Garand trigger group will not click down on new stock

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ACES&8S

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Another problem of course.
New stock for M1 Garand. All went well until I went to do the last step & close the
trigger group. It slips into the bottom easily but when I try to close the trigger downward,
it starts but the plate presses hard against the stock opening, I fear pressing harder will
bend the assembly. Garand Trigger Group4.jpg
In the pic: The red arrows show the overall hard downward contact & the blue arrow shows
how far the trigger can move, which isn't far.
Question is = Does this call for removing wood from under the base plate in small amounts
until it snaps in place properly or did I guess wrong?
Just finished looking all over You Tube for an answer so I wouldn't have to bother you guys
AGAIN with another problem. I know I do it to much.
 
I put my trigger guard down on the bench and lean down on the stock. It should snap in easily with that kind of pressure.
 
Smack it hard with a mallet. Believe it or not, this is the way they were assembled at the factory. The fact that we can do it easily on older weapons is a sign that the wood has compressed over time.

Don't be afraid to smack it hard.
You mean for me to smack the base plate don't you? So it will compress the wood?
 
No, I mean to smack the trigger guard. Take a leather/plastic/wood mallet and give it a good whack. You don't want the wood to compress anymore than necessary. It should be tight with a new stock.
 
Good question. I have nothing to add, but the responses are interesting and not what I expected.

Neither did I, yet I can not make myself press that hard or slap the trigger guard.
If it was a milled trigger = maybe. But right now if I press with almost all I have the trigger guard just
about touches the metal but isn't even close to the slot hole which would take a great deal more
to make the guard bow outward toward the slot. This stamped trigger just worries me.
The trigger can't take that much, in my non professional opinion.
 
Well from what little I remember reading, new stocks are supposed to cause the trigger group to be difficult to install, because the wood compresses over time, and loose and sloppy isn't good.

Perhaps you couldn't try oiling the wood a little and then putting a clamp across from the top of the receive to the floor plate. See if having pressure on it for a few days helps?
 
Well from what little I remember reading, new stocks are supposed to cause the trigger group to be difficult to install, because the wood compresses over time, and loose and sloppy isn't good.

Perhaps you couldn't try oiling the wood a little and then putting a clamp across from the top of the receive to the floor plate. See if having pressure on it for a few days helps?

Clamping stuff, now I'm good at that!
 
tightlockup.jpg
Here is a picture of factory installation (in the thread that you couldn't access). I have a late model Springfield with a stamped trigger guard, and a good whack with a mallet didn't, and doesn't, damage mine with a new Boyd's stock. Depress the rear sight, put it on something padded, and give it a whack. You won't hurt it, remember it was made for combat.
lre7pt2xn
 
Well from what little I remember reading, new stocks are supposed to cause the trigger group to be difficult to install, because the wood compresses over time, and loose and sloppy isn't good.

Perhaps you couldn't try oiling the wood a little and then putting a clamp across from the top of the receive to the floor plate. See if having pressure on it for a few days helps?
No, no, no. You don't want to compress the wood and "make it easy". Tight is good. Tight is accurate.
 
No, no, no. You don't want to compress the wood and "make it easy". Tight is good. Tight is accurate.

I know, tight is good. But too tight is too tight. Which one this rifle is, is hard to say unless it's in our own hands. Besides, the wood will compress a certain amount over time anyway. And that's certainly preferable to removing any.
 
This is common with new commercial wood. If you do a search you will find many garand newbies asking the same question. Answer is man up and close it. Run the sight aperture all the way down, flip the rifle over on a padded surface and lean hard or hit the guard with a rubber mallet ( see picture in above post)
You actually have a properly fitting stock, it will loosen up more in time as wood compresses
DO NOT SAND STOCK
 
I swapped the trigger group out for a milled one.
I am going to the site -shooter1niner-shows then if the site confirms it, I WILL GO FOR IT.
Truth is = Tight is accurate, but I want to be able to take it apart in this century if need be.
And yes I am a new one to Garand works, but have owned them for years now. Just never
had reason to dismantle one until now.
I am no rookie to firearms repair but by no means a pro, as you can tell.
 
Somehow I don't agree with the mallet deal. GI's in the field did not have a mallet or other easy way to re-assemble their piece. My first M1 required a brisk thump with the heel of the hand to close the offending device (trigger guard), but not a hammer. My second M1, which was, I think, a Boyd stock of Hackberry wood, was rather ornery. The 4 magazine well corners were hard to sink into the stock. I fashioned sanding tools out of Popsicle sticks and 150 grit sandpaper and glue to make tools with which I could sand away the offending stock to make the legs mate more easily with the stock. Wood in the rear portion of the Mag bottom also had to be pared away carefully to make the mating of the trigger group happen as did my first Garand years ago. Now my new (Greek M1) behaves like the original GI piece.)
 
It took me a while to decide to try it.
To give an idea of the press I could put on it, I could only press it as far as the pic shows on my thread.
And by the info I found mine was within the mallet range but I wasn't going to give it a hit that would do
any damage.
I decided to try a limited slap instead of a real hard wallop, so when I had it all set up properly, I gave
it a medium whack to get the back of the trigger pushing the open end upward toward the snap hole.
I was amazed how that whack went past my farthest hand press had ever gone!!!!
So like finishing off an opponent I gave it another measured harder whack & it snapped in easily
& even with less force than I had originally intended to use.
How that small an impact beat my double hand press is beyond me.
 
I used a rubber mallet and not a hammer. I remember years ago when I was on an Air Force Honor Guard that when we tried to put the Garand back in the stock after cleaning, that it would be hard one some rifles to close the trigger guard. I always remember that. We had always used our AR15's (that's what they said on the side) for funerals, but they just didn't sound right. And we needed two armed guards every time we took them off base. So we turned them in and ordered Garands. They came in two big crates. My job was to remove them from the crate and get them to the Security Police Vault. Seems AR15's needed guards for transport even on base. While the Garands did not. Anyhow each and everyone as I remember were not the easiest to remove from the stock and put back together. At the time there were many WWII vets in civilian service. One of them showed me how to take one apart. In return I have him a spare stock that we had. I was 18 at the time. That's how I learned to smack them.
 
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