Buying a Garand... Wait for CMP or use Garand Guy

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I was going to wait for your review, but I'm off work today and ended up on the GG site :).

I haven't seen any negative comments regarding GG other than someone mentioning a drippy stock finish which was easily corrected. I feel pretty confident I'll be satisfied.

UPS is slow - you'll probably get yours on Monday.

Next task is to join a CMP club so I can order some of that Greek .30-06 to get brass.
After that, I'll probably reload.
 
Yeah turns out one of the tracking numbers was wrong. Shipment is on track to get here on Monday.

I'll make sure to post some pics for you to look at while you wait for your shipment :D
 
Beautiful pics.

Thanks Samuraigg. I'll need lots of pics to look at since shipping from NJ to CA will take a while. :)
Tony said mine is going out Monday and then he's going to the beach for two days.
 
Hell yes! It came today!!

I'll have to try to take some pics.. tonight if I can sneak them in.

Everything looks good. Came in three parts, the receiver, stock, and trigger assembly. Looked at surplusrifle.com just to confirm how everything went together, but its a cinch.

The wood on the receiver is pretty much flawless. However, the stock has wear, it has knicks and a few gashes. Since I ordered the premium grade, which is supposed to have a new stock, I'm thinking he might have sent an issue grade by mistake. The receiver does look like a premium grade. I'm going to email him and see if he will exchange the stock.

Pics soon....
 
Congrats on the new rifle! Sorry to hear about the stock. I'm sure Tony will make it right, but that's a disappointment and a hassle after spending $900+.

Mine was supposed to ship today but I never heard from Tony, so I'm left wondering if I have a rifle on the way, while he is apparently out of the office for the next few days.

I have to say I find his customer service a bit rough around the edges give the amount of $ involved.
 
Another Garand

I received my second super premium grade m1 garand from Tony in 3 weeks and the same problem as my last one. It fails to cycle. I returned it yesterday for repair. Needless to say, I am very dissappointed. The stock didn't look new either. He said my other garand had a bad gas cylinder and op rod piston. He replaced both. I guess this one has a bad gas cylinder and piston too.
 
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Sorry to hear about your rifle.

From his website:
All M1 Garands sold by me are CERTIFIED to be completely rebuilt, in excellent working condtition. All M1's are stripped down to its components, bolts & trigger groups broken down, stacking swivels & sights removed. All metal is then reparked and gas cylinder reblued. all parts have been gauged & passed, including index, head-space, timing, throat erosion, muzzle, barrel straightness, firing pin protrusion, gas cylinder & op rod piston wear.
Click to expand...

So, how is it multiple non-functional rifles with bad components are being shipped? Just a temporary lapse in QC? Is he really doing all this work or is it just marketing hype?
 
I bought my garands from him because I have never seen anything bad about him. He apparently doesn't gauge the gas cylinder and op rod piston. He can't. How do you explain two bad rifles in two weeks? You have to understand I am the unluckiest person in the world. My stock was supposed to be new, but it had dents and is not new. Maybe he is overwelmed with orders and is cutting corners. I won't buy another from him. Fulton has a 4 month wait. I thought about calling Orion for a third garand in a few months. By the way, I never knew when my rifles were on their way. I had to e-mail him and he would reply back saying they were sent out a couple days ago.
 
I bet all the Garand builders are swamped.

Not that it excuses shipping two rifles that don't work right, but I suspect all of the Garand builders are swamped. Someon said Fulton's got a four month waiting list. How long is the wait from Garand Guy and the other builders.

I am kicking myself now for not getting a Dane less wood when I had the chance :banghead:
 
The Garand Guy has 6 or 7 different grades. The super premium grade is available for immediate delivery. I'm not sure about all the others.
 
I don’t know about unlucky. Samuraiggs rifle also had a used stock when it was supposed to be new. I’ll be interested to hear how his rifle functions at the range.

If Tony is getting backed up (pure speculation at this point), I’d much prefer to wait a bit for the rifle than have corners cut just to turn orders quickly. With the risk of loss or damage, time and money wasted shipping a problematic rifle back and forth across the country, it makes sense to slow down and get it right the first time.

I’m starting to wonder if I should have waited for CMP to introduce their Select grade this fall. It sounds nearly identical to the Garand Guy Super Premium (USGI receiver, new stock, commercial barrel, all re-parked).
 
Oh there's gonna be hell to pay if my rifle doesn't function correctly. I'm taking it to the range first thing Saturday. If it doesn't cycle, or if anything else goes wrong; I'm shipping the dang thing back to him for a refund. I'm not playing mail tag with a 900 dollar rifle.

I was already disappointed enough with getting a used stock instead of a new one. I'm mad because Tony was supposed to be a sure bet, and here all of a sudden all of these problems pop up. To his credit, he has done everything to fix them; but I want this stuff fixed before it happens.
 
Well I loaded a enbloc clip and cycled the action, it worked through 8 rounds just fine, so at least I have that going for me. I guess thats all I can do until Saturday when I go to the range.

However, anyone have experience taking apart the garand for cleaning? I was following the directions on surplusrifle.com, however I cannot get the gas cylinder off the barrel. I followed the directions exactly, but it wont budge. Any ideas?
 
Oh there's gonna be hell to pay if my rifle doesn't function correctly. I'm taking it to the range first thing Saturday. If it doesn't cycle, or if anything else goes wrong; I'm shipping the dang thing back to him for a refund. I'm not playing mail tag with a 900 dollar rifle.
Click to expand...

Absolutely.

BTW, is Tony sending you a new stock or what happened with that situation?

Sorry, I don't have any experience with M1 disassembly. I remember it was a bitch getting the plug out of the M1A gas cylinder, but it seems to be a different design on the M1 anyway.
 
Tony is sending me a new stock, which should hopefully get here early next week.

I just took apart the garand again one last time before I go to the range on Sat. Everything looked great to me, took a good look at the op rod and everything else that might give me problems. No cracks, no signs of damage. While I was dissapointed by the stock, the rest of the gun seems to be in great shape... so i have high hopes I WONT have to send this back to Tony.

I'll make sure to post a range report first thing back on Saturday. ;)
 
Range Report!!!!

Ok I get to the range, get everything set up and load the enbloc. Get ready to fire. BOOM.

So far so good. Time for shot two.

*click*

Oh ****.

Check out whats going on and the Garand hasn't chambered the next round. I bump the op rod forward myself and fire again.

The Garand does the same thing. Its ejecting the brass just fine but wont feed the next round. When the last round fires the enbloc wont eject, it will just sit in the gun.

I keep on with this for about 2 more clips swearing all the while until the Range Officer heads over and asks whats up. I tell him the problem and he says that one of the other Range Officers is a gunsmith who has worked with tons of M1s and offers to call him over.

The gunsmith walks up a bit later and takes a look. He works the action a few times and breaks apart the receiver from the stock. He tells me that I put too much grease on some of the areas near the op rod, and he shows me the proper amount to apply. Then he takes out some oil and sprays it onto various parts of the action, working it back and forth again and again. Soon I can see the action is working smoother and sounds better. He tells me nothing should be broken, it just needs to be worked in. (Although I think he said something with the follower might be off, so I'll have to keep an eye on that). He also tells me that another factor are the clips themselves. Since I had ordered surplus ammo that already came in enbloc clips, the metal in the clips was scratchy, and it was hanging onto the bullets instead of letting them go to get fed.

I thank him profusely as he heads off. I work the action a few times with the oil and load another clip. This time only one round fails to feed, instead of each of them like they did before. I oil again a bit and work the action. I load my final clip and it fires all of them perfectly, even properly ejecting the clip at the end. I'm finally rewarded with the legendary Garand "ping".

Now I just need to work on the sights. The RO told me that I was shooting to the right and low, but also that I was flinching when I fire. Since I'm by no means a good shot, I'm ready to blame myself and not the gun for that. But next time I go to the range I'll set up a target very close and get it sighted properly.

I'm very glad that gunsmith was there, otherwise I might have sent an otherwise perfectly good Garand back to Tony, and never buying another one.
 
Alright! Score a + for Tony. That is good news. Thanks for the range report.

I didn't know the M1 is lube-sensitive. I will keep that in mind. I wonder if thats one of the things that improved with the M1A? I've run mine with varying amounts of lube and never had an FTF.

My M1 should arrive this week. I hope to get it to the range on Friday and will post up.
 
Got my M1 from Garand Guy today. Coupla minor gripes, then I'll shut up until after a range test.

- no tracking number provided
- email requesting one ignored
- arrived wrapped in newspaper in what appears to be a box previously used to ship tropical fruit.
Nothing like the nice foam-lined rifle box someone posted a photo of earlier in this thread.
- oil stains on the instruction manual
- a few drips on the stock
- two dings in the park on the receiver (see photos)
edited to add:
- polite email mentioning dings and asking how I could touch them up - ignored.
Why do small web-based businesses with on-line ordering ignore legitimate emails?
If Tony can take my money and my FFL via the web, he should respond to e-mail instead of forcing people to play phone tag.

Yeah, its mostly minor stuff, but the overall experience is cheesy for the amount of money involved.
I guess a grand doesn't buy as much as it use to.

/mini-rant off

Crappy service aside, overall it's a nice rifle. Hopefully she'll shoot well.
I don't think my CMP ammo is going to arrive in time for this weekend, but I plan to get out as soon as I can.


 
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To follow up and give credit to Tony, I finally got out to the range today and my Garand Guy Super Premium ran great. I put 40 rounds of Greek HPX through her, with only 1 failure to feed on the second round of the 5th clip. Other than that, no problems. No worries about Garand thumb with this one as it takes a firm shove to close the bolt (which is fine by me - I have no desire to get bit by that bolt)

The chips in the park bug me, so I emailed Tony asking him to refund me $50 to put towards a local repark job or to offset any small loss in value if I decide to just cover up the chips with a Sharpie marker or something (loss in value meaning if I ever sell and would have to disclose to the buyer that the finish is chipped on the receiver). Since the rifle shoots well, I'm loathe to send it back to him to be refinished and risk loss or damage at the hands of UPS. We'll see how receptive he is to my request. You can see the chips in the photos in the preceeding post - let me know if you think my request is unreasonable.

Update: No response from Tony. I'm going to see if my credit card company can do anything. I believe I should be compensated for the finish damage. If I had wanted to roll the dice regarding cosmetic condition, I would have ordered a rifle from the CMP instead.
 
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Got her back!

I received my garand back from Tony. Remember this is the second one I sent back to him for a bad op rod/gas cylinder. He installed a new op rod and gas cylinder and she works great. I'm now satisfied, but it's been a hassle.
 
Hey Joe, clean the chipped area real good with either brake cleaner or paint thinner to get all the grease off, then take a Q-tip with some cold bluing and rub on the spot. You'll be suprised at how it will hide that area. If you can, warm up the spot with a heat gun or hair dryer first. The cold bluing will take better. Use a good quality cold blue, like the Brownells brand. Then re-lube area with favorite gun oil.
 
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