanding it back out from its squashed condition, and actually got a bolt to run back and forth in the channels again. I also had a short chambered barrel that I had attempted to finish ream by hand using a T-handle, but the job went south. I ended up with an oval chamber. The rifle it was mounted on would fire flawlessly, but the brass was swollen too badly to resize for reloading. The barrel's maker said that the chamber had likely been bored off center, but of course didn't want to take it back. I got it all straightened out with a new barrel, and then the idea came to me to install the bad barrel on the bad receiver and create something to shoot all of the dirt cheap mountains of corrosive ammo. But other things came along, and it sits unfinished in my shop where I occasionally notice it looking at me reproachfully.
Maybe someday.... but all that cheap ammo is long gone now.

DG

[K43]

I don't have pictures nor the old guide/catalog from Williams when they had a custom gunsmithing shop as well as sights for sale, but they did beautiful sporterized Garands and M1 Carbines with Fajen or custom stocks back in the 1960's and early 1970's. The Carbine had a thumbhole sporter stock.
They didn't look awkward or hacked together. Just nice.

[Gtek]

The clip being latched in is controlled by the accelerator ramp on rod catch and the bullet guide (nose) bump out front. There is sometimes a problem created between early and late components and also the tolerance stack. Remove from both your rifles and using a Vernier caliper measure height from bottom flat to top of bump. Probably find somewhere between 0.082" and 0.085". Put the fat one in the one that does not and see if it does. If you need one let me know, I have bins of these parts.

[K43]

I forgot! Last year I did replace the bullet guide on my Winchester because it was worn. It didn't happen overnight. It just got harder to latch over the last year or two.