jefnvk
Member
I'm sorry to say it, but the days of service grades mismarked as racks are over. Not that that is suprising, since the days of srvice grades are coming to an end.
Suffice it to say that quality has dropped off even since my last trip less than two months ago. Or, maybe I just caught a bad day.
Five of the field guns showed muzzle wear of 2 or less. Probably half were 3+. All but one (of the dozen or so I checked) were under 5. Rough barrels were the norm.
Racks were in worse shape. Two gauged under a 3, one of those had a throat of 7. The other had a pitted barrel. All the others were 3+ on MW.
Danish rifle were awful. Maybe two didn't swallow the MW gauge. Same for the Danes less wood. There are an awful lot of nice project guns sitting in CMP.
I didn't find a service grade that guaged less than 1.5 on the MW. The few bores I looked at were closing on the racks and fields in terms of corrosion.
The good news? After three hours of searching, cleaning and inspecting, tehy started bringing out new rifles to replace the sold ones. Why is that good? Well, they brought out a 6 digit field grade. Number 189144. This beautiful gun had a muzzle of 1 (I think the only M1 I seen all day reading 1), and a throat of 3.5. Bore is pretty clean, with one rough spot that I think is simply copper fouling. Uncut op-rod, too. Barrel is not original, but is a midwar rebarrel (7/43). At one point, I was told to wipe the grin off my face. Only problems were rough wood and stamped triggerguard, but it was by far the best.
The bad news? I was told there is a 700 order backlog for US service grades, and very few rifles being found that matched that criteria. No known supply left.
Anything else? I did at one point have about the 6 best fields grades cleaned and gauged. Guy was looking over the field rack, so I told him that the six sitting on the table were the only ones that gauged under 3, told him that if he liked any that I had cleaned up and were considering, to grab it. He thanked me and took me up on the offer. Even borrowed my borelight, and was very appreciative.
Anyway, here is some pics to keep you happy
Thanks again to the CMP staff for making me happy, and curse you for making my wallet lighter
EDIT: last leson learned, to anyone planning on a CMP M1, the time to do it was about 2 months ago. Don't put it off.
Suffice it to say that quality has dropped off even since my last trip less than two months ago. Or, maybe I just caught a bad day.
Five of the field guns showed muzzle wear of 2 or less. Probably half were 3+. All but one (of the dozen or so I checked) were under 5. Rough barrels were the norm.
Racks were in worse shape. Two gauged under a 3, one of those had a throat of 7. The other had a pitted barrel. All the others were 3+ on MW.
Danish rifle were awful. Maybe two didn't swallow the MW gauge. Same for the Danes less wood. There are an awful lot of nice project guns sitting in CMP.
I didn't find a service grade that guaged less than 1.5 on the MW. The few bores I looked at were closing on the racks and fields in terms of corrosion.
The good news? After three hours of searching, cleaning and inspecting, tehy started bringing out new rifles to replace the sold ones. Why is that good? Well, they brought out a 6 digit field grade. Number 189144. This beautiful gun had a muzzle of 1 (I think the only M1 I seen all day reading 1), and a throat of 3.5. Bore is pretty clean, with one rough spot that I think is simply copper fouling. Uncut op-rod, too. Barrel is not original, but is a midwar rebarrel (7/43). At one point, I was told to wipe the grin off my face. Only problems were rough wood and stamped triggerguard, but it was by far the best.
The bad news? I was told there is a 700 order backlog for US service grades, and very few rifles being found that matched that criteria. No known supply left.
Anything else? I did at one point have about the 6 best fields grades cleaned and gauged. Guy was looking over the field rack, so I told him that the six sitting on the table were the only ones that gauged under 3, told him that if he liked any that I had cleaned up and were considering, to grab it. He thanked me and took me up on the offer. Even borrowed my borelight, and was very appreciative.
Anyway, here is some pics to keep you happy
Thanks again to the CMP staff for making me happy, and curse you for making my wallet lighter
EDIT: last leson learned, to anyone planning on a CMP M1, the time to do it was about 2 months ago. Don't put it off.
