Finally broke down a bought a CMP M1 Garand (actually two).

 

I have intended to buy an M1 Garand since the early 90's and for whatever reason I did not. About four years ago, I traded for one at a local gun show. It was a H&R that was pretty nice. I bought a few enbloc clips and took those and the rifle home. I cleaned the Garand that Saturday afternoon. I took it back to the show on Sunday and traded it.  In the last couple of years, two of my friend have bought Garands through the Civilian Marksmanships Store (South) in Anniston, Alabama. They had been encouraging me to "take the plunge". I had researched "what was required" to purchase through CMP and gathered together my documentation. Buying from CMP was much easier than I had imagined. The process of entering the store and selecting a rifle was a little different due to COVID, but everything flowed smoothly . The store opened at eight. I arrived at 6:15 AM. There were two guys from California, one from Texas, and one from Florida that I spoke with while waiting. I was number seven in line and it was first come, first serve. The CMP folks would allow six shoppers in the store for thirty minutes. Once one came out, another shopper could go inside to browse and buy. I had printed off and filled out the forms I would need from the CMP website. The CMP staff had a table set up outside of the door with the same forms. There were also masks and gloves on the table which shoppers had to wear while inside the store. The CMP staff was very helpful and eager to work with potential buyers.  Once inside there were varying grades of M1 Garands, some real nice 1903 Springfields, P-17 Winchesters, ball caps, coffee mugs, ammo, enbloc clips, bandoleros, cleaning kits, and other accessories. I also saw one Springfield 1892-99 Krag Jorgensen rifle for sale. The long story short is I bought a nice "Service Grade" 1945 Springfield M1 Garand. The muzzle gauged "0" and the throat was a "1". In my opinion the rifle is in very good condition. There were only a few small dings in the wood stock and the finish on the metal was nice. Being a late 1945 production and judging from the condition, I would say the rifle never made it out of a rack during WW2. Here are a couple of pictures. 

CMP allows a person to buy eight rifles a year (they will even mail them, but the process isn't a quick as walking in a picking out a rifle). After eating some breakfast and giving the matter some thought, I decided to go back and buy a second rifle. That rifle was "field grade". Like all CMP rifles, it had been thoroughly inspected, test fired, graded, and priced accordingly. It was 1942 Springfield receiver that had been re-barreled in 1952. The metal showed wear and the GI stock had some dings, but the rifle was solid (muzzle gauged "1" and the the throat "2").  Both rifles came with a certificate of authenticity, one enbloc clip, a hard case, instructional manual, and a credit for two hours of range time at the CMP state of the art firing range. I also bought 200 rounds of .30-.06 150 gr. ammo. Here is a photo of the field grade rifle.

I am a novice when it comes to Garands. I did watch several videos pertaining to zeroing a Garand, etc. (yes there is a giant Garand "rabbit hole" on the interweb). I took the rifle out and the first shot was in the black. By the fourth shot, I was cutting dead center. This was at 25 yards. Because of time constraints I only fired ten rounds through the rifle, but it was a tack driver. I am looking forward to trying longer distances when weather and life permits. Here are a few links that might prove helpful to prospective Garand buyers:

Five Reasons to Buy a Garand:

https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/five-reasons-buy-m1-garand/

Garand Collector's Assoc.:

        https://thegca.org/

Civilian Marksmanship Program Eligibility Requirements with links to other CMP services:     

https://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/eligibility-requirements/

                                            UPDATE regarding ammunition for the M1 Garand.