Start of the Next Garand Project?

[Mountain]

The CMP hands out door prizes at the end of award ceremonies and the New England Games had some good ones: the usual stuff such as hats and t-shirts, but also some boxes of top quality match ammo and three M1 stock sets from DuPage. My ticket was drawn for the last and IMO nicest stock set.

So what to do with these nice chunks of lumber? They could use some very fine sanding plus another coat or two of finish, and possibly some fitting as well. My recent JCG match rifle is already in a nice tiger stripe stock that has had the full match prep treatment. I have a .308 M1 National Match clone that's already in a very attractive Terni stock. I'm thinking of pulling the CMP walnut stock off of my 'Special' and putting that into this stock and copying the match prepped dimensions to this one. Any other thoughts for a project?

 

[dw617]

Wow! I should have stayed for the Raffle!

 

[Mountain]

Wow! I should have stayed for the Raffle!

LOL, I was almost mean enough to say that they called your name first but you had to be there to win. By the way, if you had not already heard- Rich has your awards that you missed.

One thought for the project is to put the CMP Special in this stock and use the other stock to build a M1D and/or C clone.

 

[dw617]

Thanks. I would have stayed had the awards not been on a Sunday night. Last year I won a box of 30-06 Creedmoor match!

Edit, mount that stock on your JCG rifle and have an edge over other competitors by distracting them with that beautiful stock.

 

[mac1911]

Sorry that wont fly its not GI .....to good looking.

Really nice looking stock. Hope she fits as nice as it looks.
Im still pissed i did not buy one of the fancy stocks offered by dupage back when you snagged one...but glad some one did.

 

[Mountain]

Damn, it has been since 2018 since I won this stock. I tried it on another project but ended up going back to the USGI stock. Couple weeks ago I grabbed some Service Grade Danish return M1's and the one I might keep has a VAR ME 1 - TE 1+ barrel and a new CMP walnut stock. Seemed like a good one to swap on the DuPage stock, so last night I tore it down and started cleaning the bore. This morning gave it a full lube job, checked headspace, and put it back together.



Of the issued barrels, Danish VAR's seem to have the best reputation for accuracy. Will be interesting to see how this one shoots. One of the other Danish return M1's I just picked up has a VAR 2+ - 3 barrel and shoots like this (irons at 100 yards)-

Not too bad and shows that a 2-3 barrel more or less shoots as good as I can shoot regardless of barrel. I'll post the 1-1 once I get to the range.

 

[mac1911]

Damn, it has been since 2018 since I won this stock. I tried it on another project but ended up going back to the USGI stock. Couple weeks ago I grabbed some Service Grade Danish return M1's and the one I might keep has a VAR ME 1 - TE 1+ barrel and a new CMP walnut stock. Seemed like a good one to swap on the DuPage stock, so last night I tore it down and started cleaning the bore. This morning gave it a full lube job, checked headspace, and put it back together.

View attachment 770381

Of the issued barrels, Danish VAR's seem to have the best reputation for accuracy. Will be interesting to see how this one shoots. One of the other Danish return M1's I just picked up has a VAR 2+ - 3 barrel and shoots like this (irons at 100 yards)-

Not too bad and shows that a 2-3 barrel more or less shoots as good as I can shoot regardless of barrel. I'll post the 1-1 once I get to the range.

Its been in my little experience
Most cmp M1s will hold the black if they are in decent shape
Better ones can get tight 10 ring
As far as what we can shoot.
10 ring is good these days.

I have proven to myself and I think I posted here just how much a nice fitting stock will help.

 

[Mountain]

Its been in my little experience
Most cmp M1s will hold the black if they are in decent shape
Better ones can get tight 10 ring
As far as what we can shoot.
10 ring is good these days.

I have proven to myself and I think I posted here just how much a nice fitting stock will help.

Agreed. With a little work I could even get that nasty FG with the 4-3 sewer pipe barrel to shoot in the black. No way it would hold 10 ring.

 

[Maninblue1861]

Oooo pretty... could use that on my next project.

 

[Mountain]

Here's a 100 yard iron sights target from the ME=1, TE=1+ Danish VAR barrel:



Roughly 1.5" group, which is damn close to as good as it gets with an as-issued M1. That cluster of 3 is an indicator that the M1 will shoot better than my skills will put on paper. I've only shot a better M1 target with my 308 National Match clone M1.