Accurizing An M-1 Garand 11 January 2003 By R. Craig Johnson, ©2002, All Rights Reserved

The M-1 Garand may have been a fine battle rifle, but as a target rifle straight from the box it is not competitive. It is common for a CMP issue rifle to shoot 3 MOA or worse. There are, however, several steps that can be taken to help the accuracy. Unlike working on an AR-15 where accuracy can be substantially improved by slapping on a free float tube with a few simple tools, working on a Garand is an exercise in patience and care. It is accurate to say that there is not just one "project" involved, but a whole series of projects to make the gun shoot well. While some of the projects can be done in 15 minutes, others take an entire weekend. While there are only a couple of simple tools, plus a Dremel tool, required to accurize the Garand, the average person should plan on spending the better part of two or three weekends or more working on the rifle for just the basic bedding. The results should reduce group size sufficiently to make the rifle generally competitive for the high power matches, but it will rarely result in a rifle that stands shoulder to shoulder with the AR-15. Bedding the rifle, as well as most of the other "match" improvements like a new NM front sight, etc. will also render the rifle unqualified to shoot the John C. Garand matches, which requires an unmodified Garand, but you will be able to shoot it as a "service rifle" or "match rifle" category. With the large numbers of Garands in circulation, and with the cost of a decent Garand being less than 1/2 that of an AR, accurizing a Garand is an inexpensive way to get into the high power game and spending the time to make them shoot better is worth the time and effort. To give you an idea of how well these guns can shoot with a top-notch barrel and fully accurized, the Fulton Armory Peerless Grade guarantees sub MOA using Federal Gold Medal match ammunition. While you are unlikely to achieve this using the GI barrel on your CMP rifle, getting your rifle to shoot close to MOA should be your Holy Grail. With a VAR barrel on a Danish issue Garand from the CMP and shooting 168 grain Sierra bullets riding on top of 46.0 grains of IMR 4895 powder, I was able to get my group size down to just under 1 1/2 MOA from 3 MOA when I started, which is a very significant reduction for a home gunsmithing project.This will be a multi-series article about accurizing your M1 Garand.

Disclaimer The information presented in this article assumes familiarity with basic gunsmithing and safe gun handling principles. The use of improper procedures may result in the creation of dangerous conditions and may result in severe injury or death. Any questions should be referred to a competent gunsmith. Neither the writer nor Sniper Country assumes any liability whatsoever for the readers application or use of any of the information contained herein and all work is done at the sole risk and expense of the reader.

Part I. Getting Ready First, you need to acquire a Garand. The best way to do this is to shoot one of the Garand matches (or other high power matches or clinics) using the State Rifle & Pistol Association loaned Garands. This then qualifies you to purchase one of the Garand rifles from the Civilian Marksmanship Program, so long as you have met the citizenship and other requirements. Those requirements are set forth on the application provisions of the CMP website. I recommend you purchase a Service Grade or a Danish issue Service Grade rifle and if you can get it, a Danish

issue Service Grade with a VAR barrel. It will cost about $450 with shipping for the Danish issue, which are just fine. You won't get a 'pristine' rifle, but you will get one that has a barrel throat erosion of 5 or less, which should give you good service for the 4-5,000 rounds of useful barrel life. Unless you are interested in substantially increasing the cost and truly building a match rifle from the get go, do NOT purchase just a receiver and expect to get a parts kit later. If you do purchase a receiver, you should plan on sending it to Fulton Armory or Krieger for the installation and headspacing of the barrel, which will add about $550 to the price of the rifle, before you get the other parts. The other parts will add approximately another $500, so by the time you are done, you will have sunk around $1200 into the rifle -- which is an awfully lot for a rifle that is barely competitive. Likewise, don't bother purchasing one of the re-imported rifles from Korea or elsewhere. You will be very disappointed at the results. A word of caution here. The rule of thumb is that each 1,000 rounds shot through the barrel adds one point on the erosion gauge. Thus, 5,000 rounds shot will gauge approximately 5 on the erosion gauge. Since the CMP only guarantees their Service Grade to gauge a 5 or less, you may get a new barrel or one that has 5,000 rounds through it or something in-between. You may be better off by getting a rack grade rifle, shooting it for fun and after a couple of thousand rounds, sending it to Fulton Armory for installation of a new barrel from the outset. Of the Garands that I have bought from the CMP, however, each one has gauged a 3 or less. With a 3 or less, you have plenty of barrel life to get involved in the high power game, before you will need to change barrels. And, in point of fact, there is nothing magic about the 5. Some barrels simply shoot good for well past the 5.At the same time you order your Garand, order the following two publications. The M-1 Rifle, PB 01660 for $3.95, available from the NRA on-line store under Books, Reprints, and Roy Baumgardner's, Precision Shooting the M1 Garand, available from Brownells for $12.95 (Part # 113-000-003). Those two publications will provide detailed, but somewhat dated, instructions on using and accurizing your Garand. They will, however, become your bible.If you plan on bedding your Garand (and don't want to shoot it in the John C. Garand matches), you should also order the following Brownell tools. You will need them to do the bedding. Spacer and U-Bar $31.08 (Part # 080-727-001). You can fabricate these yourself, but unless you have a mill, it is not worth your trouble. I fabricated mine with a hand file from a 1" piece of aluminum ¼" strip and a 3/16th steel rod. It just took a long time and three tries to get the spacer right. While you are at it, you might as well order an Accuracy Speaks match front sight for $30.00 (Brownells part #851-100-101) and since you have spent your hard earned money on getting a good front sight, spend another $10 to get a front sight protector (Brownells part # 100-000-323). While you are awaiting your rifle's 60-90 day delivery from the CMP, you might as well also order a single shot adaptor (Brownells part # 100-000-399 for $29.95 or Fulton Armory "SLED" for $11.95). While at the Fulton site, you might also want to order a dry fire device so you can practice dry firing your Garand at home without damaging any of the parts. The dry fire device is $9.95. You will need a single shot adaptor to shoot single shots to minimize the possibility of a "slam fire". A word about slam fires. The Garand and the M1A each have a free-floating firing pin. (The AR has this same feature, but is less of a problem although theoretically, it is possible to have a slam fire with an AR as well for the same reason). That means that as the bolt slams home into battery, it is possible for the firing pin to have sufficient velocity that it hits and ignites the primer before the bolt locks up, with disastrous consequences. The single round load adaptor or SLED, slows down the bolt to lessen that possibility. Also, while on this subject, NEVER use regular primers in reloaded ammo for shooting in the M1 Garand or M1A. You should ALWAYS use mil-spec primers. Right now, the only manufacturer

is CCI. The designation is CCI Military Large Rifle #34 primers. You can get them from Wideners for about $102 for 5,000. Those primers have a harder "shell", making them less prone to slam fire ignition. Also, when reloading any rounds, but particularly for the M1 Garand, make sure the primer is well seated and does NOT protrude from the case, or you will substantially increase the likelihood of a slam fire.Because most of the CMP stocks are pretty oily, you might also want to purchase a replacement stock for your Garand (Boyds is making a decent replacement stock for around $80), or you might want to go with a synthetic stock (Brownells # 231-001-100) for around $70. A word of caution. The synthetic stocks are not legal for the Garand matches and I have no experience about whether they will hold a bed. My general impression is that bedding a synthetic stock is "iffy" at best. You are better off getting a fresh wood stock. It is not, however, essential to get a replacement stock to have a successful accurizing job.Now for the bedding compound. I recommend Brownells Steel Bed kit which runs about $36.90 (Part # 081-040-003), but ONLY if you have experience in bedding your own rifles. If not, I recommend you use Brownells AccuraGlas kit (part # 081-003-002 $16.70) or AccuraGel. The reason for this, is that the steel bed will give a much stronger and long-lasting job, but it is a bit more difficult to use due to the grainy nature of the steel particle fillers, which can tear the release agent on the action, resulting in a disastrous glue job. Also, the Steel Bed will not take a dye as readily as regular AccuraGlas. Both give good results, however. But be forewarned. A mistake with either compound can be disastrous.

Accurizing An M-1 Garand 11 January 2003 By R. Craig Johnson, ©2002, All Rights Reserved

Be sure to read the disclaimer on Page I.

Part II. Prepping the Stock and Metal Ok, now your Garand has arrived. For this and all other parts of this article, be sure the gun is completely unloaded before you begin. When you take it out of the box, you will note that it is covered with cosmoline or some other grease. Before you do anything else and before you shoot it, it will be necessary to disassemble the rifle into its three subparts and thoroughly clean it. Plan on at least 5 hours to do this. I like to see most of the work done with the rifle held using a padded vise for stability. With an ample supply of toothpicks, old toothbrushes, rags and denatured alcohol or other solvent and in a well-ventilated place (don't do this in your furnace room unless you want to ignite your basement), start by wiping it off with some clean rags. Then, disassemble into the three major subparts by pulling the trigger guard to the rear. With some effort, it will unlatch. Then, lift up and the entire trigger group will pull out. Make sure the rest of the rifle is supported while you are doing this. Next, the receiver/barrel group should come out of the stock by tipping upwards from the front of the stock ferrule. A gentle rap with a rubber hammer or wooden dowel on the bottom of the receiver lugs will start the process if it is sticky. The rifle should now be in its three major subparts.From here, it is generally a matter of cleaning all of the parts as thoroughly as possible. When clean, I recommend you get some decent Garand ammo (don't use regular commercial 30-06 ammo -- it may be too "hot" for the Garand and may bend the operating rod), reassemble the Garand and head off to the firing range to test fire the rifle and see what kind of group you get.

Always start with a group to set the baseline. If you are one of the fortunate few and have a rifle that shoots MOA or less, you should not do anything else.If you are like the rest of us, now the fun begins. Take the rifle back home. With the rifle unloaded, clean it. Then, do a couple of simple tests on the operating rod, following the Baumgartner instructions on pages 28-29 of his book to see if the op rod drops down into its correct place and has free movement. Next, break it down into the sub-assemblies again. You will next have to study the various diagrams in the publications that you have, because you will be breaking the rifle down to everything that can be taken apart with hand tools. If you get into a bind, you should note that Fulton Armory has excellent disassembly instructions and diagrams on their web site, and the CMP has additional instructions as well.First, unhook the operating rod spring from the follower arm by pulling the spring and follower rod towards the muzzle. It should unlatch fairly easily. Slide the spring and follower rod out of the operating rod and lay it aside. You won't need it again until you are through with the rifle. Next, do the bolt/op rod test shown on pages 30-31 of Baumgartner's book, which tests whether the op rod will lock the bolt effortlessly without the op rod spring in place when you hold the rifle 60 degrees and let the weight of the op rod and bolt work the action alone. This test will help you determine if the op rod is rubbing somewhere. The bolt should slide and lock effortlessly. If not, your op rod is binding, or may be bent. You will need to diagnose the problem before proceeding and you may wind up needing a new operating rod. If it is simply rubbing on the lower band (common problem), or if the gas cylinder is dirty (another common problem), and it is not bent, the problem can be easily corrected. You can clean the inside of the gas cylinder by unscrewing the gas cylinder plug screw using a large screwdriver. Next, you will unscrew the gas cylinder lock from the gas cylinder. Then, gently tap off the gas cylinder and front sight assembly using a wood dowel resting on the back of the bayonet lug. Use gentle tapping until it comes off. Then, clean the inside just as you would clean the inside of a barrel. For your later reference, the gas cylinder is stainless steel and won't take a blue touch-up. Lightly oil the cylinder and pull off the front handguards. Reassemble without the front handguards and redo the second test. If it is still hanging up, then you might need a new operating rod. You can forego this, unless the operating rod is really bent or damaged, but your accuracy will not be as good as it could be. (Note that the operating rod has two intentional bends to clear the various stock and barrel areas when viewed from the side, but when viewed from the top, it should be absolutely straight.) Assuming it passes the tests, then it is time to gauge the operating rod piston and the gas cylinder. Remove it all again. The gas cylinder (measure as best you can inside about 1/4 inch below the gas port hole) must be no greater than .532". The stainless steel button on the end of the operating rod must be no less than .525" and needs to be round. Assuming those pass inspection, lay all that stuff aside. Again, you won't need it until you are about done with the rifle. At this time, it is also a good idea to clean out the gas port hole. You do this carefully by inserting a wood dowel or pencil far enough into the muzzle so it goes past the gas port hole (to protect against nicking the inside of the bore), then with a new sharp drill bit slightly smaller than the diameter of the hole, inserting the drill bit and with finger pressure only, spinning the drill bit to clear out any carbon, burrs, etc. You can then use a drill bit that is larger than the hole to remove any burrs on the outside of the hole and add a small bevel to help smooth the gas venting. Use a sharp new drill bit and finger pressure only. Your goal is not to remove a lot of metal, just add a smooth bevel as the gas vents from the barrel.Next, disassemble the receiver group. The follower & slide assembly probably fell out when you took out the operating rod spring and follower rod, and that is ok. You next need to remove the

follower pin holding the remainder of the bullet guide and other parts. You do this by having the receiver turned upside down, lying on your table or held securely in a vise. The main pin has a large "head". Make sure you are pushing it out from the pin side, and not from the head side. Looking down at the upside down receiver, with the muzzle pointing toward your right, it should be on the far side of the receiver, with the "head" on the left, or furthest away from you. GENTLY tap out the pin. It should come out very easily. All other receiver parts will now either drop out or you can gently lift them out. Lay them aside in your parts bin. In all instructions, the "left" side of the gun will be furthest away from you when the gun is laying on the table in front of you with the muzzle pointed to your right and the butt plate on your left.You should be able to remove the operating rod at this point. You will see a clearance cut for the rod in the rear of the receiver. Pull the operating rod handle until it is directly over the clearance cut and gently pull out. It should come out without too much difficulty. Then you should be able to remove the bolt assembly by pushing it forward and lifting it out of the receiver, as if it were going into battery, gently tipping it upwards and out. At this time, inspect the bolt to make sure the face is free from pits and burrs, that the firing pin hole is round, and that the rear of the firing pin is not heavily battered. If it is, you will need to replace the firing pin (see the CMP website) or if the bolt needs to be replaced, send the barreled receiver off to Fulton Armory to get a new properly headspaced bolt before the rifle is reassembled and fired. Do that after you have completed bedding, in case you will need to get a new stock if you mess up the bedding.Next, disassemble the clip latch. You do this by gently tapping out the long clip latch pin holding the receiver clip latch from the rear of the receiver, tapping it forward with a very small pin punch. Hold the clip latch with one hand while you pull out the pin with the other, so you don't lose the spring. With the pin out, gently remove the clip latch and spring and lay them in your parts bin.You can also, if you wish, remove the rear sight. Although it is not necessary for bedding, it is helpful for cleaning and also as an added benefit, eliminates the possibility of bending or breaking the aperture. You do this by loosening the slotted screw on the left side of the sight (which is the adjustment screw on the elevation knob), then unscrewing the slotted nut on the right side of the sight (windage), then unscrewing the sight by unscrewing the windage knob on the right side of the sight. All the parts should come out and then the sight cover can be gently pried off by inserting a flat head screwdriver under the rear of the sight cover and gently prying off. Clean it all and put it in your parts bin. You can also inspect the sight at this point to see if the click marks are sharp and the gear mechanism on the pinion is not worn. If so, replace with a new one. You can order from CMP, Gun Parts Inc., Fulton Armory, or other parts dealers. Fulton Armory also sells a new elevation disk with 1/2 or 1 minute clicks, but many of the second-generation sight pinions are too short to use it.You can also at this time tighten the mating of the aperture to the rear sight base, or go all the way to improve the sight by installing a new NM Rear sight aperture and base that you can order from Fulton Armory. The Fulton Armory option will allow you to have true 1/2 MOA adjustments of both windage and elevation (instead of the full MOA that is standard in these sights) and is recommended if you enter serious competition. If you choose to just tighten the mating between the aperture and the base to eliminate most of the play, the best way is to remove the base and the aperture. The sight base is hardened steel, so if you wish to do the job correctly, you will anneal the sides of the sight base a bit before working on it. Then, using a center punch, carefully peen the top sides of the rear sight base in at least 4 places -- two on each side -- until the aperture will not fit into rails on the base. Essentially, you are making a couple of high points

on the inside track of the rails of the sight base. Then, using a fine file or stone, carefully remove sufficient metal from the peened area on the rails until the aperture will reinsert with some effort, then polish with a stone or 600 grit sandpaper until the aperture slides in and out with minimal effort, but the play is eliminated. This is a trial and error process, but will greatly improve your rear sight by eliminating the play. I have also had some luck with using a punch to peen without annealing the base, but it is a more difficult proposition and does not work as well. If you want to forego trying to tighten the base entirely, then you can do what a lot of older shooters do, and simply run a rubber band over the aperture and the elevation knob to eliminate the play while you are shooting.Because of the way the receiver has to "lever" off the front stock ferrule when the receiver comes out of the stock, it will be necessary to file a bevel on the bottom rear receiver lugs. With the receiver in your vise and upside down, you need to file a short bevel on the bottom of the rear lugs only. The best way to do this is to file it off about a 45-degree angle, then round it slightly. Don't get over ambitious with this -- you only need about a 1/4" bevel. Smooth up your file marks with some stoning or 600 grit sandpaper and then use some touch-up bluing.You can now start on the disassembly of the trigger group. This is the only "dicey" part of the whole disassembly procedure. Carefully study the parts diagrams. You will see that there are two pins -- one holding the trigger/sear assembly, and one holding the hammer assembly. Before you do anything, release the hammer by pulling the trigger and cushioning the hammer with the palm of your hand. If you don't, it becomes next to impossible to remove the pins and you wind up with a real problem. Next, working from the left side of the trigger housing, gently tap out the trigger pin. Even with the hammer disengaged, it is under tension. I have found the best way to do this is to start driving it out with a small pin punch, then holding the trigger assembly with my hand and compressing the trigger/sear and hammer spring assembly, I can pull the trigger pin out without much difficulty by hand. I have also used my padded vise as a third hand to help in this process. When the pin is out, carefully release the pressure and then remove the trigger/sear assembly, and the hammer spring housing, spring and plunger. You should check the hammer spring housing at this point to make sure it is not cracked. If it is, replace it. Note that when reassembled, the "open" side of the housing faces inward.You can next remove the hammer pin without difficulty by a tap or two on the left side of the pin. At this point, no further disassembly of the trigger assembly is needed, although I generally take the time to pull out the safety and thoroughly clean the whole thing. The safety simply "pops" out of the recess in the left side of the trigger housing and goes back in the same way. All you will need for the bedding job is the safety, and trigger guard, so put the trigger guard back in with the hammer pin and you are ready to apply release agent to the trigger assembly for bedding when it is time to do that.Next, you will need to thoroughly clean the inside (and outside) of the stock. Remove the front ferrule by loosening the sling screw and gently tapping the ferrule off. Thoroughly clean and degrease the ferrule, both inside and out (you will be gluing it on the stock later), and set it aside. The best way of degreasing the stock, I have found, is to get some hot soapy water, a couple of toothbrushes, and some steel wool and give it a hot bath, scrubbing it both inside and outside with the soapy water, paying particular attention to the inside receiver inletted area and the front of the stock where the ferrule sits. Because of the amount of oil in these stocks, I have found that first using a good solvent or paint thinner is helpful, followed by adding some TSP to the hot water scrub. It should remove most of the finish (you will refinish the stock later) and form a suitable prep for the bedding job. Thoroughly rinse the stock (especially the inside) when you are

finished to remove all of the soap solution. Pat down all water and set the stock aside for a couple of days to dry. Do the same with the front handguard and rear handguard. Now would be a good time to steam out any dents, if you are so inclined. The end product is a stock that looks "washed out". Don't worry. It will quickly restore when you are done bedding.Finally, you should turn back to the barreled receiver and drive out the pin holding the lower band on the barrel. This is a roll pin, which should drive out fairly easily with a small pin punch, driving it from the right side of the barrel out the left with the barreled receiver upside down. Then, gently tap the lower band off the barrel and set it aside. You should also clean and degrease it at this time as well.Your prep work is now completed and you are ready to start the bedding process.

Part I. Getting Ready Part II. Prepping the Stock and Metal Part III. Glass Bedding the Garand Part IV. Working the Handguards -- Rear Handguard Work and Bedding the Front Handguard Part V. Gas Cylinder Work and Peening Front Sights Part VI. Reloading for the Garand

Back to Articles Accurizing An M-1 Garand 11 January 2003 By R. Craig Johnson, ©2002, All Rights Reserved

Be sure to read the disclaimer on Page I.

Part III. Glass Bedding the Garand Bedding the Garand is a multi-step process. First, with the dry stock in a vise, you will need to cut the bedding grooves in the top, bottom and inside of the stock. The location of these grooves is found in the M1 Rifle reprint from the NRA. These grooves act as the anchors for the bedding compound and give added support. What I do is to insert the barreled receiver and stripped trigger assembly into the stock, then with a pencil outline the receiver area on the stock both top and bottom and rear and use that line to guide my cutting in the stock with the Dremel tool. Remove the barreled receiver and trigger assembly and lay them aside. Start working with the rear of the stock where the back of the receiver rests. You will make a horseshoe cut about 1/4" deep around the back of the stock around the receiver bearing area, and about 1" up each side around the top. Don't go all the way up each side. You only need about an inch. The cut should be about 1/8" wide.Then, you will need to cut similar grooves on the top on each side of the receiver bearing area on the stock. On the left side of the stock, you will need to stop the cut just short of the clip release groove, and not cut into that. On the right side, you will go further. You will wind up with the grooves of different lengths on the top of the receiver bearing area on the stock.Flip the stock over. You will cut similar grooves on the bottom of the receiver bearing area where the trigger group clip cover sits. You will also cut two short grooves at the back of the

trigger area where the trigger housing itself sits at the bottom rear of the stock. Just short cuts, nothing too excessive, leaving the trigger channel untouched.Next, you will need to work into the inletted area of the stock itself. You will be cutting two grooves in the back of the receiver recess area of the stock for the rear receiver lugs, and two in front, for the front lugs. These cuts are diagonal into the wood and do NOT daylight on top or on bottom. You will be leaving a space of about 1/2 inch at the bottom of the rear receiver lugs, and about 1/4 inch in the front. Be particularly careful about the rear grooves, as these are your primary "bedding" grooves. Take plenty of time; make the cuts as accurately as possible, and leave the tolerances at the top and bottom according to the chart in the M1 Rifle schematic. I like to rough up the face of the rear inlet area where the lugs will be contacting at this time as well.Next, glue the front metal stock ferrule on the front of the stock. You should first take the swivel and completely screw out of the ferrule and coat them both either with release agent or a good paste wax. Lay the swivel aside for the time being. Next, mix a bit of AccuraGlas, or epoxy, and coat the front of the stock. Slide on the ferrule and wipe off any excess epoxy. Then, making sure the screw is well coated with release agent or paste wax, insert the screw and GENTLY tighten until some of the bedding compound squishes out from the ferrule/stock joint. Wipe off the excess again and then make sure the inside of the ferrule is lined up EXACTLY with the bottom of the stock channel, checking it constantly and gently tapping it from side to side with a dowel or nylon hammer to align it correctly. You should also make sure that the ferrule is exactly in the correct horizontal plane with the channel -- do this by placing a straight edge in the barrel channel and looking at the front of the ferrule. Because the sloppy tolerances in the metal to wood fit, it often will be high or low. Tap squarely into place. You will only get this one last chance for this, so don't forget to square it up. Then, set the stock aside overnight to allow the bedding to cure. Then you can back out the screw, insert the swivel and you are back in business.This is a good time to do a trigger job while you are waiting for the ferrule epoxy to set. The trigger jobs on an M1 Garand (it is exactly the same for the M1A) are not difficult and excellent instructions are found in the M1 Rifle and Baumgardner books. Essentially, it involves polishing the inside of the trigger housing, hammer sides, safety sides and trigger sides with a good India stone and 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper until it is smooth and the bluing is off. You are not trying to remove metal, just polish the stuff. Generally, you do NOT need to worry about polishing the sear or disconnector faces as most used Garands have pretty decent triggers. One area you do need to polish that is not mentioned in the publications is the top of the safety spring. You can pop out the spring off the side post with a flat-headed screwdriver. Look at where the spring rides the safety -- there is a small curved divot on the bottom of the safety on which it rides. You need to polish the top short arm end of the spring until it has no sharp edges (and rolls over easily), and the inside of the curve of the safety, so that the safety engages and disengages smoothly. Use 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper to start, finish with 600 grit. Then clean everything. I also polish the side of the spring as well, where it rides against the safety and other parts, using 600 grit sandpaper. You can pop the spring back on by placing the trigger housing on your bench, laying the spring on the post inside the housing, and then tapping it with a flathead screwdriver inserted through the far access hole. It should not take a great deal of effort. You can also polish the front of the hammer plunger the same way.Ok, before you actually glue stuff together, assemble the receiver in the stock a few times with the stripped trigger assembly (only the safety, spring, and trigger guard are in the assembly when you glue the rifle). Believe it or not, don't assume you know how to do this. You will be doing it under pressure as you have applied the bedding and sometimes stuff goes wrong when you don't

expect it. A little practice here goes a long, long way to alleviating problems later on. You should know exactly how you will be putting on the bedding, inserting the receiver, and inserting the trigger assembly. (Note that you will be leaving off the lower band, gas cylinder, and everything else -- you will be bedding the rifle with only the barreled receiver, and stripped trigger housing with spring, safety and trigger guard.) At this time, you should also place the bedding spacer on the barrel where the lower band was placed and make sure it slides tightly and bottoms into the front ferrule (which should now be glued in place). If it does not, and is too tight, file a bit off each side (make one pass on one side and then the other to keep them even) and keep trying until it fits. If it is too loose, use masking tape on each side (make it even) until it squeezes in the ferrule. Likewise, it should fit snugly on the barrel. If it is too loose, apply masking tape to each side (but NOT to the bottom) until it is tight. You should be able to rotate it around the barrel a bit by hand with some effort. It is critical to keep the bottom of the spacer barrel area in contact with the barrel and the bottom of the spacer in contact with the ferrule. That distance is .75 inches and establishes the pressure point needed on the barrel to make the gun shoot better. Don't add tape to either of those areas, which will increase the .75 distance, adding excess pressure to the barrel when you reassemble.Next, with modeling clay, fill every single hole in the receiver. Make sure you fill the hole and slot recesses for the clip latch, the pin holes in the receiver, the front bullet guide slots in the front of the front receiver lugs (note you will have epoxy stuck in those in the front lugs if you don't), and the operating rod slot. Also, put a 1/4" bead around the underside inside of the rear receiver (especially where the "lip" of the inside of the receiver rear is located, but making sure that the clay does not extend below the flats of the receiver rear. Next, do the same with the trigger housing. Make sure you use clay on the trigger slot itself. You should also make sure you apply a ball of clay on each side of the housing where the trigger guard pivots -- when you assemble the trigger into the stock, the clay will "push" out of the way. You will also need to put a small wad of clay in the clip release cutout in the stock itself.Next, you will apply at least two coats of release agent to the whole receiver bottom, receiver lugs and trigger housing. Be liberal with the release agent. If you are used to going sparingly on a bolt gun, don't try this with the M1 as there are many, many places where epoxy can get and lock the receiver into the stock, causing you to break out a chisel and ruining the stock to get it out. Don't skimp. Let me repeat. Don't skimp. The release agent should go roughly 1/2 the way up the sides of the receiver both inside and outside, on the sides of the lugs, front and back, inside, etc. When dry, then use some liquid paste wax on everything in the receiver area where you did not put release agent and for good measure, about 2 inches on the barrel in front of the receiver. A bit of paste wax and release agent is a lot cheaper than a new stock. Let the paste wax dry. Then, as an added assurance, overlap the junction between the paste waxed area and the release agent area with one coat of release agent. Let it dry thoroughly -- at least 1 hour.You are now ready for the big glue-up.I like to mix the bedding compound on my bench, using a couple of strips of duct tape on the top of the bench and mixing the bedding compound on top of that. It is easier than mixing in a small jar and you get a better mix. Mix the bedding compound according to the instructions. You will not need as much as you think. You should be able to have sufficient if you use two scoops of the small plastic spoon that is included with the kit. You can always mix more and having excess is not particularly good because you just waste it. I use popsicle sticks to do my mixing.When thoroughly mixed, glob some carefully on the interior recesses of the stock area. You should try to "press" it into place starting at one end and pressing forward until the entire groove

is filled to minimize the potential for gaps and voids. I like to use compound that is NOT dyed for that area. You can mix some brown dye in the compound that you use for the rear, top and bottom area, if you wish. You don't need to use a lot of dye -- just a tiny dip or two with your mixing stick should be sufficient. Mix the dye in thoroughly.Then, using a scraping and squeezing motion, squeeze the compound in the top and rear slots working from one end to the other to avoid gaps, leaving ample excess outside of the slot. Make sure there is plenty of compound all the way to the bottom of the recessed cut. Using a sharp pointed stick and swirling it in the cut will help achieve that. Leave plenty of excess on top. I like to see a mound of about 1/8th or more above the slots. Turn the rifle stock over, and do the same with the bottom slots and rear trigger slot. Be particularly careful in the rear trigger slot to keep it out of the trigger groove itself.Now the moment of truth. With the barrel spacer in place and the stock held right side up in a vise, slide the barreled receiver into the stock. Go slow, carefully push straight down and do not pull it out once you start putting it in. You can gently rock it a bit to help the glue to be evenly distributed. When it is fully in the stock, check the barrel spacer to make sure it is in the ferrule. Then, with the rifle supported in the receiver (a rubber band or two helps), flip the rifle over. You will see a lot of the epoxy has been pushed out. VERY carefully, using a few DRY cotton swabs, tease that glue out of the area. Be very careful not to disturb the release agent on the lugs. Pay particular attention to the locking areas of the rear lugs, and the slot into which the trigger assembly will slide. Then, when you have carefully teased out the excess glue (don't worry too much at this point about glue that is squeezed from the sides of the rear lugs except in the area of the locking area), gently lower the trigger assembly into the anchor slot. Then, with a short prayer, lever back the trigger guard until you can insert the U bar clip in the safety hole and around the outside of the trigger guard. The safety should be in the "on" position (to the rear). That will leave the trigger guard holding outside of the lockup by about 1/2" or a bit more.Next, turn the rifle back right side up. Visually check the alignment of the barreled receiver and the spacer to make sure everything is perfectly aligned and the spacer is sitting on the barrel and the ferrule, that it is straight up and down, and that it is aligned with the center of the bore. Your visual reference will be pretty good here if you are not cockeyed. If it is not centered and aligned, hand maneuver the alignment into place with the stock securely anchored in your padded vise. You may have to "horse" it around a bit, just be careful not to pull out the bedding or you will need to quickly remove the barreled action, clean everything off and start again.Then, leave it alone. Go to sleep overnight and say your prayers and vow to cease all your evil doings and to take out the garbage for your wife more often.In the morning, when the epoxy has set up, you will either be happy, or you will be buying a chisel. Turn the rifle over. Remove the U-bar clip. With gentle pressure, pull upwards on the trigger guard. If the trigger assembly comes out, you are almost home free. Next, with the rifle upside down, take a small block of wood or a 1/2 inch dowel, about 6 inches long. With the stock in the vise, and pads under the rifle barrel and receiver, place one end of the wood dowel on the inside of the back of the receiver and with a hammer, start tapping somewhat gently at first, then more firmly. The receiver should begin to drop out. As soon as it moves, you are home free and you can tap more gently until it fully drops out.If despite your best effort, you cannot get it out, you have a couple more options. Using a CO2 fire extinguisher (I'm not kidding), spray the inside of the receiver until it is coated with white cold frost -- take several good blasts to make sure it is really cold. Then, try your tapping harder this time after about 15 seconds. If it drops out, you are ok. If it doesn't, try putting it in the

freezer overnight and try again. If that fails, break out your chisel and plan on buying a new stock.If it comes out, it is time to cleanup the excess bedding. Use a very sharp chisel or knife and carefully trim the excess bedding compound off of the inside of the receiver inlet, and around the top. Be careful not to nick the bedded area. You are just trying to make it look smooth, and not trying for absolute perfection here.If you want, at this point you can also redo the entire procedure (new release agent) and bed the sides of the receiver. It is not necessary and you have to have some leeway to allow the receiver to "tip" out of the stock when it is reassembled into a gun. But now is the time to do it if you wish. You should understand, however, that you are not striving to have the sides bedded entirely, as the assembly of the rifle with the uncured side bedding in place will "push" it down to the bottom of the stock. You should not be terribly bothered by that and besides, the receiver will need some area to "tip" out when it is removed anyway. Again, you have to do the same procedures as before but this time, be careful not to add bedding compound to the areas where you have already bedded, unless there are gaps or holes to fill. If you have to fill some gaps, and before you put compound into the stock, scrub out the area with hot water to get rid of any remaining release agent on the existing bedding and let it dry a day or two first before you re-bed.Once you have done all of that, your rifle is now glass bedded. Wait at least a week for the bedding to fully cure before you take it to the range and test it.When done, clean all the clay and release agent from the receiver, stock and trigger housing. Reassemble all of the receiver parts, in the same order you took it apart. Follow the diagrams carefully as there are a couple of ways to screw up in the reassembly -- mainly on how you locate the follower and the bullet guides, clip release and follower arm. The diagrams should be followed closely.For the trigger housing, if you haven't done the trigger job, now is the time to do it following the instructions above. Reassemble the hammer and hammer pin. Then, reassemble the hammer spring housing, pivot arm, and spring. Grease them before putting them in the housing and make sure the housing cut is facing the sideplate of the housing, and not outward. Now the tricky part. With the hammer released, you need to align the trigger/sear assembly hole and the spring housing hole, with the pin hole in the housing. This is NOT easy the first time, but comes easier with practice. I generally hold it all in my right hand, compressing it with my forefinger until I can drop the pin in from the right side, then insert the housing assembly in my padded vise and GENTLY compress the whole hammer spring and trigger/sear assembly with my vise until I can push the pin flush with my finger. The CMP has some excellent photos on how to do this on their website. You will have to experiment on doing this and don't try to rush or force it. It just takes a while and you will be frustrated the first few times you try. But, you should not have to pound in the pin. At the most, a gentle tap or two with a brass hammer should suffice.You should also coat all the unbedded inside stock surfaces with a good grade of spar varnish or other sealant, to avoid any moisture warpage. I use two coats of spar varnish, but other sealant products or poly work just as well.When all is reassembled, coat the inside working parts of the trigger housing with a light grease or oil (I like Lubriplate, which holds up to the extreme desert heat), and then you are ready to reassemble the rest of the rifle and go test fire it. Take it to the range and test your bedding job and see what kind of group improvement has resulted. There is more work to do, as you will note below (and probably from your target results). When you are shooting, use a rest on the stock

only -- not on the handguards. You are not trying to center the shots, you are only shooting for group. One inch equals 1 MOA at 100 yards. Two inches at 200 yards is 1 MOA, and so on. Load and fire the rounds one at a time, using the single load adaptor or "SLED". Fire successive 5 shot groups to establish your group size. If you are testing ammo, use at least 5 rounds of each load. Otherwise, use good quality ammo, preferably Lake City match ammo for the Garand, or equivalent, if you can get it.

Part I. Getting Ready Part II. Prepping the Stock and Metal Part III. Glass Bedding the Garand Part IV. Working the Handguards -- Rear Handguard Work and Bedding the Front Handguard Part V. Gas Cylinder Work and Peening Front Sights Part VI. Reloading for the Garand

Back to Articles Accurizing An M-1 Garand 11 January 2003 By R. Craig Johnson, ©2002, All Rights Reserved

Be sure to read the disclaimer on Page I.

Part IV. Working the Handguards -- Rear Handguard Work and Bedding the Front Handguard You are now in the final stages of getting your Garand match ready. Now, you are going to work on the handguards and the gas cylinder. You have already put a pressure point in the area of the lower band by using the spacer when you bedded the rifle. Your goal now is to essentially free float the barrel in front of the lower band, with the exception of where the front of the gas cylinder attaches to the barrel. You will be doing that by gluing the front handguard to the lower ring, relieving the barrel channel in the front handguard and opening the barrel opening in the front handguard ferrule and gluing the front handguard in place.Start by cycling the action with the rifle upside down and watching for any contact places on the operating rod as it goes through the lower band and front handguard. There are a couple of easy ways to do this and the simplest is to just give a light coat of grease to the operating rod and watching for areas where the grease is scraped off. Start by removing the inner metal support of the front handguard by bending the "ears" on either end up and pulling out the whole metal support from the other end with a pair of pliers. As you will note, this substantially weakens the front handguard so you will have to be careful from now on and not handle the gun by the front handguard. Next, working with the lower band and with a good round file, remove just enough metal to give clearance to the rod. Next, you need to remove metal on the inside of the front handguard ferrule to give the barrel clearance. Generally, I like to see sufficient clearance that you can slip in a piece of card stock all away around the barrel and between it and the ferrule hole. You can do this with peening the inside of the hole in the band, or I have a tapered grinding stone that is just the right diameter that allows me to chuck the band in the drill press and take off just enough metal in the ferrule hole to give me the necessary barrel clearance without cutting the

ferrule hole through. I also take that time to file the front of the ferrule square and flat with my hand file and then use a bit of touch-up bluing. Filing the front of the ferrule square also helps with the clearance you will be getting when you machine down the rear of the gas cylinder in the next section.With the lower band in place, but without the lower band pin in, reassemble the rifle with the stock and receiver first. Slide on the front handguard to the lower band and see if you can feel any areas where it contacts the barrel and all the while, having a piece of card stock around the barrel and between it and the front ferrule hole. If there is contact, slide it back off and go to work with your round file. When you are satisfied that there are no contact points, you are ready to do some judicious gluing. First, remove the operating rod and the rear handguard and the pin from the lower band. You are going to center the lower band and handguard with the stock and gas cylinder, regardless of where the groove is cut for the roll pin. The objective is to get things straight and free floated. The roll pin groove may or may not be in correct alignment. In short, you are making the alignment of the free floated parts correct then worrying about where the roll pin inserts, rather than trying to make the alignment fit where the roll pin groove is located. In point of fact, by the time you have properly glued the lower band in place, the roll pin is almost superfluous.Make sure the rear end of the wood of the front handguard is roughed up and free from oil and grease and that the inside of the lower band is degreased as well. Using dyed AccuraGlas, dab a bit of AccuraGlas on the rear of the front handguard, being careful not to get any on the barrel or stock ferrule. You don't need to have a lot, just a few dabs. You are gluing to "center" the front handguard at this point, not to build strength. That will come later. Then, with the rifle in a vise and the lower band locked into the stock ferrule with the receiver in the stock and tightened down with the trigger assembly (and the lower band installed without the roll pin), gently tap the front handguard into the lower band so the glass makes contact and will glue it together. Wipe off any excess and make sure none drips into the stock ferrule. With the front handguard in the lower band and before the epoxy sets, turn the rifle upside down in your vise. Put the gas cylinder on by just sliding it on, without the cylinder lock or plug. You are putting it on just for alignment purposes. Inspect the rear of the gas cylinder and make sure you align the front handguard with the rear stub that protrudes from the rear of the gas cylinder. You should be able to rotate the front handguard just enough so that it is exactly centered. Make sure that the card stock is between the handguard ferrule and the barrel, however. Set it aside and let it cure overnight.The next day, you can take off the gas cylinder and without removing the front handguard from the lower band, gently tap off the front handguard ferrule after you remove the receiver from the stock. With a small amount of AccuraGlas, you can then glue the front handguard ferrule to the front of the handguard, and again, keeping the card stock between the ferrule and the barrel. Let it sit overnight.You now should have a front handguard that is aligned with the stock and free floated from the barrel forward of the lower band. You are not finished yet. Next, remove the front handguard from the gun entirely. Because the front handguard is now part of the lower band, it will be necessary for you to first remove the action from the stock to relieve the pressure. You should then be able to slide it off with a couple of gentle taps. You will need to strengthen the joint between the lower band and handguard.To increase the strength of this joint, you will drill a hole and install a 1/2" #6 wood screw on each side of the lower band running into the front handguard. This adds the needed strength. Be

careful how you drill and keep everything centered. The best place to put the screws is on either side where the wood is the thickest. Countersink the metal a bit to accept the screwhead, but not too much. Then, install the screws a couple of times each to chase out the hole. Next, with a small amount of AccuraGlas, coat each screw and install it in the handguard. The screw head will protrude a bit. After the glass sets, you can file or cut it off with a Dremel tool, polish and add some touchup bluing. Add a bit of AccuraGlas to areas that did not get thoroughly glued initially, to add more strength, working it in with a sharp pointed stick. Let cure and trim. At this point, I also like to use a bit of varnish or oil to seal the inside of the front handguard.When all of that is done and the epoxy has cured (a day or two), it is time to reassemble the gun and to permanently (almost) install the lower band with the front handguard attached. This is a two step process. First, clean and degrease the inside of the lower band barrel ring and the outside of the barrel where the two will join. Then slide the front handguard and lower band into place. Then, before you place the barreled receiver into the stock, with Green Wicking grade loctite, apply a thin film and work it in between the lower band and the barrel and wipe off any excess that may have protruded out. Before it sets, put the barreled receiver into the stock levering off the lower band and stock ferrule as you would normally assemble the gun. Lock it all down with the trigger assembly and leave for a couple of hours. The lower band should now be attached to the barrel almost permanently. You can now take the barreled action out of the stock as normal. If all has gone correctly and your alignment is true and the roll pin groove is where it should be, you can install the roll pin in the lower band at this time. If not, you will have to fill the roll pin hole with a high heat glue to insure it stays in place. The recommended adhesive is General Electric RTV-106, which withstands heat to 500° (type in RTV-106 on the Internet Search to find suppliers), or, I like JB Weld Epoxy, which has a over 600° tolerance and makes a permanent bond in lieu of the roll pin. If you use JB Weld, you should also use that for the lower band in lieu of the Green loctite. I have been able to successfully install the roll pin most of the time without having to use the adhesive. If you use the adhesive, or if you use the JB Weld, you just need to plan on replacing the front handguard and lower band when you replace the barrel. You are now done with the front handguard.You can then turn your attention to the rear handguard. This is an easy fix. You only need to remove about 1/16th or so of the wood at the rear of the handguard, so it doesn't touch the front of the receiver when it is installed. I have found the best way of doing this is to scribe a line on the top of the handguard, then take it over to the grinding stone and slowly grind off the necessary wood. Using the grinder is, I have found, the best way to prevent it from splintering, which often happens when you attempt to hand file it and you get a faster and better job. Touch up the raw wood with a bit of walnut dye and oil and you should be good to go. You should also place a dab of AccurGlas in each side of the barrel cuts just behind the contact area for the rear handguard band, to keep the handguard from sliding back under recoil. If you wish, use a bit of release agent on the edges of the band to help prevent it from being permanently attached to the barrel.You are now done with the handguards and ready to turn your attention to the final modification -- the Gas Cylinder Work.

Part I. Getting Ready Part II. Prepping the Stock and Metal Part III. Glass Bedding the Garand

Part IV. Working the Handguards -- Rear Handguard Work and Bedding the Front Handguard Part V. Gas Cylinder Work and Peening Front Sights Part VI. Reloading for the Garand

Back to Articles Accurizing An M-1 Garand 11 January 2003 By R. Craig Johnson, ©2002, All Rights Reserved

Be sure to read the disclaimer on Page I.

Part V. Gas Cylinder Work and Peening Front Sights The final part of doing the accuracy work is the gas cylinder. Before starting on the gas cylinder and with the gas cylinder installed, check the front sight base to see if it wobbles. If it wobbles, then the splines on the barrel will need to be peened a bit. You simply cannot expect good accuracy if the front sight is wobbling around as you shoot. To peen the splines, take the round end of a ball peen hammer and rest it on the splines, and then strike the face with another hammer. You don't need much force, just enough to slightly peen down the sides of the splines. Do that on each of the three splines and peen at the same distance from the muzzle each time. Check the fit again and peen again if it is still loose. If you use too much force, you can damage the lands inside of the barrel and it is recommended you use a bore spud for this work to minimize the possibility of damage (Brownells # 034-100-299 $9.95).You will next need to file a 30° bevel on each side of the rear lug of the gas cylinder to prevent it from contacting the front handguard ferrule. There is nothing magic about this, just use a good file and keep the bevels equal on both sides, periodically checking. Don't expect to use touchup bluing on this, because the cylinder is stainless and the touchup won't work.Inspect the rectangular gas port hole in the cylinder. Remove any burrs that may be present.Next, you will need to remove a bit of metal (shorten the cylinder) from the rear of the cylinder and remove some metal from the inside of the rear barrel ring of the cylinder. Unless you are very adept at filing, this is a project you should have done at a machine shop. Your goal is to prevent contact between the front handguard ferrule (your previous filing of the face of the handguard ferrule will have helped in this regard) and the rear of the gas cylinder by milling off about 1/32nd from the rear of the gas cylinder so that when the rifle is assembled, the rear of the gas cylinder does not come in contact with the front of the front handguard ferrule.With respect to the rear barrel ring (and not the gas cylinder piston ring), you should open up the rear barrel ring from .620 inch to .640, which is a radial increase of .010". You have to use considerable caution to prevent it from becoming too thin where it contacts the gas cylinder itself. And, you want it to be directly in line with the front opening of the gas cylinder.Next, shorten the gas cylinder (as noted above) by removing about 1/32" from the rear of the gas cylinder and barrel ring. This can be done with very careful filing (you can use your vise jaws and a straight edge as a guide if you are careful), or take it to a machine shop. You want it to be square.You are almost done. Next, you need to index the gas cylinder to the operating rod. To do this, you should follow the directions of JB Roberts Jr. found on page 18 of the M1 Rifle reprint. To

paraphrase, you first drive the gas cylinder on the barrel until the gas port is clearly visible at the rear of the clearance hole. Then, you reassemble the rifle and leaving the bolt open, you then will use the gas cylinder lock to swage the gas cylinder rearward until two conditions are met. First, the chrome button on operating rod (gas piston) must be completely inside of the cylinder when looked at from underneath and the bolt open. Secondly, the gas cylinder lock must not be more than 60° past dead center (and the closer to being dead center or slightly before dead center is better). When those conditions are met, you will stake the rear of the splines on the barrel to lock down the gas cylinder (again, using a barrel spud will help prevent damage to the lands). To stake, I use a center punch and just tap both sides of the barrel splines where the rear of the sight mount joins the barrel. I stake all three splines. Then, you should turn the gas cylinder lock back to the center (if it is hard, tap it slightly with a brass hammer), install the plug and turn it tight. Before you spike, you should also make sure there is adequate clearance between the rear of the gas cylinder and the front of the front handguard.Reassemble the rifle, test for any areas that the operating rod is rubbing against, file or sand those areas until the operating rod rides through them free and then you are ready for final accuracy and load testing. There is one final enhancement that you can do and that is to have the muzzle re-crowned by a good gunsmith. Or, if you are brave or foolish or both, you can try to do it with a hand reamer. (Brownells Part # 080-930-308 $43.74 or alternate -- speak with Brownells Technical staff as to the options.) Once that is done, the rifle will shoot as well as it will ever shoot, without a new competition match barrel. Complete your project with a good numbered competition leather sling from Brownells (Part # 084-270-120 $48.20 and worth every penny). Sling up tight, shoot straight and be happy!

Part I. Getting Ready Part II. Prepping the Stock and Metal Part III. Glass Bedding the Garand Part IV. Working the Handguards -- Rear Handguard Work and Bedding the Front Handguard Part V. Gas Cylinder Work and Peening Front Sights Part VI. Reloading for the Garand

Back to Articles Accurizing An M-1 Garand 11 January 2003 By R. Craig Johnson, ©2002, All Rights Reserved

Be sure to read the disclaimer on Page I.

Part VI. Reloading for the Garand This is not to be a long section on reloading and the writer assumes you are familiar with the various reloading techniques and apply them safely. There are a couple of quirks about reloading for the Garand based on two principal issues. The first is the problem of slam fires, which was noted earlier. To recap, the firing pin on the Garand is free floating. As such, it has the possibility of advancing and hitting the primer with sufficient force to cause ignition, even if the bolt is not

yet in battery. The result is a very dangerous situation that can severely injure, if not kill, the shooter or bystanders. This is one area where excess caution is warranted. Much of the slam fire problem has been caused by improperly seated primers that protrude above the case head, or by using the wrong primer. The only primers that the writer suggests you use to minimize the possibility of slam fires are the CCI Mil-spec primers (CCI # 34). These have a thicker cup and it takes more force to cause ignition than regular primers. The slight increase in accuracy that may be obtained by using Match grade primers is not worth the risk. Most shooters will not notice the difference anyway and if you simply decide to only use mil-spec primers from the outset, you will work up your loads using those. Use of the correct mil-spec primer plus seating them at the bottom of the primer hole so they don't protrude above the case head, are the best things you can do in reloading to minimize the possibility of a slam fire. The other thing you must do to minimize the possibility of slam fires is to always load from a clip. While single fire will require you to use a single fire adaptor or "SLED", it is worth the few bucks to maximize safety.The second issue involves the burning rate of the powder. Because the operating rod is extremely long, slow burning powders will generate excessive gas pressure that may bend the operating rod, ruining all your careful accuracy work. Generally, do not use any powder slower than IMR 4350 for anything in your Garand. The best results are obtained with burn rates between IMR 3031 and IMR 4064. Personally, I like IMR 4895 as the all around choice for projectiles of 147 grains through the 173-grain match bullet. There is a good article on loads for the Garand in the Fulton Armory technical information page, which should give you a good start at working up loads from 147 grain through the 173-grain projectiles. Good supplies of pulled military bullets, including the ball M-2 152 grain bullets and the Match M-73 173-grain bullets, can be ordered from Jeff Bartlett at 1309 W. 9th St., Owensboro, KY 42301 Tel: (270) 685-2432 or (800) 714-6348 FAX: (270) 684-6249. I have dealt with Mr. Bartlett for some time and have found him extremely reliable and helpful.Finally, a word about brass. Garands tend to chew up brass in enormous quantities. Because of the large diameter of the chamber, you will not need to have a small base die to size the brass, but at the same time, you should not reload your brass more than twice unless you have a special tight match chamber on a replacement barrel. If you reload more than twice, you will experience brass failures and case splitting and you should get yourself a broken case extractor (Brownells # 769-100-306 ($17.95). I do NOT recommend loading more than twice. As usual, make certain your brass is trimmed to length (even more critical in a semi-automatic firearm, particularly one that has a slam fire issue), and are properly sized. As with most of the other items, you are well-advised to use a good grade of military brass, such as Lake City. Jeff Bartlett often carries Lake City match brass that does not have the crimped primer. You can use crimped primers as well, and Jeff will remove the crimp for a small additional fee. Avoid most of the foreign brass, particularly that from lesser-developed nations. Not only do you risk getting corrosive primers when you first shoot it (if you buy loaded ammo), you will also find the brass is more brittle and splits even on one loading. Likewise, some of the US commercial brass does not have the wall thickness to withstand repeated stretching in the Garand chamber. Mil-spec brass with mil-spec primers is the right way to go. As always, start with a reduced load and work up slowly.It is now time to go shoot. Have fun, and join us at the State Association high power matches this summer!

Part I. Getting Ready

Part II. Prepping the Stock and Metal Part III. Glass Bedding the Garand Part IV. Working the Handguards -- Rear Handguard Work and Bedding the Front Handguard Part V. Gas Cylinder Work and Peening Front Sights Part VI. Reloading for the Garand

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