Accessories and supplies for new Garand purchase

[FW]

I've decided to order a CMP Garand.

I'd like to start aquiring necessary accessories and equipment for it.

What items should I get now? Are all Garand clips the same? Or are there "good" ones and "bad" ones?

What kind of ammo is a good deal right now. I've seen some Korean but have heard it is corrosive. What about Danish ammo? I would like to get a small quantity to start out with that is reloadable.

I'm prepared to purchase a new stock if necessary. Boyd's seems to have a good deal. Is there anything wrong with their stocks? What other options are there? Would it be taboo to completely sand down the original stock if it is in really bad shape as it is with many collectable rifles? If the parkerizing is is bad shape, would it hurt to get all the metal refinished?

Any other suggestions?

 

[Swampy]

Fw,

Congrats on one of the most regretable decisions you'll ever make in your life.....

.... you are about to embark on a path that will leave you infected with the dread disease "Garand-itis". Sufferers of this malady are forever cursed with not having any spare cash. It all goes towards the next "fix", which occurs when the BWT pulls up and drops a box containing a rifle from the CMP.....


Re your questions....

Get clips..... LOTS of clips. BTW, they are all the same as far as function.

Get an M3 or M10 tool, which has all the "goodies" you'll need for tweaking this & that and for dis-assembly.

Get an aluminum M1 gas cylinder wrench. The BEST $8 I EVER spent. Trust me on this one.....

Re ammo. In my M1's I only shoot USGI milsurp (no longer available) and handloads, so don't have a good feel on the Korean ammo issue. I've heard from all the guys in my local CMP club that the Dane ammo is great stuff. Clean, consistent, and accurate. The only problem is that it's Berdan primed..... no reloads with this brass.

Re wood.... Boyd's is good, but sometimes needs a bit of chisel work to fit properly. Wenig wood is better, but a bit more pricey. Dean at DGR sell's Wenig wood in several different grades and finishes. Absolutely beautiful stuff.

Re sanding the original wood. BE SURE that the wood has no collectible value before you take this route. THOROUGHLY clean it up with mineral spirits and look all over for signs of being a Winchester stock, or for rare and desirable WWII cartouches. Once you sand it down, any collectible value will most likely be ruined.

Having the metal re-finished is an option, but most likely you won't need to. The vast majority of the CMP rifles either have a decent finish or have been arsenal re-finished already.

GET a BOOK. Scott Duff has two wonderful books on the Garand. One is for the original and WWII rifles. The other is for all the post-WWII rifles.

One nice little book that covers the entire M1 production is by Poyer and Reisch titled "M1 Garand, 1936 to 1957". Not as comprehensive as the Duff volumes, but fairly thorough. Cheaper too.... $20 as opposed to close to $80 for the two Duff volumes.

Also, it can't hurt to have one of the Army training manuals. Pick one up at a gunshow.

If you are into spare parts, you might want to keep a spare firing pin, ejector, extractor, and springs for same, also a spare or new op-rod spring.

Suppliers..... All of these items can be bought from suppliers of Garand items like Fulton Armory, Deans Gun Restorations, Orion7, Riverbank Armory, and The Garand Guy. All these have a net presence.

Good luck and may GOD take pity on your bank account....

NOBODY can own just ONE Garand....

Again, trust me on this one... to see what I mean, go here:
[www.swampworks.com/SwampysStuff-Home.html]

Best regards,
Swampy

 

[hps1]

Swampy pretty much covered all bases. Two items I would add to the spare parts list is the follower arm and pin. Wear between these two parts affects timing of clip ejection, usually ejects on 7th round first and extreme wear can cause clip release w/two rounds remaining.

Great rifle, enjoy.

Regards,
hps

 

[Dave P]

Garand-itis

Swampy, where do you come up with this stuff about "fixes" and "BWTs"? Gimme a break! Garand collecting is just a harmless hobby! I don't ignore my kids, and I went grocery shopping, lets see - about a month ago. Yeah, thats the ticket!

In my case, a new SA RG will be here today, and I won a bayo on Ebay last night. Oh, scuse me - gotta go, FEDEX is at the door ...

 

[Ledbetter]

Just one more thing

www.jouster.com

articles and forums.

 

[FW]

Re wood.... Boyd's is good, but sometimes needs a bit of chisel work to fit properly.

I've noticed Boyd's sells both finished and unfinished stocks. I had planned on purchased the finished one if needed since it was something like $10 more. Should I now conisider the unfinished stock since a little work might need to be done for fitting? Or is any wood removal more interanal and not seen?

 

[Swampy]

FW,

Re Boyd's fitting...... inletting, not external.

Swampy

 

[DMK]

Find someone selling Surplus Danish M2 ball ammo. It comes on clips in bandoliers. Don't know if it's reloadable, but it is good ammo. Some of the Korean surplus may be on clips too. You need ammo anyway so get the clips and bandos at the same time! If you price ammo with clips vs. ammo without and buying the clips seperately, you'll see a big diff in price.


I got two cases of Danish from SOG a while back. www.ammoman.com had some too.

 

[Nightcrawler]

Get a bayonet. They come in three sizes. 16" is orginal, 1930s issue, and can be kind of rare. 10" is standard WWII issue, and is what I'd want. 6" or 8" or whatever is the Korean War version, and is too short for such a great rifle, IMHO. I like LONG bayonets.

 

[Boats]

What to get?

Ammo cans, lots of ammo cans for clips and loose rounds.
A bayonet--because you can with the ultimate preban.
I got another web sling and a leather one.
A USGI zippered carrying case.
Mineral spirits for the stock clean-up
I second the buying of an Army or USMC tech manual
A rifle stand

A second Garand for rechambering into .308 that's what I am doing.

 

[Navy joe]

The top of the list should be two more Garands so you can build a stack!

Pick up the GI tools at a gunshow.

Dane ammo is great, get as much as you can. New commercial PMC isn't outlandish either.

I've found all clips to not be the same. The GI and Danish clips are great, I came into some chintzy ones that would not lock into the gun. It seems they really weren't very springy. The way to tell for me is the good clips are dull grey parkerized and the junk ones have that shiny black cheap looking blued finish.

-To the list: Black tip. Why? Because you can.

 

[Nightcrawler]

There's a gas nut or something you can get that will allow you to shoot 220 grain bullets and such out of the M1, too, without risking bending the op-rod. I don't recall who makes it, but I can find it in the Archives here on THR if you're interested.

If you're going to have a .30-06, may as well take advantage of the full range of loads out there!

 

[Giant]

I hear CMP will soon have a Garand a month Xmas layaway club.

anyone new to Garanditis will want to explore Garand operation manuals, and books on the subject.

Ammunition! There is not too much surplus M2 ball around, although it does come onto the market on occasion. I have quite a bit of Lake City 66 and 69, SL 55, Danish and Korean Army KA 73. The Danish is really accurate ammo, but it is nearly impossible to reload, with Berdan primer pocket. Berdan primer remover and inserter tools are way expensive and the Berdan Primers are only avaiable through the Old Western Scrounger, he apparently has a lock on selling RWS Berdan primers in the states -- They are priced at about $35.00 per 250.

The Korean Army 73 was manufactured by PMC in a US built ammo plant that was turned over to the Koreans, so I'm told. Anyway, The KA 73 that I have is very good ammo, very accurate and Boxer primers, so it can be reloaded. I got mine at J&G Sales.

Spare parts an such, one might want to subscribe to Shotgun News, or pick it up on a news stand. Try Sarco, Sog, Fulton Armory... Standard spares and a hundred or two of the enbloc clips.

One can also reload for the Garand, I do with good results, but one has to be very careful when reloading for a gas gun. Military spec primers fully seated, correct case length, and overall length, correct powder in an amount that will properly activate the op rod and pull fresh rounds off of the enbloc clip, etc., etc.

Have big fun and grin a good one after the eighth round, when you hear the ping of the clip ejecting. That ping puts a grin on my face every time, that ping sound was put into the Garand by a true american genius and patriot, John C. Garand.

Giant

 

[Johnpl]

Absolute must have accessories:

"Band of Brothers"
"Saving Private Ryan"