Yeah, it's not a real good shot; I'm going to take it outside one day so I'll have more even light. In any case, it's a Springfield made rifle, the serial number says late December 1943 for the receiver. The stock may or may not be the original, it's got the 'P' proof mark on the underside of the grip, but no other cartouche remaining, it's been refinished at least once in the past. When I got it, it had a 1950-something barrel that was salt & pepper pitted. Still shot pretty well, but...
I had part of an M1 parts kit, including what appeared to be a brand-now barrel, also 1950's. So it went to the gunsmith for replacement. Yeah, I'd rather have done it myself, but I have no action wrench or headspace gauges. That done and function tested, stock work.
Didn't want to remove a lot of wood, so I went through a real cleaning and degreasing of the wood, which took about a week. Then I just gave it a light sanding to take off the worst of the rough spots; this stock has had a lot of use, but it's sound, and once the old crud was off/out, it turned out to have a real pretty grain. All I've done as far as finishing has been to rub in a couple of light coats of Tru-Oil finish; I've been holding off on further. I found some interesting tips over at the Fulton Armory site,(I recommend you look it over, they've made a lot of good information and links on the M1 and M1A available), and I think I'll try it. They say a coat of Minwax Natural Stain to seal the surface, then Minwax Tung Oil Finish; it's supposed to give the appearance of the military finish while sealing and protecting the wood better. I get a chance I'll try it and see.
Wood cleaned up, I went to the trigger. Fulton has their Garand Information Place which links to 'How-To Guides for the M1 Garand', including a very good guide on smoothing out the trigger. Note I did not say 'lightening' the trigger; because of the design this system needs a minimum of a 4.5lb pull, lighter than that is not safe. Period. Not a big deal, as I've found the biggest problem with a trigger is not weight(unless it's real heavy) but a clean break, and the M1 trigger can do that very well. They also have the standard warnings about working on triggers, and I'd suggest you read them carefully. This is a remarkably strong system with a safety you'd have to work at real hard to make fail, and remarkably easy to smooth up, but if you try to make the trigger lighter than it should be, you ARE asking for trouble. That said, their instructions worked very well for me. The trigger had been a bit rough and had some creep; after the cleanup and lubing, it breaks right at 5lbs and clean, no roughness or creep. Much better.
The front sight/gas tube assembly did not fit tight on the barrel, and it only takes a tiny bit of play to mess with accuracy, so on recommendation from some folks who know the matter I tightened it up. The assembly slides onto the barrel from the front, and the barrel has three splines machined into it, splines inside the front ring of the assembly matching up. I took a punch and my 2 oz hammer(yes, that is 2 ounces; wouldn't trade it for anything) and very lightly peened both edges of the top spline, and the outside edges of the other two. I emphasize very lightly; you want it to need a bit of tapping into place with a mallet and wood block, but you don't want to have to beat it into place. I got it a bit too tight, so I took a riffler file(small, curved file, very handy things) and reduced the peened surfaces just a touch, which gave me a perfect fit.
These things definately improved accuracy(quite happy), but one other thing made the difference. With the M1 the stock is one unit, the receiver/barrel/forend/handguard is another, and the trigger group locks them together. Over time the wood where the floorplate bears can compress a bit, which means things aren't locked in place as well as they should be, which means things can shift just a fraction when you fire... You can glass-bed to get the fit of everything as perfect as possible, but not having some good illustrations of exactly where & how, I didn't want to mess with that right now. I've done it on bolt-actions, but I knew what I was doing there. Happily, easy way to see if this will help. You know those imitation credit cards you get in the mail with applications? I save them; good for mixing epoxy on, coasters, and spacer material. Carefully selecting a card in a tasteful blue color that seemed the right thickness, I cut two shims, stuck them on the stock(non-permanently) and assembled. Much tighter lockup, and the next trip to the range showed an improvement.
So this here's my Garand, and it's one of my favorite rifles to shoot. With it's weight and gas system recoil is no problem with standard ammo, and I've been getting quite good accuracy. I've got some tips on handloads, so when I can I plan to pick up some Sierra match bullets and IMR4895 powder and see how they work.
I have to point out one of the joys of shooting it: being around people who haven't seen one fired before. Since Band of Brothers not as many are surprised by it, but you do get comments after the empty clip ejects: "Hey, something came out of your gun!" Even better when the clip lands on your hat brim; extra points if you slowly reach up, grab it, look at it, shake your head and sadly say "I wish it'd stop doing that".
Add-on: I almost forgot to mention books. There are lots of books on the M1 out there, from history to accessories to shooting. One that covers the development and teething problems very well is Book of the Garand by Julian Hatcher. If you've got access to the tooling, it has very nice illustrations of how the Marine Rifle Team touched up the trigger on this beast.
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