New CMP Garand Just Arrived: What to do first? Inspection/Preservation

[Orlando]

All you have to do is look, rifle is bone dry. Not a drop of grease!
Do as you want but I am giving you the correct info

[Jarhead]

ALWAYS strip, clean and oil / grease a weapon before you shoot ...... it's a No Brainer

[peppermintman]

Looks like a Boyd's stock. Always clean and check your weapon before shooting it
When I got mine I field stripped, cleaned & lube and took it out that weekend. 3 days.
Do as you want but id do some disassembly , cleaning & shooting

They tear down perfectly good rifles put them in racks clean them and reassemble them. That why most dont have matching numbers and repark them. The CMP forums dont hide that.

[Humboldter209]

Should always disassemble, inspect, clean and lube. Don't make my mistake. I bought a nice looking SA Garand with a 1943 receiver from a local and reputable lgs. Was assured by the salesman that the rifle was completely gone through and test fired by some company in Arizona. So I bought it and took it right out to the range, loaded it up with some milsurp ammo and all I got was "click", no boom. Tried some different ammo and still just "click", no boom. With the help if the RO and other shooters, we disassembled it and found an extremely dirty bolt and a broken firing pin. At this point I am feeling really stupid for not checking the gun at the store before I paid a premium price for. Anyway, I stripped the bolt, installed a new firing pin, inspected, cleaned and lubed and it shot great after that. Took the dirty broken firing pin back to the lgs and they did'nt even offer to re-imburse me the cost of the pin. Several lessons learned for me: Inspect all guns prior to purchase. Buy m1 garands from CMP. And lastly, give my business to another lgs.

[Mr Blu]

Strip it, clean it, oil it, shoot it

^^^^THIS!!!

I have done that with every firearm I have ever owned, new or otherwise. You don't know the current condition of the firearm. It could have been vacuum sealed in a clean room at NASA, or it could have been played with by 5 year old's with crayons and chocolate fingers.

If anything else, it's to get rid of then "packing grease", whatever it may be.

[Father Ted]

All of the recomendations of "just go shoot it" are giving you bad advice.
Garands from CMP are test fired and inspected but are not properly greased .
No different than when buying a brand new firearm at a Gunstore you need to dissasemble the rifle and properly lube the Greasse points

What he said.

[Orlando]

They tear down perfectly good rifles put them in racks clean them and reassemble them. That why most dont have matching numbers and repark them. .

This is not completely true. Where do people come up with this stuff???

The reason they are mixmasters is they have all been through atleast one arsenal rebuild ( except correct and collector grades when avaialble)
Garands packed with protective grease are put through a degreaser (not correct or collector grades) The stocks are removed but the actions are not dissasembled for the process.
Some rifles in lesser condition are completely tore down ,parts inspected then reparked. CMP then builds Special Grade 30.06 and .308 out of these with commercial barrels and stocks

[Bainter1212]

The little book that comes with your rifle will tell you exactly how to lube it. It doesn't take long to do.
IMHO, forego the gas port plug and get yourself a couple thousand brass casings learn to reload. 30'06 brass is easy to find (and cheaper than some other calibers) and a couple of thousand cases will last you a couple of lifetimes.

[peppermintman]

Watch "American Rifleman TV, Inside the CMP" on YouTube
American Rifleman TV, Inside the CMP: http://youtu.be/ScoZf8KjVVY

Ok Im partially correct. Id just like to know how they take that one part out of the basket and put it with all the other parts from the other baskets.
Cool video and though and the parts do go through a degreaser but in baskets.

Im back reading the mail

[Orlando]

If you pay attention to the video they clearly tell you that not all rifles go through the degreaser.
If also listen they are building rifles from parts, Special Grades, reparked with commercial barrels/stocks.
All other rifles are not built by CMP

[cmichini]

Regardless of if it came from CMP, I'd:

Field strip it (takes about 10 seconds)
Quick inspection,
Lube it,
Reassemble,
Go to the range,
Load & fire,
Take home clean.

Rinse and repeat as prescribed by your granadaholic sponsor.

[Lone_Gunman]

As has been said several times now, at least grease it. It's a special, so you shouldn't have to worry about degreasing it to get any old cosmoline off.

I've had some come from the CMP that were so covered in cosmoline I had to put the stock under a halogen shop light, completely disassemble all the metal, and soak those parts in mineral spirits.


Seriously though GREASE THE RIFLE. Lack of lubrication can cause all kinds of issues, including binding and bent op-rods.


This page tells you where to grease, and suggests Mobile 1 synthetic. It's what I've used, and I've had no problem.

http://www.garandgear.com/m1-garand-grease

Edit: your stock may need some fitting as well. It's not that complicated a process, but there is a guy named Sparks on the CMP forum that does amazing things with these new Boyds stocks. I sent mine to him to be accuracy fitted, and refinished. For $75 the result was simply amazing.

[Latigo]

All you have to do is look, rifle is bone dry. Not a drop of grease!
Do as you want but I am giving you the correct info

This.