OT - Not A Lever But I Had To Get It

[COSteve]

Deleted

[Blaine]

Very Cool. They still had some M14s in the arms room when I went to basic @ Knox (B-12-5), but I never was issued anything but M16s.... I always shot expert, but I have to say, all the 16s in 20 years were jamming suckers big time.

[gamekeeper]

Very nice Steve..

[Pitchy]

Great find, very nice and looks like your son likes it too.

[AJMD429]

It almost doesn't seem right that a post about a Garand (or 1911 .45) should ever have to be labeled "OT" on any forum...

[olyinaz]

Very nice!

Oly

[cshold]

It almost doesn't seem right that a post about a Garand (or 1911 .45) should ever have to be labeled "OT" on any forum...

Amen,

[gak]

Very cool gun!

[Batman1939]

Nice looking gun Steve and a piece of military history.

[Ben_Rumson]

Screaming deal on the Garand!! Pretty Rifle..
Tell me about that War baby... I think the one you have is the best looking kind with the type II barrel band and the best rear sight and safety..I can see she's a high wood too...

[Paladin]

Congratulations on a great find and rifle. I loved the M1Ds we had in the weapons locker before I bought one through the CMP for a grand amount of $129.

[Ysabel Kid]

Awesome, awesome, AWESOME!!!

I've got one that belonged to my Dad (one from 1942), and Y2K has one that belonged to his great Uncle (one from the Korean War era). Glad we got these when we did!

[kimwcook]

You guys are turning me green with envy. Good on you.

[COSteve]

Sometimes its just better to be lucky than smart. Today I got the ammo he shipped separately and what was advertized to be 140 rds turned out to be 204 rds and 11 en bloc clips. I guess I used up my luck quotient for awhile.

[2ndovc]

Way cool guys!

Love my M1!!

Mine is a Korean Re-import Winchester from the Early 90's.
I remember still my Ex was livid that I spent the last $250 I had in my checking account on
it! One of the big reasons she's my Ex-wife!



I've had it up to Camp Perry a couple times. Did better @ the 600 yd line that I did the 200.

One of my favorites!

jb

[Bigahh]

That is a Nice one steve !

[Combat Diver]

Nice rifle and enjoy it.

CD

[awp101]

what was advertized to be 140 rds turned out to be 204 rds and 11 en bloc clips. I guess I used up my luck quotient for awhile.

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie! For the forseeable future, lottery tickets would be a waste of time...

[O.S.O.K.]

Garands are the top of the heap of milsurp rifles. The top.

Congrats! And thanks for sharing the pics!

[pwl44m]

Mine is an H&R with a Winchester Trigger group although it doesn't look quite as good as Yours. I have had Mine for 20+ years. I have about a Can and a half of Ammo with clips and bandoliers.

[damienph]

Way cool guys!

Love my M1!!

Mine is a Korean Re-import Winchester from the Early 90's.

I've had it up to Camp Perry a couple times. Did better @ the 600 yd line that I did the 200.

One of my favorites!

jb

Mine also is a Korean Import from the '90s; Springfield Armory w/ 1965 rebarrel; it looks and shoots good but the stock has been heavily sanded, I supect to remove gouges from rough handling/storage.

I think that I might let my son finally have it this year. At 31, he has waited long enough. I'm keeping the carbine for awhile longer tho.

[COSteve]

I'm learning about it as I go along. While it has a lot of SA parts, the stock is definitely an HRA with all the cartouches and other marks visible so I think it's the original one. The bolt is the only part that looks to have wear; mostly just on the lugs. I'm considering a new HRA bolt just for grins. As we got it to shoot, I'm tickled with it just the way it is although at the insistence of my son, we did get a 10" reproduction bayonet and scabbard.

[C. Cash]

Outstanding! The rifle that helped saved civilization as we know it.

[brucew44guns]

Always happy to hear of a fellow gunner who lucked out and got something really good for a fair price. Good on you Steve.

[86er]

Good deal, Steve. I grew up shooting a borrowed one in matches through my teens but never purchased one of my own. That's a lot of fun just waiting to happen right there.

[stew71]

Nice M1, Steve. Oh and your topic title is wrong. As you've discovered already, the M1 trigger guard is, in fact, a lever action of sorts, so it's not really OT.

[Dewight]

Great deal Steve. Can't wait for mine to arrive from CMP. Got dies and bullets yesterday, ammo suppose to be here tomorrow.

[COSteve]

Well, it seems that the old M14 armorer training in me won out and I decided to buy complete bolt for it. While the rifle is in great shape, the SA bolt showed a fair amount of wear on the lugs, considerably more than on the op rod, and from my training I remembered that excessive wear meant you were nearing the start of too much headspace. Because its a semi-auto, case failures from excessive headspace are a personal safety issue and I won't let that happen.

I looked around on the net and found PackRat's Collectibles that specializes in M1s. I talked to Rob Morris, the owner, about my Garand (BTW, a great guy) and decided that a new bolt was in order just to assuage any safety concerns I had. He had a nearly new HRA complete bolt so I bought it and while I was there, I decided to pick up a 30 cal ammo can filled with 300rds of Greek 30-06.

While talking to him, I mentioned that I've taken a bit of time to research the rifle and found that only the bolt and op rod were SA and the rest of it is HRA (receiver, barrel, trigger assy, sights, stock, etc.). I mentioned that to Rob along with the great condition its in and he said that CMP gets in more 'correct grade' rifles than it has orders for so they routinely switch the bolt and op rod to degrade a weapon to 'service grade'.

He explained that it's been his experience that many of the 'service grade' rifles were actually much better condition than that but downgraded a bit with the parts switch so that they became 'service grade' level rifles. While I can understand their process from a business sense, it helps prop up the price of their 'correct grade' inventory, I'm a bit concerned that they are installing more heavily used parts in relatively newer rifles. Its not that they are selling unsafe weapons, its just that they are degrading two of the parts that are higher wear items.

Whatever. My son is coming down this weekend for a memorial service on Saturday for Bob, my business partner of 35 years, who passed week before last at age 87. He was a Ranger in WWII and carried the M1 Garand so in his honor we're going to take out both my M1s (Carbine and Garand) for a shoot on Sunday. While not a gun enthusiast after the war, I think it a fitting way to salute his service and his life.