Winchester Garand receiver.

I will post some pictures. And I will explain it to you simply. Very simply, so that even you will be understand.
 
Squinty,

With much respect, I’m going to have to echo Purple’s feelings on the matter. It isn’t wise to make bold claims that aren’t founded in anything other than your own personal opinion. When you make such remarks all that typically occurs is aggravation, which leads to meaningless arguments… That seems to be what’s occurring here.

While my intent isn’t to lay into you – I do feel as though you’ve over stepped a little. Likely because I’d consider myself to be one of those foolish “hobbyists” who prefers to spend a fortune on corrected wartime examples. Do your rebuilt rifles look prettier than mine? Sure. Do they out perform mine? Likely… especially with contemporary barrels installed but that doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. It just means that we collect different things for different reasons.

Personally, I choose to collect historically significant artifacts which aid in the remembrance of a rather troubling time while it seems as though you prefer to glorify war by toting around your rebuilt rifles that apparently make you feel like a “.30 caliber warlord”.

- Chris
 
Last edited:
everybody love everybody. we all love garands here. i dont see why we have to argue. Out of the kriger and criteon barrels which do you recommend? do the chrome lined ones make a difference?
 
I have a small stash of Winchester parts, I plan to try to build my Winchester with most of its parts like trigger group, bolt, clip latch and internals , and op-rod with Winchester parts, and some of the harder to find parts like gas system I have a couple of NOS still in the grease SA narrow base cylinders I plan to use. I am not sure about the sights, they are not hard to come by but the price is a little steep. The stock will probably be a Boyd's, hard to beat the price for what you get with their stocks.
Not sure about the barrel for the price point it will either be a criterion or NOS SA USGI.
To be honest i am glad I grabbed up one of these beautiful US receivers, they were more than the Italians, but still a great deal.
 
everybody love everybody. we all love garands here. i dont see why we have to argue. Out of the kriger and criteon barrels which do you recommend? do the chrome lined ones make a difference?

The Krieger barrels are made to a higher quality line than the Criterion and are higher priced for that reason. That said, the Criterion barrels fit up just fine and are as accurate as any of the standard GI ones. There are no chrome lined Garand barrels made that I am aware of, although some machine gun and military rifle barrels are chrome lined to minimize wear and corrosion and to simplify cleaning. Most military Garand barrels, except for early production ones, were chrome plated on the exterior around the gas cylinder splineways to minimize corrosion due to corrosive primed ammunition.

Unless a person is contemplating serious competitive shooting the Criterion barrels are entirely suitable. The Garand was designed to be a fighting rifle and not a precision shooter, so using a Krieger barrel is probably gilding the lily, but it's really a matter of what a person wants and is prepared to spend. Most sound military barrels and the Criterion should be capable of 2 MOA accuracy if the rifle is properly fitted up in the stock and handguards and quality ammo is used.
 
There are new 1955 dated Springfield Armory replacement barrels in circulation. They are excellent and normally sell for a bit less than the commercial Criterion barrels.

You can also find used surplus barrels for less, but need to be careful about wear. Bores can be pitted, worn, or even bulged, and muzzles can show worn crowns and excessive wear from improper use of a cleaning rod. If you can locate a barrel with an unpitted bore and a muzzle gauging .302 or less it will be a good shooter. Nicks or gouges on the crown can be cleaned up. Military barrels were made by all of Springfield Armory, Winchester (very scarce), HRA, LMR, Marlin(scarce), Buffalo Arms(scarce), Beretta, and Breda as well as the Danish made VAR barrels. All of these are fine provided that they are not excessively worn. The Danish VAR barrels have an excellent reputation for accuracy and tend to be lightly used.

Used barrels have already been finish reamed to set up headspace with a receiver, but most will show proper headspace by selective fitting of bolts.
 
.302 what does this equate to on the USGI throat/ muzzle gauge? I thought each unit on the gauge = 1 thou in wear is this correct?

thanks

Joe
 
Well, this thread got silly fast.
To me, a garand is a garand... Could care less if it was built post war in a garage or if it served on a beach in okinawa.... Who fricken cares.
Every rifle you guys restore, rebuild, covet ect ect , is an homage to Mr Garand and a piece of firearms and wartime history.
Stop nit pickin each other and go enjoy those fine rifles.
I for one have really enjoyed seeing all you Garand guys adding content and knowledge in this forum.
It's saad that everyone is slagging each other over their own personal feelings and views.
Pull yer heads outta yer butts fellas.
And keep the garand goodness flowing ;)
 
I don't have the GI MW gauge. I use a tapered plug gauge which I bought from Fulton Armory yrs ago. It has 6 lines or increments of .001 ranging up to .303 at the top end. It is a handy thing to have when working with any .30 cal barrel and is really useful when checking out used rifles at a gunshow. There is an illustration of it on Scott Duff's website.

US Army tech specs on the Garand accepted .302 as the top muzzle wear limit for barrels when rifles were arsenal overhauled and returned to stock, so a .302 muzzle measurement indicates that there is a lot of shooting life left in a barrel. I've gotten some pretty decent results from used barrels gauging .303 at the muzzle after cleaning up the crown.
 
Well, this thread got silly fast.
To me, a garand is a garand... Could care less if it was built post war in a garage or if it served on a beach in okinawa.... Who fricken cares.
Every rifle you guys restore, rebuild, covet ect ect , is an homage to Mr Garand and a piece of firearms and wartime history.
Stop nit pickin each other and go enjoy those fine rifles.
I for one have really enjoyed seeing all you Garand guys adding content and knowledge in this forum.
It's saad that everyone is slagging each other over their own personal feelings and views.
Pull yer heads outta yer butts fellas.
And keep the garand goodness flowing ;)

Totally agree , So many people get so wrapped up in wanting to have a "rare" or "special" rifle that they resort to taking pot shots at each other.

To me its quite simple. Those rifles squinty own look great and that's what anyone should have said if they love these garand rifles so much.
Having something period correct is also nice and good find !
I think as long as you have a fully functioning Garand and it doesn't look like its been laying in salt water for the last 20 years its likely going to be a nice rifle And if it shoots nicely that's all the better.

Also me personally id prefer a rifle that shoots great and looks good any day but that's personal taste because i enjoy shooting them the most, I'm not really one for keeping things just for looking at them and petting them.
That's what museums are for :p
 
I think we are very lucky to have the options we have for Garands, we can build on cheaper Italian receivers, and end up with very nice end products, or spend a little extra and buy as US receiver. These receivers can then be built up with Italian parts or USGI, or what ever the builder wishes or their budget allows. We have a lot of options when it comes to building Garands.
 
I'm afraid if I buy a garand receiver of any kind I'll need to seek professional help with my already compulsive disorder I've aquired building my own M14 rifles for the past decade n a half LOL
 
I have changed my mind, I look at all of the NOS parts I have squirreled away, and I am going to build this receiver up with NOS parts; I know its the easy way out but the end result should be a nice tight crisp rifle.
 
Well, this thread got silly fast.
To me, a garand is a garand... Could care less if it was built post war in a garage or if it served on a beach in okinawa.... Who fricken cares.
Every rifle you guys restore, rebuild, covet ect ect , is an homage to Mr Garand and a piece of firearms and wartime history.
Stop nit pickin each other and go enjoy those fine rifles.
I for one have really enjoyed seeing all you Garand guys adding content and knowledge in this forum.
It's saad that everyone is slagging each other over their own personal feelings and views.
Pull yer heads outta yer butts fellas.
And keep the garand goodness flowing ;)


:agree: Build with the best you can afford and make it a safe shooting firearm.
 
Well, this thread got silly fast.
To me, a garand is a garand... Could care less if it was built post war in a garage or if it served on a beach in okinawa.... Who fricken cares.
Every rifle you guys restore, rebuild, covet ect ect , is an homage to Mr Garand and a piece of firearms and wartime history.
Stop nit pickin each other and go enjoy those fine rifles.
I for one have really enjoyed seeing all you Garand guys adding content and knowledge in this forum.
It's saad that everyone is slagging each other over their own personal feelings and views.
Pull yer heads outta yer butts fellas.
And keep the garand goodness flowing ;)

Thank you, thank you very much! Now get out and shoot them lovely Garands! Range reports, Please! Targets! Groups! Destroyed clay pigeons, Please! Quit fondling and get shooting them. They were meant to be shot! :)

Now, let's get back to helping each other out! :wave:

Especially them nooobies to this fine platform! :cool:

Cheers,
Barney
 
Back
Top Bottom