I am a bit of a Garand nut.

by Jared, Monday, February 24, 2014, 20:52 (3931 days ago) @ Andrew
edited by Jared, Monday, February 24, 2014, 21:11

If the stock looks newish and has no cartouche it is probably a Boyd's stock. They are rather large compared to a WWII era stock. If it has a P stamped on the front or bottom of the pistol grip it is probably a post Korean War replacement. Is the wood walnut or something like birch or beech?

Most Garands shoot great. The sights are probably the most useable combat iron sights I have ever used. I take a Garand to the Whittington Center every year, and shooting steel with one is a blast once you know your sight settings you can hit stuff with boring regularity. Last year we were at the steel silhouette range and resting my front hand on the bench I went 7 for 8 on the various steel starting with the 500 meter rams based on my sight settings from the previous year with a different rifle. Hitting the life sized buffalo at 1123 yards is even easy once you get a dope on the wind.

You want to check the muzzle wear and the throat erosion. In that order of importance. The only one I have that doesn't shoot that well is a rack grade that swallows a muzzle guage. You can do a quick test with a standard round of M2 ball by seeing how far the bullet will go down the muzzle. If it goes all the way to the brass case the muzzle is pretty worn.

Parts are easy to replace and assuming everything checks out ok they are VERY reliable. Remember to use grease not oil, and to use powder in the 4895 burning rate range to keep from bending an op rod. If you load 150 gr bullets to 2600-2800 FPS with a faster powder like that it will run for many thousands of rounds.

The CMP is a first rate organization. I have purchased rifles from them for over 10 years and have always got something better than advertised. A couple of times I had a small part out of spec or in the case of my last rifle the operating spring broke. The have always replaced the part no questions asked.

The service grade is a great buy as was the Field grade rifles. I would skip the rack grade unless you are planning on doing some work to it down the road or not planning on shooting it past a couple of hundred yards. It is really worth jumping through the few hoops to get a rifle from them.

Unfortunately ammo isn't as cheap as it use to be. Let me know if you have any other questions I would be glad to help. You have me worked up wanting to order another rifle from them...