M1 Garand restoration by The Garand Guy.

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GunnyUSMC

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A buddy of mine showed up one day with some ugly M1 Garands. They appeared to be old VFW funeral rifles. They had BFAs (Blank Firing Adaptors) on the muzzles and the bores were heavily rusted from firing corrosive blanks. The stocks had been painted black and there was surface rust on the metal.
We checked around about having one of them restored and my buddy got in touch with Mr. Tony Giacobbe, The Garand Guy, and said that he seemed like a very nice guy.
I did some homework and found that people were very happy with his work and whenever there was a problem, Mr. Tony made things right.
I contacted Mr. Tony and told him that I wanted a rifle totally restored with a new Criterion barrel.
That would be a new stock with metal, barrel removed and new barrel installed and reparked.
With return shipping it came to $605.
I shipped the rifle on July the 27th, with the State Police Crime LAB as the return address. Mr. Tony got it on the 31st.
I contacted Mr. Tony on August 9th to see what the turnaround time would be. He stated that he had already shipped it back and it was signed for on August the 8th.
Just my luck. The front office had not advised me that a package had arrived for me. When I got to work this morning the package was in the front office.
This is what I found in the box. It was beautiful.:cool:
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Here it is next to another M1 that is in the same condition as the one I sent to Mr. Tony.
This other rifle will be going to be shipped to Mr. Tony in a week or two to be totally reworked also.
Mr. Tony is The Garand Guy. :thumbup:
http://garandguy.com/
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I did not know about this guy, I might have to buy one of his already done as everyone I find locally is too high in price or deals fall through.
 
Wow, that is nice and fast, but wow thats high cost to get it fixed up. looks like alot of work done on it... thanks
 
All I can say is WOW!! That appears to be outstanding work!! And exceptional turn around time to boot.
I just noticed how highly polished the Feed ramp is - is that standard on criterion barrels, or something extra done as part of the refurb?
 
Agree, that's crazy low cost for the work done. Now... have him redo your deck :)

Why black? Never seen that for even parade/honor guard guns. Am I just uninformed?
 
I don't think so. A $250 Criterion barrel, installed and headspaced, and $140 wood with the metal moved over, then return shipping, for a total of $605? Sounds like @GunnyUSMC got a good deal to me, and ended up with a VERY nice finished product. :thumbup:

Yeah, I did not say that the best, Was the work done over priced... No Way.. There was alot of work done and you can see top of the line quality work.. But around here you can pick up nice Garands in the 900 to 1000 range.. So you have to get the distressed gun for like 500 dollars to kinda break even.. I am still use to getting spare parts cheap... myself am trying to brake from getting any more projects... One just ends up spending more then if you bit the bullet and got a nicer gun to begin with. But Heck at least a gun was saved from a very ugly look...
 
All I can say is WOW!! That appears to be outstanding work!! And exceptional turn around time to boot.
I just noticed how highly polished the Feed ramp is - is that standard on criterion barrels, or something extra done as part of the refurb?
Not sure about the feed ramp. This is the first Criterion barrel I’ve had.
Agree, that's crazy low cost for the work done. Now... have him redo your deck :)

Why black? Never seen that for even parade/honor guard guns. Am I just uninformed?
I think they painted them black for 21 gun salute at funerals.
 
I never really thought the admission price for a Garand was worth it until now. That is just spectacular for the results! I admit I’ve spent double the cost of one on several 1911s in the past and none have the pedigree of your rifle. Two big thumbs up!
 
I have a Garand my Dad gave me... Way back in the high buffed steel/glossy stock era (1970’s) it was stripped, the steel was polished and gloss blued, the gas tube was left in the white, the bolt was jeweled and the stock was refinished glossy. He said it was a “parade rifle”, and despite the cosmetic hoopla it does function and shoot well. That being said...Man. I wish it was left as issued!

I may be sending it to Tony someday soon to be brought back to life to match my other as-issued Garand. The fancy-pants look just doesn’t do the gun justice.

Stay safe.
 
I bought one of the CMP special grades, several years ago. It was rebuilt pretty much like your M1 was. It cost a great but more. The M1 is one of those firearms that are so neat to own. Mine is the one I love to shoot more than any firearm i own. If you look around, there are not that many of the better grade M1's for sale anymore. I don't see that situation changing. To me the M1 has so much history, it just makes them so interesting to own. You did very well.
 
Here is a breakdown of the work and cost,
Replace old barrel with new barrel, installed $280.
New walnut stock & handguards $180.
Re-parkerizind $100.
$45 return shipping.

As you can see the biggest cost was the new barrel.
I shipped the rifle with out the stock, but with metal parts. Mr. Tony returned with the rifle the old barrel, old stock metal parts and handguards.

I was going to try and make it to the range today, but got pretty busy when I got home yesterday and didn't have a chance to pull out some ammo. When I checked this morning my two cans of 30-06 were on the bottom of the stacks of ammo cans, and I didn't feel like moving a lot of full ammo cans at 4 AM. I try and get to it after work today.

I'm working on a deal for a Remington Rand 1911A1 that I came across yesterday. As soon as I find out how this deal will go, I'll be sending the next Garand to Mr. Tony.
 
This thread is making me wish I had kept the M-1 I picked up in the mid 1990's. It was one of those "Blue Sky" ( name of import co.) Garands that were coming in from Korea and were very well used, to say the least. Mine had a very low numbered receiver, with a 5 digit serial number in the eleven thousand range. The barrel was shot out and it needed many other things. Wound up trading it off circa 1997 for a decent K-98 that I still have plus $150. cash. If I had that M-1 today it would be headed for Mr. Tony. I've always wondered if I should have kept it due to the low serial number on the receiver.
 
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