M1 garand short stroking
- Thread starter Lucite
- Start date
Proper fitting of the gas cylinder assembly and front handguard is critical to functioning and accuracy. The gas cylinder should fit the barrel tightly with no rotational movement. This can be corrected by lightly peening the edges of the barrel splines with a flat face punch.
There should be a discernable amount of play between the rear of the gas cylinder and the front handguard. A tight fit is bad for accuracy and can cause the front handguard to split because a hot barrel does expand.
Also, there should be no contact between the interior of the front handguard liner and the "shelf" at the rear of the gas cylinder. This can be corrected by tapping the lower band lightly, left or right, to bring the handguard liner out of contact.
Fitting of the gas cyl lock is also important. Match conditioned rifles aim to have the lock time up to the barrel at the 6 o'clock position, although overturning to the 8- 9 o'clock position and then backing the lock off to insert the screw is OK. The lock must allow the front handguard to fit with some movement between the rear of the gas cyl and front of the handguard while allowing the proper alignment of the gas cyl aperture with the gas port in the barrel. Its good to have a selection of locks on hand to do this by trial fitting to the barrel. There is a manufacturing difference among locks which causes them to time up in different positions.
