Refinishing my M1 Garand

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I like to keep them as they were in service but I bought two of these with no wood and one is a rack grade. So there's two aftermarket stocks - guess which ones! :)

I AM going to do something about the top rifle with it's ugly replacement Birch forward handguard. That's the rack grade.

I've got three more not photo'd and I sold one not long ago. It was the first time I'd ever sold any of them and it was a hard choice. They've each got a character of it's own and now two of these shoot .308 just so I'll get ammo no matter which way the ammo winds are blowing.


I'm not all that anxious to remove the patina of all the years of usage in service. It can't be faked or put back once you start with the steel wool, sandpaper, and "special recommended formulas".

Some of you people should maybe stick to buying nice eurothane covered wood stocked rifles from Walmart.
 
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Some of you people should maybe stick to buying nice eurothane covered wood stocked rifles from Walmart.
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Blah, blah, blah... :rolleyes:

Only the deranged among us (collectors) value accumulated dirt grease and filth on a weapon. They are a strange breed and it is best to avoid them. :p

Nothing wrong with trying to restore an old weapon to what it looked like when it was new or newer. All weapons were once new. All weapons do not need to look like they were dragged behind a weary soldier for 5 years in the most horrific conditions...

That part of the reason I love my H&R. It looks like it was made yesterday.

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What he said ^^^^

All replies and info is appreciated but please don't make me appear to be some moron just because I want my beautiful walnut stock to show off that beautiful grain. It was a hard decision to decide whether or not to clean it up in the first place.

Those are some nice Garands krs but to each his own! Besides we are all gun owners and also are all in love with the beauty and quality of the impressive rifle that is the M1 Garand! :D
 
Some of you people should maybe stick to buying nice eurothane covered wood stocked rifles from Walmart.
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lol, surely your not as self righteous as that came off?

ive seen some of your posts and i know your better than that sounded.
 
Here's two more. The top one is one of my shooters - a Series one National Match rifle that some guy broke the receiver leg off on the right side. I had it welded because it had a neat trick done to the rear sight a small springloaded ball bearing that kept the sight from moving. I just saw the same thing on a receiver that CMP is auctioning. Anyway, once the leg was "fixed" I couldn't live with it so I bought another receiver and built the rifle on that one. So it's a shooter and it shoots good with it's 1953 LMR barrel. If I ever sell it the buyer will get both receivers.

the other rifle is a 1943 with it's bar sight and uncut oprod and all. I've never fired it but someone did 'cause you should have seen all the copper I got out of the bore.

Both have NOT been refinished. They get periodic BL oiling to the wood as all of my rifles do.

Can you see the slight roughness of the wood behind the lockbar sight? I THINK it's the Tung oil that they initially bathed the stocks in before finishing with boiled linseed. Those little bumps are hardened - not like linseed that comes out in heat. It's not all over the rifle - just there and on the front handguard with a little on the left side of the butt. It's weird but that rifle is too correct to go steelwooling on he finish at all. Seasoned collectors would know and that rifle is worthy of the most seasoned of those guys.

Rondog - if you decide to phoney up some cheap imitation fake cartouches for some reason, use a light touch so they look like these originals. ..:) I'm trying to think of some more hypercritical adjectives to apply to you if you do that, but instead maybe I'll just suggest that you write to the GCA (Garand Collector's Association) and ask what they think of the idea. Someone there will be happy to apply the most foul adjectives, I'm sure. :D
 
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2nd treatment today. Took pics (see 1st post) but it was later in the evening so the lighting make it look different. Probably will do one more treatment then apply Toms 1/3 gunstock wax.
 
Well she's done! Took her out to the range and ran about 40 rounds thru here. Nice group about 8 - 10" at 100 yards. While I had it apart I kept soaking the barrel with Hoppes 9 and got out lots of gilded metal.

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You'll notice that the right side of the stock is real light colored was thinking of darkening it up a bit but decided to leave it as is.
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Turned out very nice. I would, as KRS states, skip the Fakey cartouches. Beautiful rifle. Sure is good to see so many folks cleaning up and caring for these great old WarHorses!
 
Turned out very nice. I would, as KRS states, skip the Fakey cartouches. Beautiful rifle. Sure is good to see so many folks cleaning up and caring for these great old WarHorses!
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No I don't plan on doing that! This ones staying as is, just wanted to clean up the wood. Grain of the walnut is now more revealing!
 
Can I jump in? Thanks I will! This is my 1942 SA. From CMP last April, replace wood
with new CMP wood an metal, this was a Field Grade, shoots awesome. The wood looked great but not sure if CMP puts BLO, or a light stain...? Anyway I finally put some BLO
on it a few weeks ago...wow..it got alot darker an really showed off the grain, however,
the front barrel gaurd wood was alot lighter, I guess staining the wood is to be done before BLO, but read somewhere you could apply afterwards, takes longer to dry...so with the BLO on, I put a Walnut stain on the front wood, slowly darkening it...before this I did lightly sand everything with 400, an then 600 sandpaper...really smoothed thing out an I like the feel of it,....after the stain dryed on the front wood, I put a light coat over the entire stock, a couple days later I put on another coat of BLO an everything seems
to blend into each other now. The scope mount is from Fulton Armory, it has a open sight as well, just threw on a old scope for right now, buying a matte finish one later.
Posting this an in just a few minutes will post 2 pictures....
 

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I would take take oderless mineral spirits and brass wool to it before applying stain. You can get it super close to a match. Flipside is more Garands have slightly different colored handgaurds and buttstocks than dont.
 
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