Old Iron 1

I have been meaning to post a bit on some of the interesting items that walk through the door.

I really get a kick out of some of the pieces that have a lot of history attached to them. Today's star is a delightful M1 Garand. I don't know much of the history of this rifle other than if left Springfield in December of 1940 and eventually was released through DCM.



This rifle is old enough to have some history available by filing a FOIA request, but during WWII the government stopped tracking rifles by serial number, as that was deemed to be too much unnecessary paperwork. Probably the case, since their function was to expedite hardware to the guys who need it, and there's not a lot of value added in having a collector 70 years later pontificate over exactly which day the gun landed on Guadalcanal.

Anyway, to the task at hand. The barrel on this rifle was replaced sometime in the mid 1960s, and it doesn't shoot so well today. The barrel seems to have excessive freebore, allowing the bullet to jump out of the case and fly a bit before engaging the rifling. That condition led to accuracy that was atypically poor from anything that earned the title of "the greatest battle implement ever devised".

It's not a horrible procedure to replace the barrel, but it does require a pile of custom tools, with their cost approaching the value of the rifle. Basically strip the rifle completely, remove the barrel, and pause for a sanity check.



The new barrel gets threaded in and is carefully monitored for exact rotation and torque. Rotation is critical for sight and op-rod alignment. For the Garand, since the barrel position is so critical, the chamber is finish reamed after being mated to the barrel. The bolt is stripped of it's ejector, extractor, and firing pin and gently closed on a special pull-through reamer. Of course the bolt will not close at this point, since the chamber is too small. A rod is inserted through the muzzle and into the reamer, and slowly turned and often cleaned. At the point that the chamber is cut deep enough, the bolt will fully lock into place. It is that easy in concept, but can be a bit fidgety in practice keeping the reamer clean and getting the driving rod unscrewed.

As this progresses, rifle headspace is frequently checked using go/no-go gauges in the chamber. The chamber should close on the go but not on the no-go, allowing for a difference of about 0.005" between a safe shooter and a scrap barrel. Pull through reamers are supposed to be perfect in this regard, but I double and triple check, because one chip getting caught in the wrong space will consume that .005" in the blink of an eye.

After verifying the chamber is cut cleanly and closes on a go gauge and rejects a no-go, it's time to button up this project. Reassembly is straightforward and elegant for a gas operated rifle that started production in 1932.

And no rebarrel job is complete without a test firing to be sure that everything operates as well as it should. I did have to dig a little bit to find some suitable vintage ball and this rifle performed like a champ. Delightful bark, smooth function, mild lingering aroma, and not much is better than the ringing ejection of the empty clip.

I'm sure this rifle will be happily banging and pinging for quite some time!