The M1 Garand Project - Completion, Pre-Test Fire
After months of work, the M1 Garand restoration project is nearing completion. For those who do not remember, this project began as a friendly wager between two friends on purchasing and restoring to its full glory a rack grade M1 Garand from the Civilian Marksmanship Program for less than the cost of getting one from CMP that has already been fully restored. We could have paid $1,100.00 for what would have essentially been a brand new rifle and instead we each paid $650.00 for a well used one. Here were some of the learning points from the project:
1. The $1,100.00 Garand Is Well Worth The Price. The new barrel and installation alone cost about $375.00 and pretty much blew the budget out of the gate. While changing the barrel on a rack grade M1 garand is not, strictly speaking, a necessity - it is something that I wanted to do. A rifle that you can't hit your target with isn't worth very much no matter how cool it is and the bore on the rifle sent to me by CMP was almost shot out. I went with a replacement barrel by Satern instead of Criterion because I had heard good things about them. I am withholding judgment on the Satern barrels until an accuracy test, but I regret not going with the Criterion. The gas ports on the Satern were way too small and had to be drilled out to get the rifle to function property.
2. You will need to replace random parts. Rather than reparkerize the individual parts (after looking at the cost of the materials needed to do it), I determined that it was easier to simply replace some of the worn out parts. I had no clue as to the condition of the springs so those ended up replaced with high performance Wolff springs. There were also a few parts with lots of rust pitting that I replaced. One of the front pieces of stock wood was broken during my not so gentle attempt at disassembly and also required replacement. Seen below is the gas system, which was worn enough to merit replacement. The front sight was covered with rust and I replaced it with a national match version.
3. Do not attempt to completely disassemble the trigger group. This is, of course, unless you want to spend several hours trying to put it back together. This gun is not an easy thing to work on and really makes one appreciate the comparative ease with which the AR-15 is able to be stripped, cleaned, and reassembled. The M1 Garand is basically a jigsaw puzzle. The good news is that I learned a lot during the process of the restoration about how to take this weapon apart and put it back together<
4. You will want to leave some of the wood alone. While it is true that I could have replaced the stock, I would have lost the cartouches (such as the one below) which tell the story of my rifle and where it has been. Woodworking proved difficult for me and, eventually, I am going to learn how to fill in all the little gouges in my M1 Garand's original stock. I tried to learn how from YouTube videos. That did not end well for me. However, one of the more useful things I learned from this process is how M1 stocks were treated. Originally, they were treated with boiled lindseed oil and then later on the tung oil. There are many videos out there which can explain the benefits of each. The simple truth is that either of them require a very long process which our military certainly did not have time to perform correctly during WW2 and Korea. I found a product called Odie's Oil which looks great on an M1 Garand stock and is far more idiot proof than traditional finishes. I may try it on my other wood stocked firearms as it is advertised as being waterproof. They may not have had this product during WW2 but, if they did, they would have used it.
5. Adjustable gas systems are your friend.. This rifle is designed for ammunition that was common for its time and not the common 30-06 hunting loads you can get at Academy. One way to tune your rifle to be able to shoot any ammunition, although not historically correct, is an adjustable gas knob. There is some surplus ammunition available to this day, but it's corrosive and I would rather not expose my weapon to that when non-corrosive alternatives are readily available. In the photo below you can see the little allen screw for the adjustable gas knob in my rifle.
Final Thoughts: I enjoyed this project, having the opportunity to learn about this weapon, and reading up on some of the history behind it. I am happy to have a genuine M1 Garand - one which saw service killing communists in Korea - sitting in my house ready for use in case I ever need to tell antifascists to get the fuck off of my lawn. Is it historically accurate? No. But that was never my objective. My primary objective was to spend as little as possible to have a functional and accurate M1 Garand. We know the rifle functions and this series of articles will end with a range test for accuracy. My secondary objective was to make sure that I owned a true "weapon of war" since that is the terminology the left likes to use. To that end I made sure to preserve the historic stock as proof that my rifle has been to war, added some national match features to improve accuracy, and also added a bayonet. Why add a bayonet? Well, that is because a "bayonet lug" was one of the features which made a weapon an "assault rifle" during the 10 years of tyranny (1994 - 2004) in the United States I guess there was a rash of drive by bayonettings by gang members aremed with historical weapons. I wanted to make sure this rifle looked as sinister as possible so that as many hippies as possible will cry when they see it - so why wouldn't I add the bayonet. I should also say that that bayonet that goes on this thing is a pretty good weapon in its own right. I am not sure how it would do as a fighting knife, but I wouldn't mess with anyone armed with a Garand bayonet.
1. The $1,100.00 Garand Is Well Worth The Price. The new barrel and installation alone cost about $375.00 and pretty much blew the budget out of the gate. While changing the barrel on a rack grade M1 garand is not, strictly speaking, a necessity - it is something that I wanted to do. A rifle that you can't hit your target with isn't worth very much no matter how cool it is and the bore on the rifle sent to me by CMP was almost shot out. I went with a replacement barrel by Satern instead of Criterion because I had heard good things about them. I am withholding judgment on the Satern barrels until an accuracy test, but I regret not going with the Criterion. The gas ports on the Satern were way too small and had to be drilled out to get the rifle to function property.
2. You will need to replace random parts. Rather than reparkerize the individual parts (after looking at the cost of the materials needed to do it), I determined that it was easier to simply replace some of the worn out parts. I had no clue as to the condition of the springs so those ended up replaced with high performance Wolff springs. There were also a few parts with lots of rust pitting that I replaced. One of the front pieces of stock wood was broken during my not so gentle attempt at disassembly and also required replacement. Seen below is the gas system, which was worn enough to merit replacement. The front sight was covered with rust and I replaced it with a national match version.
3. Do not attempt to completely disassemble the trigger group. This is, of course, unless you want to spend several hours trying to put it back together. This gun is not an easy thing to work on and really makes one appreciate the comparative ease with which the AR-15 is able to be stripped, cleaned, and reassembled. The M1 Garand is basically a jigsaw puzzle. The good news is that I learned a lot during the process of the restoration about how to take this weapon apart and put it back together<
4. You will want to leave some of the wood alone. While it is true that I could have replaced the stock, I would have lost the cartouches (such as the one below) which tell the story of my rifle and where it has been. Woodworking proved difficult for me and, eventually, I am going to learn how to fill in all the little gouges in my M1 Garand's original stock. I tried to learn how from YouTube videos. That did not end well for me. However, one of the more useful things I learned from this process is how M1 stocks were treated. Originally, they were treated with boiled lindseed oil and then later on the tung oil. There are many videos out there which can explain the benefits of each. The simple truth is that either of them require a very long process which our military certainly did not have time to perform correctly during WW2 and Korea. I found a product called Odie's Oil which looks great on an M1 Garand stock and is far more idiot proof than traditional finishes. I may try it on my other wood stocked firearms as it is advertised as being waterproof. They may not have had this product during WW2 but, if they did, they would have used it.
5. Adjustable gas systems are your friend.. This rifle is designed for ammunition that was common for its time and not the common 30-06 hunting loads you can get at Academy. One way to tune your rifle to be able to shoot any ammunition, although not historically correct, is an adjustable gas knob. There is some surplus ammunition available to this day, but it's corrosive and I would rather not expose my weapon to that when non-corrosive alternatives are readily available. In the photo below you can see the little allen screw for the adjustable gas knob in my rifle.
Final Thoughts: I enjoyed this project, having the opportunity to learn about this weapon, and reading up on some of the history behind it. I am happy to have a genuine M1 Garand - one which saw service killing communists in Korea - sitting in my house ready for use in case I ever need to tell antifascists to get the fuck off of my lawn. Is it historically accurate? No. But that was never my objective. My primary objective was to spend as little as possible to have a functional and accurate M1 Garand. We know the rifle functions and this series of articles will end with a range test for accuracy. My secondary objective was to make sure that I owned a true "weapon of war" since that is the terminology the left likes to use. To that end I made sure to preserve the historic stock as proof that my rifle has been to war, added some national match features to improve accuracy, and also added a bayonet. Why add a bayonet? Well, that is because a "bayonet lug" was one of the features which made a weapon an "assault rifle" during the 10 years of tyranny (1994 - 2004) in the United States I guess there was a rash of drive by bayonettings by gang members aremed with historical weapons. I wanted to make sure this rifle looked as sinister as possible so that as many hippies as possible will cry when they see it - so why wouldn't I add the bayonet. I should also say that that bayonet that goes on this thing is a pretty good weapon in its own right. I am not sure how it would do as a fighting knife, but I wouldn't mess with anyone armed with a Garand bayonet.
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