Yup. They came today. The Gods of the CMP and their acolytes at FedEx delivered two beautiful Service Grade M1 Garands today. The
setup for this was back around April 15th (Buy a Gun Day), actually almost a week later, and here they are, not a full month since we mailed off the forms. On top of that, they are prettier than I thought they'd be. I expected to have to do a fair amount of work, perhaps refinishing the stock and so on. Instead, they look like we could take them shooting now, with no work. Or maybe this weekend.
I know in today's world, "without pictures, it didn't happen", so less yappin', more double-tappin'!
As they arrive, nice hard plastic case, manual, chamber flag, one en-bloc clip, Certificate of Authenticity and a target. Pretty sweet, huh?
Funny, I always got there by
http://odcmp.com/Sales/rifles.htm but the one on the case works, too.
Eye candy or what? ...
Yup, I Photoshopped (well, Gimped) the serial number away. I understand that's a good thing. A cursory search of some online serial numbers says these were made in 1955. So post Korean War by a little while, way before Viet Nam.
I have to say I'm really happy with the CMP - Anniston office. They got the rifles here faster than promised, and they're in excellent condition. Compared to the conditions and prices I see at local gun shows, I should have done this before!
VERY COOL!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
gfa
Want. I *SO* want to stop by Anniston on my way back, I can taste it.
ReplyDeleteCongrats! Very, very nice!
ReplyDelete- GB
III
Oh, that's beautiful! I've thought about doing the CMP thing, and now, with my jealousy fully inflamed... :D
ReplyDeleteNice!
I'm envious, SG.
ReplyDeleteWhile I hate the thought of adding another caliber, with the requisite stockpiling of ammo, components, dies, etc., those sure are good-looking rifles. I'm going to have to give this some serious thought after the missus and I do an Appleseed event.
Have you bought some of their Greek 30-06 to go with it?
Congratulations indeed! That may very well be the nicest service grade Garand I have ever seen. From your pictures it appears to be practically flawless - no parkerization wear or dings anywhere to be seen. Am I safe to assume a ME & TE of 1 or less on that beauty?
ReplyDeleteEnjoy those rifles my friend, they are a reminder of everything that has made this country great!
Most excellent Garands!! Awesome condition! Must get Borepatch in the loop!
ReplyDeleteI agree, that is the nicest looking service grade I've ever seen, including when I went up to Camp Perry and picked through their racks at the store.
ReplyDeleteYou got a great deal!
Thanks, y'all.
ReplyDeleteThey are certainly better than what I expected. Weather looks good for Saturday morning, so unless something comes up, we'll have to go sight them in at 25 yards. I shot a friend's Garand once, so have some idea of what to expect, but it will be a learning thing for sure.
Reg, since I have a .30-06 Remington 700, I picked up a set of dies already. Caught them on sale.
LA - they both said 1 and 2.
Have fun, SG. I just took the wife to the local range on Wed. She had a blast putting 200+ rounds through the M4 clone while I put about the same through my HK91. Shot up a bunch of different ammo in the HK: Russian "Silver Bear" (hot, decent accuracy), Chinese copper-washed steel case (worst accuracy, fluted chamber handled it just fine), some good German DAG steel core Nato, and my best accuracy (1.5" avg.) with some Hornady 150gr SP I bought back in 1980. It started raining before I got around to my 175gr BTHP reloads (rained so hard I couldn't make out the holes in the target at 100 yards :-)
ReplyDeleteSince you mention reloading for the Garand, may I suggest a couple of sites with some important information - load info here and more info here. The Sierra reloading manual has a good section on reloading for gas rifles as well. There's lots more out there - because of the gas system on the Garand you have to be careful about powder and bullet selection to make sure that you don't damage the op-rod or other parts over time. There's also adjustable gas plugs from Schuster or McCann that can be tuned to run a wider variety of ammo. Man, there's so much stuff for Garands - they're a hobby by themselves.
ReplyDeleteOops...
ReplyDeleteLooks like that first link didn't work, so here it is spelled out...
http://www.alabamaservicerifleteam.com/id17.html