New member, question about HRA Garand

Greetings and Happy Holidays. My Dad gave me an HRA M1 a few months ago. It was supposedly "non-firing" per my brother-in-law who originally gave it to my Dad about 10 years ago, so my Dad never attempted to fire it; it was mostly for nostalgia.

I disassembled and cleaned it, and everything was intact and looked in good shape, so I lubed it up and took it out to a friend's ranch to test fire it. I obtained some PPU ball rounds, and En bloc clips and she fired no problem but had problems extracting; the extractor was tearing off the rim of the case and I had to stick a cleaning rod in the barrel to knock the case out. So I had a "single shot" Garand. I obtained some Greek HXP from CMP, but still had the extraction issue. I finally figured out that the chamber must be rough or something, so "polished" it with a cleaning rod, 45 brush and steel wool using a drill. That helped a lot, but wondering if I should consider a new criterion barrel, which brings me to my question:

Should I rebarrel, reparkerize, etc. and just have an enjoyable shooter, or will this devalue the rifle significantly? The receiver and barrel are both HRA, but the bolt is SA and I haven't examined other parts in detail to see if they are period correct or whatever. I'm not hung up and creating a collector grade/number matching/museum piece, etc. but since this is my first Garand I thought it wise to consult some of the experts out there. Any and all opinions welcome.:)

Tom

It really depends on the condition of the rifle's barrel. Hold it a bit closer to the screen and I'll have a look at it...is the chamber pitted? Is the barrel rough? Don't just re-barrel it off hand. Sounds like you should have it examined by a competent gunsmith before you go further. By the way, what did you mean by "Non firing" as per your brother in law? What was done to it?

If you are any where near me in Ohio I can help. Rick B

[QUOTE=browningautorifle;283830 By the way, what did you mean by "Non firing" as per your brother in law? What was done to it?[/QUOTE]

My bro-in-law said the guy he bought it from told him it was "non-firing" and when I pressed him for more details, he had none. Maybe the guy sold him the wrong Garand. No matter at this point as it does fire no problem. As for accuracy, I haven't shot it much but I can hit a coffee can at 70 yards offhand so the barrel can't be too bad.

A common cause for the extraction issues you describe is a very dirty/pitted chamber. If the pitting is deep enough, not much can be done. If it's just dirt/carbon or very superficial pitting, polishing may help, but to polish effectively, the barrel needs to be removed from the receiver, which is best left to a pro unless you've done several.

I once polished a pitted chamber for several hours, using an empty case attached to an electric drill, and some valve-lapping compound. After all that effort, the chamber was nice & shiny, but STILL badly pitted. Didn't improve extraction one iota--disappointing. The next step was a new barrel. No choice.

The accuracy you describe doesn't answer if the barrel chamber are pitted. That's the question...

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

The accuracy you describe doesn't answer if the barrel chamber are pitted. That's the question...

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Looking in the chamber with a small mirror, it does not appear to be pitted to me, but tough to see all of the chamber very well. I ordered a bore viewer from cmp so maybe that will help. I do know that after I polished it using the steelwool/45 brush/drill it did seem a lot smoother dragging a q-tip across it, but not a very objective test. Open to suggestions on how to check or measure how pitted or smooth or rough it is.

As for accuracy, my point was the barrel/rifling must not be excessively worn for what I will use it for. Where I hunt, the longest shot is maybe 100 yards, most under 75.

Understood, the barrel will appear shiny and so will the chamber. If pitted, they will both look...not shiny. This can be minor pitting or major...

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Originally Posted by Rick B

If you are any where near me in Ohio I can help. Rick B

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Thanks for the offer Rick, but I live in Houston.