CAI Garand?

[rbernie]

I ran across a CAI Garand FrankenGarand yesterday. It had a 1961 Beretta barrel, SA trigger housing/group, etc. and was very clean/fresh. The price was of interest ($450), but I held off on the purchase since the receiver was marked as having been made by CAI. My experiences with CAI builds has been 100% uniformly BAD.

But now I'm wondering - who made the CAI Garand receivers? How badly could they have boobed it up?

 

[DSS]

I have pretty much the same feeling as you on the receivers. FWIW though that isn't a bad price. The parts may be worth a relook at it. Gunparts corp often has real GI receivers in stock to fix that receiver.

The only CAI receiver I have really looked at close had the rear sight index marks off about an eighth of an inch. The op rod track had a wave in it and the firing pin bridge was too thick and in the wrong place to work as needed. I have a freind here with one though and it works fine but he's scared to have me look at it. His barrel is not indexed right is all I know. He really wants it fixed but is scared what else I might find. It's turned in too far just enough to be annoying with the canted front sight.

 

[Firehand]

No personal experience. I read a review at Fulton Armory (fulton-armory.com) where they had one tested, and the results were not good.

 

[Onmilo]

Contrary to what Jim Thompson stated in his books on M1 Garands suggesting the Century receiver Garands as being decent buys, my experience was not near as positive.
The Shop I do gunsmithing for bought several and every one had some sort of problem such as incorrect headspace, misaligned barrels, operating rods that would pop off the receiver every third shot, etc.
Some of the rifles I was able to get to function.
At least Three went back to Century for replacement, and the replacements needed some tweeking before they would work halfway decent.

My suggestion, don't buy.
Even the parts, which were taken from Italian built Danish service rifles were cobbled up by Century to get them to work on their receivers, so the parts are usually useless for any other Garand application.

$450.00 for a trigger group and a bunch of useless parts is a bad buy in my book.

 

[P-32]

Run FAR away and then check out www.odcmp.com for a real GI M-1 Garand.

 

[jefnvk]

$450 will get you a real Garand in guaranteed working condition from CMP.

Every CAI M1 I have touched broke when I pulled the op-rod back. On the bright side, no M1 thumb, as the bolt didn't go back forward.

 

[rbernie]

$450.00 for a trigger group and a bunch of useless parts is a bad buy in my book.

Sounds like the consensus. I *knew* to be afraid of CAI stuff, but the pristine appearance of the parts almost sucked me in.