MCMXIautomatic
Member
Hi guys. I want to see if I can put to rest a couple of small, nagging concerns I have about field stripping the Garand. My rifle was bought from the CMP. It is a service grade HRA with a new stock set on it.
Firstly, I'd like to know what you guys think about field stripping and how it affects accuracy. According to this tutorial at garandgear.com: http://www.garandgear.com/m1-garand-barrel-cleaning , I should only strip the rifle down every 300 rounds or so for a thorough cleaning and re-lubing, as they claim that regular field stripping has a negative affect on accuracy. But on the other hand, soldiers were trained to do this on a fairly frequent basis, and it doesn't seem that it affected the rifles at all in combat or marksmanship training. So what's the deal? To be perfectly clear, I am not concerned about match-grade accuracy. If I can repeatedly tear the rifle down, reassemble, and then still get decent, consistent groups on a pie plate-sized target out at 200 yards, then I'd say I'm pretty happy with that.
My second question is about removing the gas plug. Garandgear sells a special tool (shown in the above link) that is designed to support the gas cylinder when removing the gas plug. They say that this is to prevent the torque from being transferred to the barrel splines and eventually causing the gas cylinder to become loose and degrade accuracy. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to use this tool, but do you guys think something like this is an absolute necessity for preserving accuracy? I ask only because I'm just a little bit hesitant to spend a lot of money on specialized tools for an as-issued combat rifle. Thanks for your input.
Firstly, I'd like to know what you guys think about field stripping and how it affects accuracy. According to this tutorial at garandgear.com: http://www.garandgear.com/m1-garand-barrel-cleaning , I should only strip the rifle down every 300 rounds or so for a thorough cleaning and re-lubing, as they claim that regular field stripping has a negative affect on accuracy. But on the other hand, soldiers were trained to do this on a fairly frequent basis, and it doesn't seem that it affected the rifles at all in combat or marksmanship training. So what's the deal? To be perfectly clear, I am not concerned about match-grade accuracy. If I can repeatedly tear the rifle down, reassemble, and then still get decent, consistent groups on a pie plate-sized target out at 200 yards, then I'd say I'm pretty happy with that.
My second question is about removing the gas plug. Garandgear sells a special tool (shown in the above link) that is designed to support the gas cylinder when removing the gas plug. They say that this is to prevent the torque from being transferred to the barrel splines and eventually causing the gas cylinder to become loose and degrade accuracy. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to use this tool, but do you guys think something like this is an absolute necessity for preserving accuracy? I ask only because I'm just a little bit hesitant to spend a lot of money on specialized tools for an as-issued combat rifle. Thanks for your input.