Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire M1Garands

a little while back somebody asked me about garands, which are one of many addictions.
Thought i would mention this.
The CMP put out a sales email friday that they had some "tractor" garands, 2000 of them, some to follow later in the year.
They were priced at about 1000 a pop.
Now could be about the only thing IHC about them would be the reciever.
They were made after WWII and a lot of them ended up in Iran. It isn't their not available, but just not like a springfield etc.
2000 rifles sold in two business days.
Yep, those people were right a few years back when i would mention them and it was thought funny about them being a good investment.

Bought mine for $165 20 years ago. If I remember correctly my action, bolt and trigger assembly are IHC. I can't remember the op-rod make. The barrel is a LMR 1953. It's older than me,

I got my do not bother us email today. Hoping I made the cut. Got another ihc 6-8 years ago. Nothing more fun than shooting a garand

NM Rifles with Star barrels were VERY accurate as long as they were maintained! Bent op rods and gas cylinder had to be watched very closely! I shot many 'cleans' with the two I was issued!! You NEVER abused or put your hand upon the upper section (hand-guard) as it was 'floated' in place with two #4 wood screws through the ferrule to keep it tight and away from the op rod!

Nothing like a Garand for everything from varmints to elk...













[img]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee202/bridgershooters/Deer/Garandh.jpg[/img]

I have a rifle i have never quite figured out. It belonged prior to his death to a nationally ranked camp perry shooter, and was built for him for competition around 1954 in a little town outside of Ft. Bragg.
When i got it there was a post welded under the lift for the clip effectively turning it into a single shot. Never could figure out why he did that. It was a simple matter to convert it back.
Those LMR barrels by the way are pretty highly respected.

i will easily say, shrapnel, you have an excellent taste in the rifles you have posted, and no matter what anybody says, anyone that evidently likes garands the way you do can't be all bad.

My Daughter favors the M1 over the AR. Says is more cool.





By the way, that's a 4.4 mil Tractor gun.

Yea, the CMP is getting a small premium for the LMR barrels.

Mine is a complete and total mixmaster.

Around 1985 I applied for my M1 Garand from the government. I took my fingerprint card to the local sheriff's office and was informed their fingerprint deputy wasn't in so I could take my own prints if I wanted to save time.

I tried to roll each finger just like I remembered from TV detective shows, and thought I did a pretty fair job. Months later I received a letter telling me my fingerprints were smudged and I would have to re-submit another card before my order was processed.

A few days later my rifle arrived in a big brown truck. That was probably the only time a bureaucratic foul-up worked to my advantage!

I lucked out when I opened the shipping box. I received a Winchester M1 Garand with a nice crisp trigger. Best $165.00 I ever spent!

If I could see worth a [bleep] I would love to hunt with my M1. Are you using an adjustable gas plug? What kind of loads do you like for Elk?

well in my case, i have never shot anything that was not mil/surp or reloaded by me to be within the pressure curve/velocity/bullet the thing was designed for.
Now having said that, a plumber i know has taken a number of elk with just a standard 150grain commercial round. He did not know of the pressure issues till i told him.

You have to be careful with the Garand and factory loads. Faster powder and bullets in the 150 grain weight are what works best. Slower powder like IMR 4350 builds up too much port pressure at the end of the barrel and can damage the long operating rod on the Garand.

I hunt with Remington 150 grain Corelokt bullets and IMR 4895 powder to avoid that kind of stress on the rifle. I duplicate the military load of around 2750 FPS and although it isn't spectacular 30-06 performance, it has proven worthy of any game I have used it on...

Love my Garrand. It is less than 100,000 (s/n range) of what my daddy carried in WWII. It saw action in the Battle of the Bulge. I take it out hunting occasionally, but for sure on each Veteran's Day holiday to honor him. I've posted pics of my Garrand kills before on here...hope to do so again next Vet's day!

Traded a tractor Garrand with an LMR barrel to get this safe queen in his s/n range and considered it a fantastic deal on my part. He remembered his s/n until Alzheimer's kicked in...it was 3.5 mil + tax.

Great rifles, all are a part of history. I even trained with one back in 1963 while going through ITR at Camp LaJeune
Back in 99 CMP offered a "Select Grade" for $500.
I ordered one and waited almost 2 years for delivery.
SG I received was an H&R that was completely arsenal refurbished. When I opened the box I thought they sent me a brand new M1.
New barrel with a 1966 stamp, new birch stock with all the correct cartouches and fully reparked.
At the same time I ordered a "Service Grade" for my son.($400)
It came a few weeks after I ordered it and was a really nice Springfield. After checking all the part numbers and a full inspection we found it contained all Springfield parts and all were in the mf'g year range. Very nice find.

Little side note here. When the Springfield came I swore someone had painted the stock black. But after careful cleaning we found some pretty nice walnut underneath all the grease and grime.

Over on the CMP forum, there are a couple guys that ran pressure traces on many factory loads to determine which would be save in the Garand. There were several loads by different manufacturers that matched up and were "Garand safe".

That would be Eric Claypool.

There are a couple of "fixes" for the commercial ammo pressure curve problem. Adjustable plugs by Schuster and McCann, the GarandGear plug by Eric Claypool.

If you look at those pressure curves, you will see that the peak is lower, but more time under the curve with the GG plug, which means even with M2 or equivalent loads, the action is reciprocating "softer" than with a standard plug. And, it obviously opens up the possibility of using commercial ammo in the lighter weights. I don't think I'd blast a lot of 220 grain ammo through it without an adjustable plug.

I put one in my rifle just to ease up the cycling of the action, though I use a "Garand-safe" load.

I'm running IMR4895 as well, 46,47 grains for 150's, 44-45 for 165's. I pulled down some 150gr. Lake City 76 stamped ammo and found 47.5 grains of powder in it.
Your hunting pictures are good stuff.