Which Garand

[Tanner68]

I have a little change saved up, and decided to buy a Garand. I just need to decide on which. At first I was considering one of the recently manufactured ones from Springfield Armory. But now I am leaning towards Fulton Armory. Any input from knowledgeable members would be greatly appreciated. What's the best route or source for a nice Garand? Thanks.

[Mike OTDP]

I'd consider a CMP rifle, then get it worked over.

That being said, I'd go with Fulton Armory. Springfield does production rifles...Fulton does semi-custom work, and is run by one of the top service rifle builders in the country. Even if you get a Service Grade rifle, go with the National Match trigger job. You'll find shooting it a lot easier.

[Aegis]

I would second the CMP notion; good service, though they're a bit overwhelmed by orders, at least they were when I sent mine in. Took me about 4 months to get the rifle.

Barring that, I'd say Springfield; probably the best customer service in the business, and it's a darn good place to start for a Garand.

[cu74]

I'll add another "vote" for the CMP. I have several of their Service Grade Garands.

Whatever you decide for a source, congratulations on your decision to get a Garand. Garands are fun to shoot and easy to maintain. CMP has a warehouse full of Greek surplus ammo at reasonable prices - good ammo and it's reloadable, too.

[wareagle]

Yet another vote for the CMP. I have gotten a couple of Service grades over the last 6 months and am very pleased with both. The internals/mechanicals were in great condition, and the dings and gouges on the stocks just add a bit of character.

[Battleriflefan]

I don't know, you might just look around till you see a good one and get it if it looks okay. I bought mine before the CMP started selling them again, and it was a bit over $700. I bought it as a shooter, and a shooter it is. It's a very late H&R, from during the Korean War, and receiver and barrel match. I swapped bolts with someone that was trying to match up a Springfield. so now I have H&R bolt as well. You will also find that many of the Garands on the market are former CMP guns as well, sold by speculators. While most have a $100 or two added to the price, some don't and I missed out on one that was going for $500. The salesman pitched it for that much, in order to close the sale, and the potential customer, not knowing what deal he was missing out on, passed. If I had had $500, I would have a service grade CMP Garand. If you can, going the CMP route is good, and a great experience.

[ScottG]

Another vote for the CMP.

In September they will release M1917s. I missed out on the last batch and will unfortunately miss out on this batch too because I think they'll go fast.

[morsetaper]

I have a new one from Springfield, and it's a good gun. Bought it spur of the moment-I, the gun , and the money were all in the same place at the same time. But if it were something I was planning on, I think I'd go another route, probably CMP. One-because of the history, and two-you will likely save at least $400 compared to purchasing a new one.

[Tanner68]

So the CMP seems to be the consensus route. I still need to decide whether to buy a correct grade gun, or a rack grade and send it in to Fulton Armory.

Looking at the Fulton Armory price list, it seems like I would save several hundred dollars by buying a rack or service grade CMP gun and sending it in to FA for all the upgrades, versus buying one of the FA guns. I will give them a call to verify that the end results are comparable.

[Mike OTDP]

Rack grade plus Fulton rework. But go over to the jouster.com M-1 forum. Most of the hard-core Garand experts hang around there.