"Building" a Garand

[Guy B. Meredith]

Is there any cost/effort benefit to purchasing one of the CMP Garands and building it up with new stock, barrel or whatever (not familiar with semi-auto rifles or Garands)? Costs? What is best left to a gunsmith? Which to start with, maybe rack grade Danish or Greek?

 

[fredcwdoc]

I have purchased 5 Greek rack grades this year and all have been very shootable after a couple of hours of cleaning cosmo. I replaced the wood on two of them by choice. Three had wood as good or better than the service grades I purchased last year. TE & MW was all at service grade levels so for $295 plus $20.95 shipping it is a great buy. Now you need to understand that they all don't come in that condition. I have read posts about poor wood, poor metal finish, poor bores, etc. All in all, it seems the Greek rackers are pretty good, at least if you compare the negative to the positive statements. Most parts you can replace yourself with the exception of the barrel. I would leave it up to a good gunsmith who knows about M1's. As far as value, with service grade M1's selling at gunshows for $800 and up, I think you can't go wrong.

 

[ocabj]

Is there any cost/effort benefit to purchasing one of the CMP Garands and building it up with new stock, barrel or whatever (not familiar with semi-auto rifles or Garands)? Costs? What is best left to a gunsmith? Which to start with, maybe rack grade Danish or Greek?

I'm going to buy my first Garand buy May 14-15 at the CMP Match next month at Camp Pendleton or through mail order if I decide to order before then (translation = if I can eek out the funds).

I plan on going with a Greek rack grade, shoot it till it goes south, which by then I'll have money saved up for a rebarrel and a new DGR stock.

 

[Trebor]

There is no real cost advantage to building up a Garand as opposed to buying a Service Grade CMP rifle. The Garand is not an AR. You need some special tools to install the barrel and build up the rifle. You are either going to pay extra to buy the tools yourself or pay a smith who has the tools to do it for you.

Now, the exception would be if you want a Garand in .308. In that case, buy a "Rack Grade" rifle and have a .308 barrel installed by a smith. While your at it, have some accuracy work done it as well.

If you just want a shooter in the original caliber though, go with the Service Grade.

 

[Bwana John]

I would go with the "Service Grade" with the thought at some time in the future of putting on new wood that is bedded, and a new barrel.
Actually Id buy 3, pimp the best with new bedded wood, and barrel, keep one as a beater, and keep one for parts.

 

[Dienekes]

Well, if you want to learn a lot of new skills and enjoy doing careful work, there is a lot to be said for the DIY M1. Culver Shooting Pages (CSP) at www.jouster.com is the place to go.

About the last frontier I crossed was installing a new CMP Criterion barrel this winter. I have swapped out numerous parts, glass bedded and done NM mods, and loaded lots of ammo for my M1s. It's mostly a matter of doing your homework and proceeding with great care. Not much different from rebuilding a car engine, and just as satisfying if you do it really well.

If I were you I'd get the CMP Garand of choice and learn all it has to teach you.