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Sayonara (goodbye forever), CMP Service Grade M1 Rifles...




GR

Nice video, and entertaining.

Love that easy, rapid fire rhythm they have, you just know you could put all eight into the driver's side window of an Opel Blitz at 300 yards.

Details?

Due to the general neglect shown by the Filipino Govt w/r/t Our M1 rifles... most of the 86,000 returns came back w/ pitted receivers and rotten bores.

Hence, a very low percentage of "Service Grade" rifles.

May happen, but the availability of CMP/SG rifles again is doubtful.

Should be plenty of pitted "Specials" w/ the new Criterion Bbl's for a while.




GR

Like slow-dancin'... when you know you're gunna get laid.

8>)




GR

They are addictive. At one time I had five, along with three various 1903 Springfields.
Over the last few years I thinned down to just a single Garand. But is is a restored 6 digit from March, 1942. All correct except for the windage knob.

Sounds nice.

Have managed to keep it to a reasonable Five.
(Well, Four plus a spare, anyway.)

All Springfields, USGI, different, interesting, and Luck-of-the-draw CMP Service Grades.

One is a 6-Digit that looks like it made the jump into Sainte-Mère-Eglise.



Still, a '44 SA ME2/TE3 Bbl.

Through the process, also got one/ea. for the boys when they were still small, for future HS graduation presents, as well as at-cost rifles for most of my family and friends.

The Greek Return era at the CMP was pretty sweet.




GR

I am down to 3
Two CMP Specials a 42 SA and a 45 SA
Got them both in 2016
Have another 45 SA that I bought from an individual who sent it back to CMP in 2011 and had it re barreled.

Also have 2 03A3s and an M1 carbine.

Love shooting the Garands.

Snappin' in w/ an M1 rifle is cathartic.



... Meditation - for the warrior soul.




GR

We had a saying, "shoot Garands in the summer and Springfields in the winter." (Heavy clothing to soak up recoil and all that.) Ah for the good old days of $5/100 GI Ball surplus ammo. Never mind the fact I had to work a couple hours to buy those 100 rounds! But, the stuff was everywhere and Springfields abounded for $40 and Garands for $60-80. .303 Enfields for $20 and ammo at $3/100. Life was simpler and no one called the cops when they saw me, a teenage kid, with a milsurp slung over my shoulder heading to the quarry to do some blasting.

Buddy of mine, when he was a kid, used to ride the city bus through town to get to the Police Range to shoot, w/ his rifle slung across his back.

My Dad said he and the other boys used to hunt squirrels and rabbits goin' to and from school. Said there was a rifle rack in the classroom, in the coat cubby.


Like livin' on a different Planet.




GR

I'm surprised to hear barrel life would actually be better with a 6.5x55. I had thought the 30-06 barrels would live longer.

Mine is a 7.62x51mm. Beretta receiver, Criterion barrel, Dupage stock, all the rest is USGI, mostly Springfield. Reparked and newly finished stock.

It holds a very good group when the shooter (namely me) isn't throwing flyers.

When I was a 14 year old member of the 4-H Rifle Club in Lansing, MI, back around 1963, we lived across town from Michigan State University, where the club used an indoor range at the ROTC Building. In warm weather, I would strap my Marlin Model 80-G .22 rifle to the handlebars of my bike, ride 5 miles across town to the campus to shoot, and ride back. In cold weather I would get on a city bus with my rifle (in a case) and a pocket full of ammo, ride to the edge of the campus, and walk half a mile to the ROTC Building with my rifle over my shoulder.

I was never once questioned or stopped, and nobody even looked at me funny. It was a different world then, and a far better one.

By far my favorite rifle to shoot. The M1 is my go to rifle for matches and just to shoot for fun.

I need to go zero mine, have only shot it through the chrono, i have three different kinds of primed brass, 'Smith said some are corrosive, that's okay, i shot the different rounds i loaded, they all went 2590 to 2640 fps with the 168gr bullets, 50 fps e.s. doesn't bother me, i'll just plink around on 1, 2, and 3 hundred steel, i cant hold that difference with an iron sighted rifle anyway, may shoot a buck in the thickets this season.

It's my understanding that the next big stash of M1's are in Iran. I say it's about time we took them back.

kwg