Texas Marksmen

This is going to be the first in a new series of posts about a project I am undertaking as part of a friendly wager with another Texas Marksmen student who is also a close personal friend of mine. The wager is simple: we have each acquired "Rack" grade M1 Garand rifles from the Civilian Marksmanship Program. Our goal is to restore these rifles as best we possibly can within a $400.00 budget. This budget was chosen because, for $1,100.00, we could have simply purchased "Expert" grade Garands instead. You will see my Garand above as it was shipped to me from the CMP. It is a HRA garand which indicates that it is a post-WW2 Garand that most likely saw service in Korea. I was lucky to get an original Walnut stock in very nice condition for my Garand with a "circle P" proofmark on the pistol grip together with a BA (Benica Arsenal) stamp. The rest of the furniture is walnut and in fair condition. Thusfar I have completed the process of detail disassembling ...

I recall a day when I was walking around a gun show checking out tables from the usual suspects. Everyone who is a regular at DFW area gun shows knows the schtick by now. There is the cowboy looking guy with a table in the corner selling old guns that look like they probably don't even fire. There are the tables of the large dealers who seem to only be present at gun shows where you can often find used guns for pretty reasonable prices if you look around the table hard enough. Of course you have the Asian guy trying to convince you that Osprey Optics are every bit as good as something costing five times as much (the reality is that they're junk), the Boy Scouts selling popcorn, and the random tables selling non-firearm related projects. Its usually trashy beef jerky, jewelry, coins, solar panels, or some kind of insurance that you probably don't need. Then there is the table which has guns that make me want to cry. I have not seen them in a while but they called themselves ...