Garand build

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Robmcleod82

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So I am embarking on a m1 garand build. Always wanted one so I guess ill build it. I am getting my hands on a stripped breda reciever (I dont care its just for shooting). I was thinking of getting a criterion barrel, and I am on a search for all the rest of the parts.
What Tips can you guys offer for building one of these rifles?
 
Marstar has a fair number of parts.

Gunpartscorp.com is another good place.

Once I wanted to do this, then I just decided it was too much hassle so I just bought the whole gun...
 
Unless you can get the whole can of parts at once, WMU is right about the whole over the parts thing. Your choice of barrels is correct, just the rest of the parts may not measure up.
 
The receiver is the cheapest part of this. Apart from the cost of the parts you will need to invest in some tooling to do the job properly. This includes the following:
-a barrel vice
-an action wrench
-a set of .30-06 headspace gauges
-a pull thru finishing reamer to set up the headspace on a new barrel

You will also need to resolve how you will establish the barrel indexing/timing to ensure that the barrel is set at top dead center when installed on the receiver.

The definitive technical reference on the Garand/M14 is the Kuhnhausen Shop Manual. The M1 Garand Complete Assembly Guide by Kuleck is also useful, but be careful of his advice on barrel timing as his recommended starting positions are out of whack. Both of these books are/have been available from Brownells.
 
purple said:
The receiver is the cheapest part of this. Apart from the cost of the parts you will need to invest in some tooling to do the job properly. This includes the following:
-a barrel vice
-an action wrench
-a set of .30-06 headspace gauges
-a pull thru finishing reamer to set up the headspace on a new barrel

You will also need to resolve how you will establish the barrel indexing/timing to ensure that the barrel is set at top dead center when installed on the receiver.

The definitive technical reference on the Garand/M14 is the Kuhnhausen Shop Manual. The M1 Garand Complete Assembly Guide by Kuleck is also useful, but be careful of his advice on barrel timing as his recommended starting positions are out of whack. Both of these books are/have been available from Brownells.
Click to expand...

Good info, No worries for me about buying tools they will get used more than once. Im pretty sure I can figure out top dead center and if I need to set the shoulder back a bit to get it to properly index that wont be too much of a problem. Ill deffinately have to grab that kuhnhausen book too. How many have you built?
 
Installing a barrel and timing it is no biggie on a Garand. Pick action wrench, magnetic angle gauge, some small sheet metal flats, a bit of reading and you are gold.
 
I've done 35 Garand builds to this point. One of the best ways of establishing top dead center when installing a barrel is to use the alignment fixtures made by Badger Ordnance. One fixture clamps on the receiver flat between the rear sight ears and provides the reference point for establishing parallelism. The other mounts on the front sight lug of the gas cylinder which must fit the barrel tightly. It is quite often necessary to peen the gas cyl splines on the barrel to get a tight fit.

Both front and rear fixtures are grooved for use of a length of aluminum angle. The barrel is turned on to a point where the angle on the gas cyl is parallel with the angle on the receiver fixture. I use 30 inch pieces of aluminum angle so any deviation from parallelism is very obvious to the eye when comparing the ends of the angles. This can be cross checked with a dial angle finder on the top of each angle.

If one is going to get into this in a serious way it is a good idea to have several barrels and receivers on hand as there are differences in how various barrel/receiver combinations time up to an initial hand tight position. Selective fitting can avoid having to turn down a barrel shoulder which underturns at the starting position or having to roll swage the shoulder of a barrel which overturns before tightening.
 
See if you can find some of the Thai Districorp m1 garand rifles. most of them had firewood wood stocks and poor bbls. I bought some on spec from them and re-built them. After cleaning them up and replacing wood , barrels and some parts they turned out great. All of them were mostly 1950's rebuilds for SEATO AID. The Thai's didn't look after them. No rust issues, just never cleaned.
 
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