Garand Group (The)

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Reloadron

Reloadron

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Since we seem to have no shortage of M1 Garand rifle owners and perspective owners in the High Road I thought it might be interesting and maybe even enjoyable to start a Garand Group. We have clubs for all sorts of rifles so why not toss in a Garand Owners Group.

We also have no shortage of members who are very knowledgeable on the M1 Garand with a wealth of great information and help to share. That makes for a nice information exchange.

Of course there is also the opportunity to plaster up those pictures we all love doing but when posting pictures please include some information on the rifle, like how you got it and the era it was made.

The thread could also serve as a venue for parts. The guy who just got a beautiful H&R M1 Garand from CMP that is just about perfect with all the correct parts with the exception of a SA trigger housing and they want a H&R housing or the member with that nice collectable WWII Winchester and needs the correct trigger or rear sight aperture.

Tips and tricks for accurizing can be mentioned as well as tips and tricks for getting an older stock looking good.

Additionally good books covering the M1 Garand can be shared. Like the shop manuals by Jerry Kuhnhausen or books by Scott Duff and Bruce Canfield.

Also accessories like the bayonets used with the M1 or grenade launcher.

The rifle has a strong following so why not another M1 Garand thread to address it. :)

Ron
 
Here's my first submission of accessories.

Bayonet, grenade launcher sights, AP, Tracer and Blank Ammo and ammo belt.

Sounds like fun to me.

-kBob
 

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Nice touch with the belt. Somewhere I have a grenade launcher and an older pretty nice bayonet I believe was an AFH version. Haven't see that in years. I also had a flare grenade at one time and haven't seen it in years either. :)

Bayonets have become quite expensive for good original ones, especially the uncut specimens.

Ron
 
I paid $5 for that original bayonet and sheath, I think about $2, for the belt, Not more than 75 cents per clip of ammo and a buck or so for the grenade launcher sight.

Of course 1969 was a while ago.......

While Garands have come and gone these accessories have followed me around except when I went overseas and they stayed with Mom & Dad one trip and a trust worthy buddy on another.

I had an M5A1 bayonet that I really liked but it was stolen from a rental storage shed while I was in grad school.

-kBob
 
I actually started getting into the Garand and recently joined the GCA to satisfy eligibility to order my first CMP Garand. Unfortunately I came into the game late and it appears all the correct and collector-grade Garands are gone, so I'm hoping the CMP will send me a decent HRA service grade before these things dry up.

I don't know why I put it off for so long, but what a fantastic rifle. It's actually difficult to decide where to start simply because there is so much wealth in researched knowledge surrounding these. I thought the AR platform was complex. The Garand world is all brand new to me! The Garand will be one of the few historic items I own which will require the responsibility of being a caretaker while it's in my possession.

Are there a list of respected vendors that are frequently recommended for parts, clips, ammo, etc , and a list of vendors to avoid?
 
Thought I would share some images of a stock project. There must be no less than a dozen ways out there to refinish a stock on a military surplus rifle. This is just one of several methods I have used.

A trip to the local Lowes, Home Depot, or any good hardware store will yield some 1 Lb packages of TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate) which when mixed with hot water will draw decades of old oil out of the lumber:

Stocks%20Sink%201.png

Yes, that is my duty rock to keep them from floating. The lighter stock on the left is original GI birch. I place the lumber in the deep sink with hot water and 1 Lb of TSP mixed in. The long sections need turned every 30 min or so and I scrub the wood down with a green scotch-brite pad every 30 min or so. Typically I let them soak a few hours.

Then the lumber is set out to dry:

Stocks%202.png

The pictured wood is not quite dry but getting there. They can dry inside during the winter. Once dry a light sanding followed by various grits of steel wool till the wood is nice and smooth. Those dings and dents can be lifted (sometimes) using a wet rag and steam iron. Then if wanted a stain can be applied, I happen to like starting with a good oil based stain. Then again some 0000 steel wool finishing. After the steel wool wipe the wood down real well maybe even use a tack cloth to make sure every bit of steel wool dirt and residue is removed.

Once the stain is set I like using good old Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil just following the directions. Boiled linseed oil is another option as well as tung oils. Again following manufacturers directions and light coat after light coat. For the below stock I never stained it and left the wood natural.

Stocks%203.png

Finally we reassemble the rifle and if done right it should look pretty good:

Stocks%204.png

I have found when doing stocks we all develop our own little techniques to get the look we want. This stock has more of the "orange look" which is typical of many of the 1950s M1 Garands. This is one of those love it or hate it looks. :)

Old%20and%20New.png

Ron
 
Would GIs normally oil the stocks of their issued rifles? Or was that normally done at a higher maintenance level?
 
I haven't found anything funner to shoot than a Garand. And in my experience, as long as snug fitting wood is properly relieved in the right places, the spline ways for the front sight are either tight or peened if needed, and assuming the barrel is in good shape, they are pretty darn accurate guns too.

My favorites are the late production Springfields. These were some really well built guns. I have a couple and it is hard to believe how precisely fitting some of the parts are - particularly the op-rod to reciever fit.

Only part I am not crazy about is the later production rear sight pinion with only one nub to index into the rear reciever sight ear serrations. My understanding is the Lock Bar style had more nubs, but I have never seen one outside of the gun.

Anyone have a link to some good pictures of an uninstalled Lock Bar sight? Particularly the part of the pinion that engages the reciever ear serrations?
 
My understanding is the Lock Bar style had more nubs, but I have never seen one outside of the gun.

Anyone have a link to some good pictures of an uninstalled Lock Bar sight? Particularly the part of the pinion that engages the reciever ear serrations?
Click to expand...

Somewhere around here I have a bag with old locking bar type rear sights which came in a few flavors with a short and later a long pinion, then a type II and type III Lock Bar. Not 100% but think it went that way. I'll try and get to digging around and see what I have I can photograph.
 
Welding Rod said:
Would GIs normally oil the stocks of their issued rifles? Or was that normally done at a higher maintenance level?
Click to expand...
I believe it was only done stateside or at least away from the battle field. Actually a damn good question as I had never given it any thought. I have seen stocks worked till they looked like glass, time and patience.

Ron
 
My 1945 Springfield has dimples in the stock where the soldier would pound the bullet tips in the clip for reliable feeding.

I've thought about getting a new stock from the CMP but this one just has too much character.
 
chris in va said:
My 1945 Springfield has dimples in the stock where the soldier would pound the bullet tips in the clip for reliable feeding.
Click to expand...

I don't know if it is possible with GI brass, but I know some commercial 30-06 brass can be loaded into clips with the extractor groove behind the extractor groove ridge in the clip, which can foul up feeding.
 
TIme out ate a long kBob rambling post so I will try to be breif.

In High School JROTC in the late '60s we wiped down the stocks of rifles being cleaned after having been used with blanks with oily rags. Just whatever LSA or PL-Special was used on the rifles after RBC was on the rags.

Drill team rifles got special treatment, one year it involved Johnsons liquid floor wax. I cringe now but they were pretty at the time with the MS Meyer white slings with brass keeper.

Our local National Guard Out fit in Florida had Garands up through 1972 and went directly to M-16A1s without passing through M-14s.

Summer of 1973 there was a Guard unit doing its two weeks at Ft. Polk with Garands and associated weapons. This is how I got to shoot the BAR and 1919. Another unit had M-14s and this was how I got to shoot the M-14E2 and M-79. I also shot an M-14 in the night firing class with an AN/PVS 2 Starlight.

In Third Armored Division around Frankfurt Germany in 1982 the standard sniper rifles were M-1D models with M84 scopes and in .30-06.

Edit: Just wanted to add that in 1973 there was National Match .30-06 on stripper clips in the ammo storage area at Polk which when i noted it I was told was for M1903A4s that were still floating about and had been used THAT YEAR by the ammo point officer.

-kBob
 
The CMP has been good to me. I am a Garandaholic.

Snipers....
Top 2 are M1D's and the bottom is a M1c
snipers.jpg
and the family portrait.
family.jpg
 
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