Rebarrel M1 Garand

My recent acquisition is an M-1 Garand (30-06 SA Dec 1943). The barrel has some bad muzzle wear (rodding), but the bore is not pitted and measures slightly over .303. I'm going to try counterboring to .308 (should I go larger?)until I start to see some sharp edges. I'm guessing about 5/8" to 3/4" in from the end of the barrel. If the gun will still cycle I'll shoot it for a while. If I can't make it cycle (enlarge the port, etc.) nothing is lost, I will just have to rebarrel. As is, the gun feeds and cycles fine but is not as accurate as I would like. Maybe counterboring will help.

Does anyone know if new barrels are pretty much good to go as is or do they usually need additional fitting and adjusting (head space, etc.)? Would I want to consider a used barrel? Why would someone take a good barrel off a gun?

I welcome and appreciate any comments.

Rebarreling a Garand is not a self help project for a novice. It requires numerous, costly special tools. There are no index marks on the barrels or receiver so it requires special knowledge of installation. Don 't mess with used barrels. They were removed for a reason. Usually because they were worn out. If the current barrel is worn to the point where it may require counterboreing, just get a new barrel installed and avoid the disappointment of minimal improvement.

Send a message to Chuckindenver, a member here, and he'll give you the full poop and could also do the work for you.

Back when ammo was available...at a reasonable price, I elected to settle on .308 and .223 and sold off all my 30-06 rounds. I rebarreled 3 M-1s to 308. All my barrel take offs were in pretty good shape, so not all used gi barrels are bad deals. Use a throat guage and a muzzle guage to measure wear before buying.

Or..... buy a new Criterion barrel from Midway USA.

musketshooter, there were a lot of M1 Garands that were brought into Canada in VG-Excellent condition. Our market is small, compared to the US. The vast majority of these rifles were stripped down to their components. The receivers were trashed for the most part but the rest of the components were sent into the US as individual parts or kits to rebuild a donor receiver or what have you. They even stripped a bunch of M1 D rifles. There is a good chance that a lot of those parts are still in circulation in the US. They were shipped to Canada because we weren't bound by Lend Lease or MAP agreements. In Canada they could be stripped at liesure without breaking any import rules.

I have a friend that sells M1 Garand barrels on Gun Broker all the time. They are off of complete rifles that he sells as parts. They are good barrels, they just bring more money as parts. He sells all the parts of each rifle, whatever you need. He takes alot of good photos, gives you barrel dates, M.E. and T.E. gage readings. I won't give his name, but I'll tell you he takes all his photos on his deck. I've used alot of his parts. You know what you are getting before you get it. If you look at all the photos and read his discriptions you won't get any suprises. Sometime you need to wait a while. But if it's M1 Grand original U.S. GI parts you need he will have it sooner or later for sale. I check to see what he is selling almost every day. Bill

how i index a Garand barrel is hard to explain, maybe ill post a how to at sometime.. i do it with a couple level bubbles, and a bit of patiance.

See the other posts about getting the barrel in properly indexed. We use some special gauges and tools to do the job right, It is hard to get it right without them. My contribution is to mention that if you counterbore the muzzle more than one or two tenths of an inch, the rifle won't cycle, as not enough gas goes down the gas port before the barrel becomes 'uncorked' by the bullet reaching the counterbore. If you want to attempt it, Manson Engineering makes a 'muzzle brake ' counterbore that leaves a proper crown at the end of the counterbore - a drill or chucking reamer leaves a messy crown.

OlManDow

There are plenty of serviceable "spin-offs" most will index and head space,but you need to know how to check.you need head space gages , receiver wrench and barrel holder. Anyone charging big time prices to fit a used barrel is ripping you off.
New barrels are a different question,requiring real gunsmithing. Use someone with a reputation like orion----tom garandfather_