Do you qualify to order from CMP? The only reason I ask is that you have to be a member of a club affiliated with CMP to buy from CMP. I'm not bashing CMP at all and I am a member of a club "now" but when I was looking to buy a Garand I was not so I had to go another route.
I recently dealt with Tony Giacobble "The Garand Guy" and was very pleased with his work and fast turnaround. I kinda paused at the price on his website but after sending and email we worked out a good deal. Not to mention the three day turnaround was a lot better than three months plus before your order is shipped.
I just sent in my membership dues for the Garand Collectors Association. It'll be a couple weeks before I can order my Garand so that should be taken care of by then.
The age and citizenship part isn't an issue at all and I have my LTCF so there's my final requirement taken care of.
The one and only Garand I got to shoot was last August at a group shoot. We had some guys set up some clay targets on the berm at 100yds and were trying to bust them with their suped up ARs.
After at least a half a magazine each, only about 4 of the 9 or 10 clays were shattered. They seemed to have given up so I call over from the bench I was using to ask if they minded that I try.
They gave me the go ahead assuming my luck would be similar to theirs. Seeing as I had only fired maybe 24 rounds of Greek surplus from that rifle that day, I was assuming the same with my luck.
So I line up the sights with 3 or 4 of the guys watching (the rest were adjusting sights and such) and squeezed off the first round. Nailed the clay.
So I line up on the next one and hit it just as easily.
Of the 5 clays I shot at with 8 rounds of ammo, I had no clays left and three rounds left in the gun. Right then and there I fell in love with the Garand.
That's why I decided to get a Garand before an AR. The history is definitely cool but showing up all those other guys with their ARs was even cooler.
Oh and I got a round of applause from all of the AR guys that had missed all those times. Lol.