Just received my M1 Garand.

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Chris_B

New member
Very nice rifle mechanically. Wood is, well, distressed. I am beginning to clean that up today. I have taped off cartouche marks so I won't obliterate them. I may simply just find a nicer wood set

The rifle was manufactured in '44, re-barelled in '46. Springfield Armory made it, although it currently has a stamped steel trigger guard instead of the milled guard. I believe it's a (possibly Korean war?) Harrington&Richardson trigger group

I would like the milled type guard, and I know they are available. But from my car restoration experiences, I know that sometimes collectors or restorers are looking for certain parts and sometimes are looking for trades

I wonder if anyone has a nice Springfield trigger group, but is looking to to replace with a nice H&R trigger group, or, barring that, if anyone could point me in the right direction for a more correct replacement for my H&R unit?
 
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30Cal

New member
Post photos of the stock.

Post an add for a trigger group swap over on the odcmp.com forum. It should be pretty easy to find someone that wants to trade.

I have yet to find a milled trigger guard where the locking lugs are nice and round. They're all pretty worn flat and won't lock up as well as a nice new stamped one.
 
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Oldwoodsloafer

New member
I think you'll find the stamped trigger housing is the correct type for a 1944 Springfield. This is one case where the cheaper stamped housing is functionally superior to the earlier milled unit.

Stamped Springfield marked trigger groups are available on the parts market.

The M1 is a real blast to shoot. Have fun!
 
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Chris_B

New member
Thanks everyone

I will post pics when I can; strangely, I own neither a cell phone or a digital camera. I am living squarely in the mid 1990's, as I finally have a cordless phone!

Right now, all I am doing restoration-wise is cleaning the stock by light sanding and steelwool. It is cleaning up nicely. I am using a steam iron to draw out some of the ugly scars and dents, so far it is doing a respectable job. The cartouche on the cheek is "RIA" which I understand is Rock Island Armory. There is a faint "107" surmounted by a "P" or "B" stamp under the handgrip, and on the front of the grip is a "P" in a circle. I can find no other markings. The wood is really quite handsome now that it is cleaning up. it was quite a **** when I first laid eyes on it! The upper guard will be a large challenge as it has around 3 dozen dents all together on one side

The stamped guard is, I should think; not very new. This is a CMP rifle just released from the USArmy. I had no idea that H&R were making the guards during WWII. How would I determine which trigger guard is correct? What part of the serial tells me the manufacturing date? Would an H&R trigger group be correct for an "SA" stamped rifle? I suppose just about anything could have happened at the time of manufacture.

To be very honest I vastly prefer the milled guard on aesthetics alone. It also seems slightly more convenient to pull out to me. If it does turn out the stamped guard is correct, I will mostly likely store it and use a (new) milled one
 
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velocette

New member
Welcome to the fraternity of M1 Garand shooters. There is little better music than the "bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bangPLING" of a Garand singing it's song.
Your will surely learn to love the melody.
Keep it clean, keep it original and try to wear it out!
Also remember to never use heavy bullets or slow powder in your reloads.

Roger
 
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Swampy1

New member
Chris,

I might be interested in a trade for your H&R trigger group.

E-mail me directly at <swampy@swampworks.com>

Re time line.... H&R most definitely did NOT make trigger groups during WWII. They didn't come on line until about '52, and they only made them for their own M1's, not for use on SA's. Yours obviously went through a re-build and acquired the HRA group much later.

To tell which TG would be correct for your rifle we'd need to know the first 4 digits of the serial number.

Best,
Swampy

Garands forever
 
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Chris_B

New member
That's what I had thought. First 4 numbers are (from memory here, the rifle is locked up a few miles away at the moment) 3138...July 1944, I think?

The H&R group functions well and is clean and complete...I may just order a new trigger guard and put it on the H&R group, saving the original. I appreciate the offer, Swampy

people had asked for pics. I hadn't sanded, cleaned and oiled the upper and lower guards yet, so the rifle looks better now. The entire stock was the color of the upper guard, and it seems as if the cosmoline had been just rubbed into the finish instead of cleaned off. I was hand sanding for about 4 hours with #220, then steel wool, and lastly very fine scotchbrite. I hadn't oiled the stock yet in these pics either, it is a slightly darker brown now

M1two.jpg


m1seven.jpg


m1five.jpg


m1four.jpg


M1three.jpg



I am taking it to the range tomorrow morning
 
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T. O'Heir

New member
Looks like a nice piece of wood that'll clean up easily. No sanding. Just clean it with any wood cleaning product, steam out the dents(be careful near any cartouches) and put on some BLO. The hand guard may be another type of wood than the stock though.
 
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Chris_B

New member
:) That's the stock after sanding and cleaning. It's done; it is as nice as I want it to be. It will be seeing some use so I don't want to be worrying about the finish too much

The upper and lower guard were making yellow sawdust as I was working on them- birch? I am not surprised they are different

The rifle went through the Rock island Armory, so to my knowledge that means the cartouches on the side were sanded off. The "P" on the front of the grip seems to be the only original (if even that is original), and the faint cartouche and the faint "107" on the bottom of the grip is, I am guessing, an RIA number for whatever lot of re-builds they were doing in '46, when it was re-barreled
 
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