Garand: One last time, I promise

Spending $800

  • QUALITY - Garand & ammo

    Votes: 96 91.4%

  • QUANTITY - Wish/want list

    Votes: 9 8.6%
  • Total voters
    105
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Quoheleth

Quoheleth

Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
Messages
3,195
Location
The Land of Bowie, Crockett, Travis & Houston
Awright...y'all've (compound contraction in Texas) been more than kind to me, answering my Garand questions. I've been encouraged to get the Garand. The other night I sat down and filled out the CMP application and am waiting on a) my TSRA card to arrive and b) my July mileage check to make sure I can swing this entire deal (I have a couple road trips lined up between now and Friday, but it should work out OK). A service grade Garand plus two spam cans of ammo plus S&H top out just south of $800.

I was OK until I hit the "total" button. Suddenly my $600 rifle grew by 30%. Yeah, I know - gotta have ammo to shoot adn it's the cheapest stuff available, but still...$800...

I got to thinking. Besides a Garand, I have a small want/need list that needs attention, too. It includes:
  • - a Ciener .22 conversion for my AR ($160)
  • - a new holster for my M&P ($80)
  • - set of grips for my Smith model 15 ($50)
  • - cast lead boolits ($100)
  • - jacketed bullets ($100)
  • - necessary stuff to reload for the AR, dies, powder measure, etc. (approx $75)
  • - new ambi thumb safety & arched MSH for officer 1911, plus installation ($150)
That list is right at $700, still giving me "wiggle room" for little things that always fall into my basket at the gun shop, or even a couple of hand tools for the woodshop.

If I get the Garand, the other stuff can always come later - but it might be months before I can start working on the others, and then it'll have to be piece-meal. If I get the wish list in one-lot-sum, the Garand might be off the table for a long time. I do have various reloading components for my pistols, so it's not that I'm going to go dry. The dies, etc., for the .223 have been on back order and I have 1000 rounds of factory ammo on hand for the AR. I do have one holster for CCW purpose - and it's not for the 1911, so I can hold off on the 1911 parts and holster. But...the little stuff would get more regular use than the Garand, which would probably spend a lot of time snuggled into it's niche in the safe, next to Dad's old Winchester '97 shotgun, to be brought out for special occassions or for a testosterone rush.

Note, this isn't a "gun or food" question; it's quality (Garand) vs. quantity (want/need list).

I was good-to-go on the Garand until a couple days ago, but since I'm still waiting on TSRA's stuff, I've got time to think about this and thinking always gets me in trouble. Ask my wife or my 3rd grade math teacher. :p

Quality - Garand
or
Quantity - want/need list?​

Q
 
I'd go for the Garand and the 2 cans of ammo. There's a finite supply of both...meaning availability ↓ and price ↑ .
Also, you're going to love your Garand.
Also, you can get the other things piecemeal.

Did I mention you should get the Garand?
:)

Tinpig
 
Garands will not be available from CMP forever. When their supply runs out the only way for the price to go is up. If you can swing a trip to Anniston you can save some on the price and wait by hand-picking a field grade from the store.
 
I am still kicking myself in the rear for not picking up an '03 when they were easily available from the CMP. I have corrected that behavior with the Garands and carbines. Your want list will still be available a couple years down the road, but you may not get so lucky with the CMP.
 
I would go for the Garand and widdle away at the wish list. The wish list can be done a little at a time, if you wait on the Garand you may have another want or need list later. You don't want caught in that cycle. I am currently in that cycle I have a stripped AR lower that I want to build into a dedicated .22lr with Spikes upper for the kid, but instead I keep filling the wisdh list and working it off.
 
Pastor, I seem to find myself in the same situation.

One long-awaited gun, or get all the little things that I have been needing for a much longer time period.

I'm going for gun.
 
Quoheleth,

Get the Garand.

I don't have the words to describe the feeling that will come when you first open their nice box and hold a Garand that belongs to you for the first time - for me, after owning and shooting rifles of most every type and many calibers, it was like "Oh yeah! This is a REAL rifle. It's what rifles and riflery (word?) are all about" and that was just holding it in my hands.

I'm sure that for me part of it came from my having gone through basic with an M14 and then not having another full sized military rifle for twenty years after that, but I've seen a man who describe a feeling of finally coming home when he first held a Garand rifle EVEN THOUGH HE'D NEVER OWNED A RIFLE IN HIS LIFE!! (He's now waiting for one). This wasn't some internet conversation, it was my son-in-law when they brought my grandson up here for us to meet. During the visit he asked me about guns because his wife (?:)) my daughter had told him I had some.

The above happens BEFORE before you fire the rifle. I can almost gaurantee that you'll have a new favorite gun to shoot.

There's something different, something unlike shooting any other rifle in shooting a Garand rifle. They don't have a mechanism specifically designed for recoil reduction but because of the way the gas system operates and because of the weight of the rifle AND the weight of the parts that move on firing the recoil is actually pleasant. It kicks, but you enjoy it. I find it reassuring somehow, like as if to say that no matter how the various technologies change almost everything in our lives THIS is the same as it's been for 72 years and THIS will never change.

Just to look at and hold the rifle will bring up scenes in your memory - at first it may evoke familiar movie scenes in which the rifle appears, but as your interest in YOUR rifle's participation in our history grows you'll find more scenes, scenes of real actions with real men, in all of the books describing aspects of WW2 and the Korean engagement. There are great old collections of the photos taken during the war and published in Life and Collier's magazines at the time. There are big books and relatively small pamphlets that you can either buy, borrow, or find in your local library, but I'll recomment that you look in the CMP store while you prepare your order for a paperbound little book called "The M-1 does my Talking!" subtitles "The U.S. M1 Garand Rifle in pictures-WW2 & Korea".

I'm pretty sure they still sell that one in the CMP E-store and it'll give you a taste for more like it. It doesn't cost much, maybe $10. It's also got a brief overview , in pictures, of the weapon development in this country's services from WW1 to the M14 rifle. Maybe some of the best of it is the reproductions of pages from WW2 training pamphlets and posters of the time, but it's all about the rifle.

Why are you so watery over this? Ask yourself if this rifle isn't something special in rifles then why would all of these forum people love it so much?

More than that ask yourself "If this isn't something special then why are there books devoted to it, owner and collector associations focused on it, an entire series of rifle matches named for the designer of it?"

This is your chance to find out for yourself what all the fuss, fuss that began before you were born maybe before your father was born, is all about.

Don't blow it. You WILL regret not buying a service grade M1 Garand rifle when you could; you'll regret it for the rest of your life.

It's that important.

(Don't forget the notarized certificate - they'll slam down your order if you leave out any part of it, but especially that cert page. You'll only need to do that one every three years)
 
Oh, by the way - CMP won't allow ammo to be on the same order as other items. If you go in the e-store to get ammo and maybe a book, or a tool, or a stock or barrel they have a mechanism in which the ammo is separated out onto a second order, even though you're ordering all at once.

So......... you can't buy ammo and rifle together, I'm pretty sure. It means you won't be charged the entire $800. at once if you're using a card.
 
Oh, by the way - CMP won't allow ammo to be on the same order as other items. If you go in the e-store to get ammo and maybe a book, or a tool, or a stock or barrel they have a mechanism in which the ammo is separated out onto a second order, even though you're ordering all at once
So......... you can't buy ammo and rifle together, I'm pretty sure. It means you won't be charged the entire $800. at once if you're using a card. .
Click to expand...

So, what - I send in the rifle order one day and an ammo order the next day?

Wasn't planning on using a card...probably use postal money order.

Q
 
Yeah, Then forget I said that - it probably wouldn't apply to a first time buyer anyway.


You send all the money and they'll split it out as they work the order. It might be better that way because once they cash the check they've gotta' deliver. But if you want, you can register in the store and buy your ammo with a card. I am not sure if you have to have completed all of the rifle purchase paperwork before registering in the store. I've been buying from them since before they had the store and don't remember it being a big deal to be able to buy in there.

You might be able to use the store for ammo as soon as they ACCEPT your rifle order for processing. I really don't know in a situation like yours.

I've always just sent personal checks for guns. They take 'em and it's not like any waiting to clear the check is gonna' delay anything.

GET THAT GARAND!!
 
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- a Ciener .22 conversion for my AR ($160)
- a new holster for my M&P ($80)
- set of grips for my Smith model 15 ($50)
- cast lead boolits ($100)
Click to expand...
- Forget the Ciener conversion. You won't be happy with it
- Make your own holster
- Make your own grips
- Make friends with your tire salesman, and cast your own bullets from wheel weights

I just saved you $390. You can afford the Garand and ammo now.;)
 
Garand.

Man, I can't believe you were considering the other stuff before the Garand.

As others have alluded to, you will burn through that ammo quick like. Maybe you could stretch the budget a bit more and get more ammo.

Great luck with it, but be prepared, they are addicting. I just got one form CMP, and now I'm about 99% certain the next gun I buy will be another Garand.
 
There's something different, something unlike shooting any other rifle in shooting a Garand rifle. They don't have a mechanism specifically designed for recoil reduction but because of the way the gas system operates and because of the weight of the rifle AND the weight of the parts that move on firing the recoil is actually pleasant. It kicks, but you enjoy it. I find it reassuring somehow, like as if to say that no matter how the various technologies change almost everything in our lives THIS is the same as it's been for 72 years and THIS will never change.
Click to expand...
better than i could have said it.

i have said that shooting a garand is like sipping fine tennessee whiskey and shooting a high powered rifle, except you dont have any whiskey.
 
Alright, alright, alright!!! I give up! Peer pressure has overwhelmed me. I yield to the collective. I am sheeple. Hear me baaaa...

Just kidding.

Garand it is.

Would someone tell the TSRA to hurry up on their new member packet? None of this contemplation would have happened if the stuff had magically appeared in my mailbox last week, mere moments after joining :rolleyes:

(Thanks for the reminder to get the app notarized. And, thanks for saving me all that money, Vern. )

Q
 
Congrats.

I will be really surprised if you don't smack your head and wonder what you were thinking after your first trip to the range with it.

And if you don't, M1's seem to command a decent price among those who don't know about the CMP.
 
Quoheleth, you will absolutely cherish your Garand more, and for longer, than all those other things you mentioned COMBINED. You'll forget all about about the extra couple hundred you spent the moment you pull the trigger on that first shot. By the time you hear that first clip PING!, you'll wonder why you hesitated in the first place.

Enjoy your new baby!
 
Dr_2_B said:
Quote:
By the time you hear that first clip PING!, you'll wonder why you hesitated in the first place.
me too
Click to expand...
Now there's an idea for a T-Shirt! Picture of Garand with quote "You had me at 'Ping'" (ala Jerry MacGuire)
 
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You won't go wrong with a Service Grade Garand. That being said the Service grade might not be the tack driver you are thinking, but no problem. They are highly tunable with a minimal amount of skill and effort.

I am writing a tutorial on accurizing a Garand now and will have it posted on my site when I'm finished.
 
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