M1 Garand Barrel Help

[Winter Borne]

Okay,

How hard is it to swap a barrel on an M1 Garand? Mine is a Winchester re-barrel from 1945 in 30-06. Once a year I re-enact with the Parris Island LHD and 30-06 blanks are a might too expensive. I just picked up 1000 .308 blanks and intend on making a .308 blank barrel for the occasion.

Looking for:
A shot out (read cheap $) .308 Garand barrel
& Instructions on the swap out

thanks

mk

 

[Orlando]

Receiver wrench, barrel vice, headspace gauges, reamers, etc
Very pricey. You may as well pay someone to do it
The price of a barrel and a install would pay for alot of blanks

 

[MountainBear]

Cost prohibitive. At least $150 to $200 for the labor plus the cost of the barrel, reamer (if necessary), and headspace gauges.

 

[Maj Dad]

Rather than trash the M1 you have, consider acquiring a rack grade or some assemblage of parts that you could convert, or better, find a 308 weapon... Just thoughts, but if you convert it, it's going to cost you $$$.

 

[highorder]

Loading your own blanks may be the cheapest and simplest idea.

 

[Winter Borne]

Okay, please pardon the ignorance on my part here but what do I need a reamer for? It looks to me that the barrel treads on / off. Mine is already head spaced, and the 308 barrel will be just for blanks.

I have 1000 308 plastic cased blanks from Germany already, and the barrel will not be a shooter, just for the blanks. It seems to me that I could thread off my 06 barrel and thread on the 308, but I may be over simplifying it.

I have also read that there are .308 inserts that can be installed onto the "dummy" barrel if a .308 can't be located, again, this will be a plastic blank gun at this point.

I have seen shot out barrels for as low as 20 bucks so I'm not seeing the huge cost here either. Please enlighten...

mk

 

[nicholst55]

New M1 barrels come short-chambered, meaning that the chamber has to have the final reaming done - frequently called headspacing. The chamber has to be reamed until the bolt will close on a 'Go' headspace gauge and not on a 'No-Go' gauge. If you can locate a used .308 barrel and have access to a Garand receiver wrench and a good barrel vise, you can probably install a used barrel yourself. All you would need to do is remove the '06 barrel and install and align the .308 barrel. That can be done with a pair of bubble levels and a good eye, or two 24" straight edges. The actual installation is basic plumbing, especially if you never intend to fire anything besides blanks in it.

The problem lies in the fact that someday, you're either going to sell your rifle or you'll pass away and your heirs will sell it. Since you never intended to shoot this rifle (with anything besides blanks) and didn't measure headspace, it may, or may not, be safe to fire. Chances are, the next owner will have no way of knowing this. Do you see my point?

Unless you can somehow permanently mark the rifle "DO NOT FIRE; BLANKS ONLY," you'd be doing any potential subsequent owner a disservice.

 

[No4Mk1*]

Might this be a use of those chamber inserts to fire 308 in a .30-06 chamber? Installing and removing the insert would probably be much cheaper than re-barreling. I understand the insert is a bad Idea to actually shoot 308 with because of the risk of it coming out unknown to the shooter, but maybe blanks would not pose the same risky situation?