Garand Surgery

[majspud]

Snow and more snow. School cancelled today and tomorrow. Gave up on trying to clear the walk; about 30" on the ground here in south Plymouth. Spent three hours clearing the driveway at 20'x40' with my little rinky-dink electric snow blower and drifts as high as my chest.

Got a full Orion 98a spring replacement kit for the Garand. I steeled myself to perform my first full surgery on a Garand, having only done bolts before. I needed to reference three different sources in order to strip it down and put Humpty-Dumpty together again. All SA parts save the milled WRA trigger guard; frame 12-SA, hammer 3-SA, and safety 6-SA. Rifle is a CMP field grade, 358K, 10/41 receiver with a 3+/4 11/46 SA barrel. SA op-rod, with correct GHS/SA stock. When I picked it out at CMP South in June, another shopper looked at it and said the op-rod catch that connected to the follower was HRA, but I found no marks on it save a '12' on the bottom. I forgot to look at the follower arm for a mark.

Took a couple hours for the job, cleaning and re-greasing as needed. Got lucky on the bolt. As I don't have a takedown tool save the M3A1 combo, my thumb pressure on the extractor weakened enough against the stiff new plunger spring, and the new ejector and spring went ballistic, 15 feet up, through the ceiling fan, bounced off the cathedral ceiling, through the ceiling fan again, went between my legs and under the desk (my den is an old in-law apartment over the garage). Fun.

Curious as to how it will shoot with the new springs, but probably a couple of weeks for the range to clear!

T

Information

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[Mike Haas]

Snow and more snow. School cancelled today and tomorrow. Gave up on trying to clear the walk; about 30" on the ground here in south Plymouth. Spent three hours clearing the driveway at 20'x40' with my little rinky-dink electric snow blower and drifts as high as my chest.

Got a full Orion 98a spring replacement kit for the Garand. I steeled myself to perform my first full surgery on a Garand, having only done bolts before. I needed to reference three different sources in order to strip it down and put Humpty-Dumpty together again. All SA parts save the milled WRA trigger guard; frame 12-SA, hammer 3-SA, and safety 6-SA. Rifle is a CMP field grade, 358K, 10/41 receiver with a 3+/4 11/46 SA barrel. SA op-rod, with correct GHS/SA stock. When I picked it out at CMP South in June, another shopper looked at it and said the op-rod catch that connected to the follower was HRA, but I found no marks on it save a '12' on the bottom. I forgot to look at the follower arm for a mark.

Took a couple hours for the job, cleaning and re-greasing as needed. Got lucky on the bolt. As I don't have a takedown tool save the M3A1 combo, my thumb pressure on the extractor weakened enough against the stiff new plunger spring, and the new ejector and spring went ballistic, 15 feet up, through the ceiling fan, bounced off the cathedral ceiling, through the ceiling fan again, went between my legs and under the desk (my den is an old in-law apartment over the garage). Fun.

Curious as to how it will shoot with the new springs, but probably a couple of weeks for the range to clear!

T

Use a one (1) Gallon Zip lock bag next time you disassemble a bolt (Any M1 Garand/Carbine).. saves you from doing

[browningautorifle]

Get the M10 cleaning rod and handle and you can avoid that too. Never had any problems because there's nothing to shoot out and no where for it to go.

[majspud]

Now that I know how to take the action apart, I decided to swap out the WRA milled TG with a correct 3-SA (8/41-12/41) one. Finish doesn't quite match, but I'm hard put to see it as I'm color blind. The WRA TG was in a little better shape with the lugs perfectly rounded. The SA had some wear on it, but locks up so tight that I needed my punch to pull it out again.

Photo got cat-bombed. This one seeks out any new source of heat, I think as she's so small; 6.5 lbs. and 10 years old.

T

Edited per OP request

[browningautorifle]

As far as I can see from the angle, the trigger guard/trigger housing seem to be close enough to match. The little calico... well she just wants company. Try not to get oil on her.

[majspud]

Repost pic.

T

[browningautorifle]

All too easy...

[Bill Hollinger]

T, it happens to the best of us buddy

[CINDERS]

Glad to see your resident armourer was there to oversee and lend a paw

[no4mk1t]

As I don't have a takedown tool save the M3A1 combo,

The M3A1 tool is designed to perform take down of the bolt. Use as shown in the pic. Push forward on the op rod to fully engage the tool and then lift the handle of the tool.
When reassembling, you can use the tool the same way to compress the ejector spring. Putting a dab of grease on the extractor detent will ease installation. A plastic faced hammer is handy to tap the ejector into place.