Hey all still relatively green in the millsurp community (~2 years) and I've been starting to consider starting the grand daddy of milsurp projects which is building my own garand. Those of you that have done it before what pointers can you give? How does the cost compare to outright buying one? Is any special equipment needed?
M1 Garand Build?
- Thread starter Lennox67
- Start date
Purple is one of the more knowledgeble members here on CGN. PM him.
Building a Garand isn't rocket science if you have the proper tools and knowledge.
Expect to pay $1400 or so for a serviceable parts set incl a Beretta or Breda receiver and a new or serviceable barrel. Beyond that the following tooling is essential; a barrel vise and action wrench, a set of headspace gauges, a finishing reamer if installing a new barrel, and some means to verify correct barrel indexing by comparing horizontal surfaces on the receiver flat and the front sight lug on top of the gas cylinder ( I use a set of custom made fixtures for this along with aluminum angles to verify parallelism and also cross check with a dial angle finder). The investment in tooling and gauges can be amortized over a number of builds. There may be an additional cost for parkerizing to refinish metal parts as necessary. There are a lot of used/worn parts and some repro parts in circulation which may not work properly.
Knowledge is key. There's a lot more to this than just assembling a bunch of parts and calling it good. Parts must be assembled correctly and must fit properly to assure correct fit and function. It's useful to have a selection of key parts on hand for trial fitting as there are variations due to manufacturing tolerances and/or wear on used parts. The single best reference for this is the comprehensive Kuhnhausen Shop Manual on the M1 Garand and M14. It's been my guiding light for assembling/troubleshooting/repairing Garands for many years and can be purchased for less than half the price of a Garand bolt these days. If you go with the Kuhnhausen manual the rifle will be within spec or you will know why it isn't.
The payoff is a nicely functioning rifle which can be quickly zeroed and start producing acceptable groups from its initial mechanical zero.
Expect to pay $1400 or so for a serviceable parts set incl a Beretta or Breda receiver and a new or serviceable barrel. Beyond that the following tooling is essential; a barrel vise and action wrench, a set of headspace gauges, a finishing reamer if installing a new barrel, and some means to verify correct barrel indexing by comparing horizontal surfaces on the receiver flat and the front sight lug on top of the gas cylinder ( I use a set of custom made fixtures for this along with aluminum angles to verify parallelism and also cross check with a dial angle finder). The investment in tooling and gauges can be amortized over a number of builds. There may be an additional cost for parkerizing to refinish metal parts as necessary. There are a lot of used/worn parts and some repro parts in circulation which may not work properly.
Knowledge is key. There's a lot more to this than just assembling a bunch of parts and calling it good. Parts must be assembled correctly and must fit properly to assure correct fit and function. It's useful to have a selection of key parts on hand for trial fitting as there are variations due to manufacturing tolerances and/or wear on used parts. The single best reference for this is the comprehensive Kuhnhausen Shop Manual on the M1 Garand and M14. It's been my guiding light for assembling/troubleshooting/repairing Garands for many years and can be purchased for less than half the price of a Garand bolt these days. If you go with the Kuhnhausen manual the rifle will be within spec or you will know why it isn't.
The payoff is a nicely functioning rifle which can be quickly zeroed and start producing acceptable groups from its initial mechanical zero.
