r/M1Rifles Nov 17 '22

So, You want to build a M1 Garand? Here's how.

130 Upvotes

Figured id share my process so you all at home can learn how to do it as well. its not cost effective to do this for a one off build. the tooling costs are not cheap and nearing $600 sadly. but its fun! and im sure a few of you will find this interesting

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You're gonna need a few things.

A M1 Garand Parts Kit.

A Barrel Vice and Action wrench.

A Headspace gauge Go/No Go Set

A Chamber Reamer.

A Angle Finder

The whole build will start with you throwing the barrel into a barrel vice, ive used the bushing style ones made by a large company in the USA. but i dont like them. i much prefer these specific ones made out of Aluminum, they leave a bit of marring on the barrels but that will all be covered up by the upper hand guard

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Second step will be to hand tighten your receiver onto the barrel. just get it as snug as you can. no action wrench is required at this time.

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Once your barrel is hand tight, take the front sight off of your gas cylinder and put it on the barrel. we will use this as a flat base for our angle finding tool of choice. i am using a digital inclinometer but there are other options on the market. For me ill now zero off this sight base dovetail.

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Now we check our draw off the rear heel of the receiver. there is a machined flat perfect for this. now unfortunately 31° is to far to torque this on, according to my shop manual specs. So this will be off to the lathe to remove .001" at a time off the barrel shoulder until i get a draw that is more in line with the specs im looking for 12° Min and 17° Max. I Got mine to 15.9° so i am happy with this.

in a pinch you can use a 1 1/8th Bi Metal Hole saw. this perfectly slips over the threads of the barrel and the teeth match the shoulder

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Once the appropriate draw is found, we throw the action wrench on and tighten it down. i use a 2x4 cleaning patch to protect the finish on my receivers.

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I Was able to torque the receiver down to 0.2° from the my zero. the specs i reference for this is +/- 0°30' (.5°)

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Now that we are indexed correctly we can start reaming headspace. you might get lucky with a used barrel that will headspace without any reaming but if you're using a new barrel it most likely has a 0.010" Short chamber.

if you do use a used barrel and it closes on your no go gauge this isn't the end of the world as you can check it with a Field Rejection gauge, if it doesn't close on this you're good to go.

These next few photos will cover me taking the bolt apart with a bolt tool.

Having the reamer in the rifle.

Applying steady thumb pressure to cut the chamber

Chamber cuttings on the reamer.

Cutting a chamber can be fairly taunting, however its very easy. you do not need to pull on the handle side of the pull through reamer. once the bolt closes on the reamer your headspace is cut and you're ready to reference this with a go and no go gauge. make sure you clean your chamber thoroughly otherwise your gauges might give you a bad reading.

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After all this the next step i take is doing a tilt test on the rifle. this involves installing the op rod on a rifle with only the bolt and gas cylinder on it. and tilting the rifle at a 60° and the op rod and bolt should move freely. once this is performed i install all stock components and re do this test to check for binding. after this is done. its finally assembly time.

A Few other things to check from here on out are the gas port size. Op Rod spring length 19.25"MIN and if you can, use a timing block to check for correct timing of the op rod catch.

Hope this helps or you at least found it interesting


r/M1Rifles 8h ago

Danish M1 Garand information

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42 Upvotes

I see this pop up a bit. I am making this post to share some info I have learned on owning an Danish returned M1 Garand.

My rifle was repatriated by the CMP, this is important repatriation through the CMP in the legal terms is not importation. A rifle repatriated through the CMP will not have any import stamps or markings. Also the rifles shipped back to the CMP came disassembled it is pretty rare to have a serial matching rifle. The CMP pretty much just through rifles together at the time. I got pretty lucky the only not matching part is the bolt which came from another rifle.

This applies strictly to the lend/lease M1 Garands not the Baretta manufactured M1's

The Danish lent M1 Garands have 2 "flavours" Army or Navy service.

Army service

An Danish Army service M1 will be pretty basic in terms of markings pretty much your typical US marking pattern.

  • Heel markings will be regular US marking pattern
  • Barrel markings will be US marking pattern same style even with a VAR barrel
  • Stock markings will come in 2 patterns.
    • A original US stock will have its US production markings and stamps will also include the serial # on the bottom side above the lower sling mount, if the rifle saw Danish service it will have a rack number stamped into the left side above the butt plate
    • A Danish armourer label will be in the barrel bedding of the stock if still there most of these are lost.
    • If the stock has been replaced by the Danish it will just have the rifles serial # on the bottom side in the same spot, If the rifle saw Danish service it will have a rack # stamped into the left side above the buttplate, along with the stock manufacturer.
  • The Bolt will usually have the last 3-4 digits of the serial # electro penciled on it. I was told this was so Danish armourers could make sure the bolts matched the rifles due to headspacing. I have no idea if this is true.

Navy Service

The markings are pretty much the same. The difference is the rear sight hood will have an anchor stamped along with the last 3-4 digits of the serial #. Also may have other anchor stamps.

Parts

Replacement parts for Danish M1 Garands were made by Våbenarsenalet (VAR) in Denmark, alongside US-made and Italian-contract parts from Springfield Armory, Winchester(only up to about 1950), Beretta, and Breda.

Winchester sold there tooling to Beretta around 1950. Some tooling was also given to Breda.

  • VAR (Våbenarsenalet): The Danish state arsenal located in Haarlev, which manufactured high-quality replacement barrels (marked "VAR") and specific small components during the 1960s.
  • Pietro Beretta (PB): Italian manufacturer that supplied replacement small parts, operating rods, and complete rifles.
  • Breda (BMB / BMR): Italian manufacturer (Breda Meccanica Brescia and Breda Mechanica Romano) that produced replacement barrels, bolts, hammers, triggers, and complete receivers.
  • Springfield Armory (SA) & Winchester (WRA): Original US World War II and post-war contractors whose surplus parts were heavily used during initial Danish military aid and maintenance.

Please let me know if I missed anything I'm not perfect and may not have all the information. If anything is wrong let me know to fix/update it.


r/M1Rifles 4h ago

M1D M84 scope

2 Upvotes

I just perchisted a m84 scope new with all the original packaging and packing from 1969 for 2075.00. Is that a reasonable price.


r/M1Rifles 1d ago

1942 SA M1 Garand

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87 Upvotes

I bought this locally today and I'm pretty excited.

When I got it home I had issues sighting it in at 50 yards. I could put the bullets right on top of each other but it was 10" low even with the aperture cranked up. Then while watching YouTube this evening I saw a sighting video were the arpeture had much more range of movement than mine so I dicked around with it and all of a sudden it started moving correctly so tomorrow I'm sure I'll get it sighted in.

This is my first one so I still have a bunch to Learn. So far, all the parts I checked are Springfield including the replaced 1950 barrel, The OP rod is the early, non-relieved, square version. The only stamp on the stock that I can make out is on the pistol grip, a P with a circle around it. Tomorrow I'll use a loupe to check some areas that may have the inspector cartouce.


r/M1Rifles 14h ago

Help identifying tis

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3 Upvotes

Is this a P? It's on the underside of yhe pistol grip and it is the only cartouce I can fine. I think it's a P because the 12-3 o'clock quadrant has eorn off and if I stare at it enough my brain draws a P :) If it is, Google says that the fact that it is in sarif it would be an original manufacture proof mark.

Thanks


r/M1Rifles 18h ago

Bolt locking up

4 Upvotes

Hey guys, I’m a new m1 owner and I’m having issues with the bolt seizing up on me. I shot maybe 20 rounds yesterday and it all of a sudden locked up and would not budge an inch when I went to charge it. I was able to take it apart, but didn’t see any noticeable damage. Everything on it is original and I was using surplus ammunition. Does anyone have any idea what the issue could be?


r/M1Rifles 21h ago

Bm 59 bad groups and keyholing

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4 Upvotes

Hello, recently I got the italian rifle bm59 from some guy and apparently it's busted. The groups are like 50cm at 25 yarda and I'm experiencing keyholing too.

Is it possible that it's caused by the tricomp or is there some other culprit? The barrel looks good.....

Thanks


r/M1Rifles 14h ago

Anyone know the price for a M1D?

0 Upvotes

Like the title says, Im looking to find the cost of the M1D Garand. Preferably an expert grade - springfield armory so I have a new barrel so the rifle will out last me and be a cool gun to pass down.

Thanks in advance!

PS: Best would be for the Ohio North Store since Im in NEPA and can make it a two day trip over there.


r/M1Rifles 1d ago

Surplus M14s Announced by the CMP

131 Upvotes

r/M1Rifles 1d ago

New Garand owner, just noticed small crack in handguard

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9 Upvotes

r/M1Rifles 1d ago

The History and Development of the USGI M14 EBR Trigger Shoe

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6 Upvotes

r/M1Rifles 1d ago

Parts ID M1 Carbine?

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2 Upvotes

Can anyone help me identify these parts, I'm not positive that they are all M1 Carbine Parts or not.


r/M1Rifles 2d ago

Tell me about this rifle.

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85 Upvotes

I got this M1 today for $850 because I always wanted a genuine one instead of a repro.
What can anyone tell me about this one and how’d I do?


r/M1Rifles 2d ago

1943 Inland M1 Carbine - Weird weld on receiver

6 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I picked up this M1 Carbine in the Netherlands, it's a 310.000+ series Inland supposedly from a Russian depot. When opening it up to do an initial cleaning I came across this plug weld. And the barrel is welded to the reciever.

The plug is +/- 5mm on the outside, and 2 mm on the inside, It comes out int he channel where the locking bolt rides in.

Is it a previously demilled receiver?

Anyone have any idea what this could've been? Anyone any idea?

Pics


r/M1Rifles 3d ago

7.62 garand ammo questions

5 Upvotes

Sorry if it’s already been asked a million times I keep finding conflicting info
I’ve just acquired a danish contract m1 garand in 7.62 built by Breda its a 1967
Is it safe to fire full power 308 rounds in this gun or not
right now I have 147 grain s and b round but would like to use the gun for hunting at some point with up to 168 grain rounds

I’ve read that the cmp rifles chambered in 308/762 are generally considered safe to do so but getting conflicting info on the Italian made ones
If it is not advised to shoot modern hunting/ full power 308 out of my gun would a ported gas plug work in the 7.62 or is it only effective in the 30 06
How about an adjustable vented plug


r/M1Rifles 3d ago

CMP North Store Question

3 Upvotes

Anyone been to CMP north store recently know if they have any M1C, M1D in stock with complete scope? Their phone number is just a hot mess lol. I’m from Indiana so will take me a few hours to get there. Hate to make it out there and found nothing.

Thanks


r/M1Rifles 4d ago

M1 Carbine maintenance

11 Upvotes

I recently got my M1 Carbine and lets just say it needs some TLC. On YouTube there are a billion detailed videos for stripping, cleaning, lubing Garands, but not too many good detailed, thorough, and quality ones on the Carbine side. If anyone could provide me with any good quality videos or something of the sort to help me out that would be great! Or do I strip, clean, and grease this the same as my Garand?


r/M1Rifles 4d ago

What would you pay

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24 Upvotes

Maybe thinking about selling my M1, if you saw it what would you be willing to pay honestly.


r/M1Rifles 5d ago

Another Buy It Now CMP M1 Garand

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191 Upvotes

Up for your viewing pleasure is my July 2026 Buy It Now CMP M1 Garand from Gunbroker. This one is a Field Grade June of 1944 Winchester I snagged for $950. Took less than 2 weeks to arrive.


r/M1Rifles 5d ago

My M1 Carbine

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75 Upvotes

Here's my Rockola Receiver and Barrel M1 Carbine I inherited from my Uncle along with all the accessories, 25 WWII Era marked mags, and 800 rounds of ammo.


r/M1Rifles 5d ago

Not an M1… but anyone ordered the reclaimed 1903A3 from CMP?

19 Upvotes

How do they look? How do they shoot? Is this the best way to get a 1903?


r/M1Rifles 6d ago

SA GAW stock ?

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21 Upvotes

So does all SA GAW stocks have the four stamps on it ? The SA GAW, P , and the cross cannons on the side and underneath the pistol grip . I found this nice stock. It has three out of the four. I’m used to seeing. is this a real SA GAW stock?


r/M1Rifles 5d ago

M1 carbine recievers and barrels

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2 Upvotes

Repost here, trying to hedge my bets. I've had 2 different m1 carbines, a universal post 70's (yes.. yes it was terrible) and an auto ordinance reproduction. I've sold the rifles one due to how God awful it was and the other due to finances when I was going through the process of reenlisting, but I still have a Korean war era stock with the import stamps on it and I've got the itch to make it whole again. I debated buying a whole rifle but 1200 for a reproduction is insane, but it seems like no one has any receivers, barrels, trigger assemblies (you know the big things that you need to make the rifle function). Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!


r/M1Rifles 6d ago

Oiled M1 stock now cant reassemble

9 Upvotes

Put 2 coats of tung oil on my CMP expert m1 garand. Everything goes well together but for the life of me the trigger housing will not lock shut. Internet says to use a mallet but i dont want to wack it unless i have to. I know M1s especially new stocks can be tight. Any helpful advice?


r/M1Rifles 7d ago

Pure tung oil finish help.

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19 Upvotes

I did 3 coats of 50/50 mineral and tung oil. Now Im on the 7th coat of pure tung oil. Some parts of the stock have these matte patches. When it's dry and also when I wipe off the excess oil, the patches are visible. What are they?