Garand Correcting

[Conductor]

Bear with me, this will be lengthy, I thought I would share my experiences in correcting an October 1940 reciever to as original as I can get it. These early rifles are very expensive to do and require lots of patience and hunting for parts. This came to me as a CMP service grade, with basically nothing correct on it. It had a nice RIA FK rebuild marked stock, which has its original SA NFR and ordnance wheel cartouches still ghostly lingering beneath. The barrel is a nice 8-43 SA.

So far, I have the following correct parts. A completely correct trigger group, correct bolt with round firing pin, correct gas cylinder assembly, still need a front sight seal and screw that allows one. I replaced the T105 rear sight with a Type 2 lockbar, which is what the original flush nut sight would have been replaced by, though I will get a flush nut short pinion assembly for it one day. The elevation cap is checkered, as it should be, and the cover is an unmarked and blued one with no support ribs. It has an early op rod catch, early milled and marked bullet guide, and milled type 2 follower rod. It has a correct single bevel follower arm, but I believe it to be a Winchester made part, based on the rough machining marks on it. The stock is an unmarked GHS long channel with very nice figure. I got that and about half of my parts from Paul Goedde, who has about everything early Garand you could think of.

I still need an operating rod, I have a correct D35382-1-SA marked one, however, it is out of spec and relief cut, I would love to find an uncut one. I need some correct stock metal pieces and the correct follower assembly, as well as a rounded clip latch. I will probably never find an early, unmodified rear handguard without the op rod relief notch in it, but maybe some that better match the stock. The other huge piece will be a September or October 1940 barrel, which will be extremely difficult to source and be extremely expensive.

I have other Garands to shoot, this was for fun and to have a nice example of a pre war rifle. If I'm going to restore an early rifle, better this than a former gas trap reciever!

http://imgur.com/a/RD4DOYC

 

[Mongo59]

I love the stock!

I know what you mean by the gas trap rebuild. I have an April 1940 receiver that was converted with a July 1944 barrel. It is going to stay just the way it is.

Do you know of anyway to search the theater of operation for these old war horses? That would be a treasure of information to know about them. Funny the civil war guns are more easily researched than the WWII.

I am in the market for an IHC op rod and gas tube/front sight assembly from the late 1954 era for another rifle. They do tend to get addicting...

 

[jinks]

Looks like your Garand is progressing nicely. I enjoy shooting the M1 and I have purchased my "once in a lifetime" DCM Garand and many others when the CMP was started. I purchased a few of the M1 parts kits that were shipped in from Canada. Correcting an early M1 was just too expensive for me. I could add some of the early parts. The correctly marked stocks and barrels are very expensive. The final results would still be a rifle that would still be worth more as parts.

 

[shootersix]

i watched a friend giggle like a school girl as he was stripping and identifying his ihc garand, as of now, it's a 1954 made, with correct era parts, (the books he's read say all parts should be from 6 month before to 6 month after the date of the serial number), the only part thats not correct, is the stock, and he's bought the correct cartouches to stamp a stock, so he'll have a correct 1954 international harvester garrand made in evansville , that was made at the same time his dad worked at international harvester in evansville! (he has 5 other harvesters, but they're not correct)

i have a 54 made h&r with a 54 stamped barrel, and a ww2 sa trigger group and op rod, with a cmp stock, that im almost positive was rearsenaled, but never issued (te is 2, me is .5), but i bought it to shoot, not collect (in fact im shooting it in a ww2 match next week end), but yes, i thought about correcting it, but damn thats expensive!!!!!!

 

[Conductor]

Do you know of anyway to search the theater of operation for these old war horses? That would be a treasure of information to know about them. Funny the civil war guns are more easily researched than the WWII.

You can go on the CMP forum and put in a request on the SRS thread with the serial number. It's a compiled database from national archive records on all sorts of US military arms, if you're lucky you might find out your rifle was issued to a certain unit or in a ship's armory at some point. Even if your rifle doesn't get a hit, it can be in the range of known serial numbers, which would likely place yours in the same spot. My rifle struck out, no hit and not any serials close to it.

 

[Conductor]

i watched a friend giggle like a school girl as he was stripping and identifying his ihc garand, as of now, it's a 1954 made, with correct era parts, (the books he's read say all parts should be from 6 month before to 6 month after the date of the serial number), the only part thats not correct, is the stock, and he's bought the correct cartouches to stamp a stock, so he'll have a correct 1954 international harvester garrand made in evansville , that was made at the same time his dad worked at international harvester in evansville! (he has 5 other harvesters, but they're not correct)

I really hope he didn't buy repro stamps and then stamp an original stock, that would really ding the value of the rifle, let alone the stock itself. I have two Harvesters, but both are essentially unissued following mid 60s arsenal rebuilds, so I'm not touching them.

 

[shootersix]

I really hope he didn't buy repro stamps and then stamp an original stock, that would really ding the value of the rifle, let alone the stock itself. I have two Harvesters, but both are essentially unissued following mid 60s arsenal rebuilds, so I'm not touching them.

no he's buying a stock and stamping it, I did find a 54 ihc stock for sale (and he has too), all the wood with the metal, IT WAS 800.00!, so I see why he's buying the stamps (they were 100, and ive seen stock for 100)

I took my garand to the range Thursday (the 4th!) and shot it for the first time, just to check zero and about 30 feet out, I made a 7 shot 1 hole group and one flyer about an inch to the right (I used a wooden block as a front rest). so this thing will shoot!

I was going to shoot a ww2 military match yesterday(I had cleared it with the match director and my Korean era garand was ok to use), but I got up early, cut the grass, and decided it was too hot to go stand outside for 4 hours for a 50 shot match!

but now I have decided that I really need to strip the stock, and refinish it with tung oil (according to my research that's the correct finish for 50's era garands), but that's it, no spending hours looking for the correct safety, or hammer, or any other part, im just going to let the copper coated lead fly the way it is.

 

[STEEL CORE]

My Dad gave me his OCT 1941 marked Springfield, he bought it in a Detroit Pawn Shop for $55.
Boy if it could only talk, he used it for years and took many a deer with it, I fired it at age 8 from a picnic table and it knocked me off and on my butt. I will pass it down to my son/grandson, someday, next time I get it out I will check the SR# against that data base.

 

[Latewatch]

A 1940 Garand restoration will be a difficult and very expensive endeavor. A correct dated 1940's barrel, and the correct keystone springs will be extremely hard and extremely expensive to find. The flush nut sight, correct guide rod, and unmodified op rod will also be expensive and very hard to find.

I have a correct December 1940 Springfield that I have had for almost 20 years and I would hate to think of what it would cost to duplicate it today. Paul is definitely the man to go to for this but I think it would be a feat of magic even for him.

Good Luck!!!!

 

[STEEL CORE]

Hey Latewatch my fathers (now mine) Oct-41 Springfield had been hunting customized before he got it in a pawn shop in Detroit with a front sight with the ears cut off making it a post only, the lug ground down, the rear sight oval cut in half making it U shaped instead of an O, and the op rod and front polished shiny. How hard would it be to re install those bubbad parts and re-parkerize it?

Thanks

 

[jinks]

M1 Garand parts are readily available. The front sight, rear aperture, and gas cylinder can be replaced for under $100. The gas cylinder and gas cylinder lock are stainless steel and it is not uncommon for these parts to be somewhat bright. I have used VHT SP998 FlameProof Coating Cast Iron Paint on the stainless parts to match the Parkerized finish.

https://www.amazon.com/VHT-ESP998000-FlameProof-Coating-Paint/dp/B000CPINBG

Dupage Trading has the gas cylinder assembly for $70.

https://www.dupagetrading.com/product/gas-cylinder-assembly/

I have a good supply of parts but I am keeping them for myself. I will let a small part go occasionally to help get an M1 going.

There are people in the area who occasionally set up for a small batch of Parkerizing.

I would check the barrel date and the markings on the stock to see if they are original. If they are original they could be valuable.

The assembly /disassembly of the M1 is easy here is a guide.

Detail Stripping The M1 Garand Rifle