Changing barrel on garand

[chestergolf]

I have a garand that, besides a poor inside barrel, is in very good shape. The barrel appears to be shot out and is also pitted. The rifle has never been shot by me although I have owned it for 5+ years now How hard is it to change the barrel on a garand and if I do get it changed does this reflect positively or negatively on the collector value of the rifle? It is a '43 SA garand if that matters.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[tiriaq]

Rebarrelling with a commercial barrel won't help its collector value. Is the barrel that is on it now '43 SA? If so, that could be the original barrel, and some collectors like that, even if the bore is not good. Has the rifle been rebuilt over the years? Have you tried thoroughly cleaning the barrel? Perhaps you should, and then shoot it, and then clean it again. It might not be as bad as it appears. If the rifle has been rebuilt over the years, installing a GI barrel dated '43 or later shouldn't affect collector value, apart from having a better bore. But you may not recover the cost of the replacement barrel - and there could be headspace and indexing issues if a used barrel is installed.
Changing a barrel requires a barrel vise and an action wrench, as well as headspace gauges, and a way of insuring correct index.

[chestergolf]

Every thing seems SA except the barrel. It reads:

LMR. 06535448 4. 55 A41

Maybe this will help.

[tiriaq]

OK, the rifle was rebarrelled. I doubt that installing a different GI barrel would affect collector value. A better bore might increase the value, but not likely as much as the barrel is going to cost.
You could see what it would cost to find an original barrel with a sharp bore. Or, if you want a new bore for shooting, install a commercial barrel, but keep the military one. It could always accompany the rifle.

[chestergolf]

I'll try shooting it first to see what, if anything, loosens up in the barrel. Maybe a good cleaning after the range session will do wonders. Thanks.

[K31]

I have a friend's GARAND here now, he wants to have it rebarreled. Cost is no object! It won't even function, the chamber looks like the moon! Does anyone know where to buy a NEW barrel in 30-06, in CANADA? TRADE-EX has them in .308, but the owner insists on 30-06.

[Hungry]

Just like tiriaq mentioned, the rebarreling process is dead easy. Luckily most of the M1 Garand receivers I've rebarreled are all stretched a bit so I have never needed to finish ream a short-chambered barrel.

I have discovered that all the USGI barrels I've screwed on (replaced) never needed finish reaming. All of them swallowed the correct GO gauge. There are many gunsmiths who have done M1 and M14 barrels around Canada, or in Ontario (that I know of...)

Peace out,
Barney

[Badger]

In my opinion, be careful if you choose to have a gunsmith do it and make sure they know what they're doing with Garands.

The gunsmith I use in Toronto has a 30 year+ milsurp veteran on-staff, who's personally worked on three Garands for me. He's built, re-built and re-barreled hundreds of Garands in his career. I think he said he used to live in Montreal at one time in the real old days and had worked for an importer (Districorps?) who imported Garands at one time.

Although not exactly what you want to do, I found out the hard way that you have to be real careful if you're going to have a standard 30.06 Garand converted to .308, particularly who does it. I bought one in the EE from a CGN board member that was supposedly done by another professional gunsmith here in Ontario, who apparently thought you just cranked the barrel on with "Locktite" and walked away. It cost me unnecessarily to get it redone by the experienced Garand gunsmith I mentioned above. He gave me a written forensic report to send to the seller and his gunsmith for a claim, but I never bothered.

Since he fixed it up, I've never had any further problems with serious feeding or short stroking, the way it was when I originally bought it. It now shoots like wildfire and I great groups using 7.62mm surplus. The moral ..... Caveat Emptor ...... and use gunsmiths with a good pedigree of having actually worked on a lot of a particular type of these old girls.

BTW, ~Angel~ also uses the same guy for her Enfields and he's done a terrific job re-bedding a few of her DCRA beasts, that had faded over the years.

Regards,
Badger

[sdh1911]

I've built a few M1 Garands in my days, Those needed re-chambering after a barrel swap is very rare indeed, but, I've had to do it twice during my short 24 year's as a rifle smith. Whats the old phrase, when in dough, don't! I live by it-SDH