Lots of factories turned out M1s (l. to r.): Springfield Armory, Winchester, International Harvester and Harrington & Richards to name a few.

If you use the wrong powder, you can bend your op rod, to the detriment of reliability or accuracy. You have a strictly limited choice of powders with which to reload the .30-06 for use in the Garand.

The engineering of the Garand appears rather Rube Goldberg-ish. The operating rod and recoil spring guide rod are each more than a foot long. The recoil spring is over two feet long. The recoil spring also acts on the cartridge lifter to lift the rounds through the en-bloc clip.

And as we all know, once you've fired the last round, the clip springs out with a musical "ping!" The legend is, the ping was loud enough to give away your position in a firefight. As my dad fired many rounds in earnest with the Garand, I asked him about that soon after I had gotten mine. He gave me one of those "where in the heck did you hear that?" looks.

"No, never a problem," he said. "But there were usually four or five of us shooting at once, so even if some smart German had thought about it, someone else was usually shooting."

The Garand was the rifle to have for NRA service rifle competition for many years, and so many people have them and love to shoot them that even though service rifle is now dominated by the M16/AR-15, there's a special match at Camp Perry just for the M1 Garand.

Today, M1s are still available through the Civilian Marksmanship Program (ODCMP.COM). The CMP takes a warehouse full of crated Garands (literally) and inspects and rebuilds them. The process is simple, and each armorer has a check-sheet he goes through

Now before you think you might luck onto a pristine Winchester or an ultra-rare gas-trap Garand, one of the first things on the checklist is to see if the rifle being worked on has collector status. Most do not, as they are often military-loan returns.

The government loaned many armies of the world M1 Garands after World War II. Those Garands were returned to us and are what you're buying. Each Garand is disassembled and inspected, then rebuilt to one of a number of standards. You can get a beater rack-grade, up to a Service Grade or Correct Grade rifle. But you don't get them by luck; you get them by paying for the better-grade rifle.

Your rifle will be either a nightmare or a dream from a collector's viewpoint, depending on what you want. If you desire only a Winchester with all the parts Winchester parts, you'll be disappointed. (Besides, even Winchester used parts from other makers during the war.)

But how about a Garand with a receiver from Harrington & Richardson, a Springfield barrel, a stock from Denmark, with Greek rebuild marks? Now that's a Garand with history.

One thing you might notice: The gas tube on Garands won't hold a finish. They are often spray-painted black because they are stainless steel. The gas tube was the one thing they could make stainless to combat corrosion from primers. The finish wears easily, so you'll see Garands that look a bit scruffy as a result.

The CMP lets you buy up to eight per year. Some shooters have gone a bit overboard, buying several a year for several years now. Yes, the general acquisitiveness we all have can get a little out of hand, but they are looking to build collections. With the CMP always opening new crates, there's no way of telling what might be available. And with several on hand you can mix and match until you have all the "correct" parts in one rifle.

M1 Garand Assembly

M1 Garand Video