I recently purchased an expert grade M1 Garand from the Civilian Marksmanship Program. The whole process from fulfilling the various requirements, to sending in the order form and receiving it at my door took 14 days. The expert-grade rifles are refurbished service-grade rifles with a new stock and a new Criterion-manufactured barrel that gauges 0 at the muzzle and throat. This kills the collector value, but I was looking for a shooter since I insist on shooting every gun in my collection. It was relatively expensive at $1150, but I felt that the premium was worth it to get something guaranteed to be in better condition than a rack-grade rifle and Garands aren't getting any cheaper. Mine is a Springfield-manufacture receiver with a serial number in the low 1,800,000 range that places the date somewhere around July or August of 1943. It is likely that it served in the latter part of WWII and possibly the Korean War as well. It is in generally very good condition, with only the receiver and the underside of the gas tube showing signs of minor pitting/rust. I took it out to the range yesterday and shot it at 50 yards with an average 2-3 MOA group from a seated position using PPU "M1 Garand" .30-06. I'm fairly confident that the limiting factor here is the shooter and that it is capable of better accuracy.
Since I received the rifle, I installed a USGI-spec web sling and got myself 6 additional clips and a bandolier. The en bloc clip system was initially hard to figure out, but became intuitive over time and it's definitely an interesting feeding mechanism. Nothing beats the "ping" the rifle makes when it ejects the en bloc clip after the last round is fired. Recoil is relatively smooth, at least compared to my 1917 Enfield. The sights are fairly simple to use with a large aperture rear window and I only had to adjust the elevation to achieve a traditional battle zero setting of 250 yards. Out of 3 fully-loaded clips fired, I had one failure to feed but that may be due to user error while loading the clips. Overall, the rifle is definitely obsolete by modern standards but it makes an excellent range or hunting gun and I wouldn't feel naked if I had to use this weapon in battle even today.
The M1 Garand has a special sentimental value as I have been obsessed with WWII since I was a kid. I firmly believe that it was the best general-issue infantry weapon of WWII and it laid the foundation for the famous battle rifles of the later periods (FAL, G3, M14, BM59, FN49). It was also the weapon used by the US when they intervened on behalf of South Korea during the Korean War, and that is important to me since I am ethnically Korean and my grandfather participated in that conflict and was likely issued an M1 Garand. Even my father used an M1 Garand for basic training in the Korean Army during the early 1980s. Ammo is expensive at a dollar a pop, but it's worth the price to take it out to the range every now and then and in the meantime appreciate it for its historical value. I highly recommend everyone obtains an M1 Garand from the CMP before the supply dries up completely and you start seeing these going for $3K+. Thanks for reading!
Since I received the rifle, I installed a USGI-spec web sling and got myself 6 additional clips and a bandolier. The en bloc clip system was initially hard to figure out, but became intuitive over time and it's definitely an interesting feeding mechanism. Nothing beats the "ping" the rifle makes when it ejects the en bloc clip after the last round is fired. Recoil is relatively smooth, at least compared to my 1917 Enfield. The sights are fairly simple to use with a large aperture rear window and I only had to adjust the elevation to achieve a traditional battle zero setting of 250 yards. Out of 3 fully-loaded clips fired, I had one failure to feed but that may be due to user error while loading the clips. Overall, the rifle is definitely obsolete by modern standards but it makes an excellent range or hunting gun and I wouldn't feel naked if I had to use this weapon in battle even today.
The M1 Garand has a special sentimental value as I have been obsessed with WWII since I was a kid. I firmly believe that it was the best general-issue infantry weapon of WWII and it laid the foundation for the famous battle rifles of the later periods (FAL, G3, M14, BM59, FN49). It was also the weapon used by the US when they intervened on behalf of South Korea during the Korean War, and that is important to me since I am ethnically Korean and my grandfather participated in that conflict and was likely issued an M1 Garand. Even my father used an M1 Garand for basic training in the Korean Army during the early 1980s. Ammo is expensive at a dollar a pop, but it's worth the price to take it out to the range every now and then and in the meantime appreciate it for its historical value. I highly recommend everyone obtains an M1 Garand from the CMP before the supply dries up completely and you start seeing these going for $3K+. Thanks for reading!
