Garand work

[bushmaster65]

Recently I asked a local gun store owner how much it would cost me to have my garrand re-barreled, fully parkerized and given a thorough look over for a clean bill of health. He said that he would have to send it out and it would be at least a thousand! That's with me supplying the barrel!
What I need to know is what is a good ball park figure for this work to be done so I'll know if I'm being gouged or treated fairly.
Thanxs gents for any help you can give.
Bush

 

[SVO]

If you are a member of a gun club that has a High Power Service Rifle shooting program, talking with those guys will probably answer most of your questions as to cost and who to use or not use. If your rifle has to be sent off for work, that's something you can do yourself. Doing that yourself and cutting out the LGS as the middle man should save you some change.

 

[gdvan01]

I know he's not exactly 'just around the corner' from you but you can check out Tony Giacobbe (he's in NJ):

http://www.garandguy.com/store/en/

 

[wyop]

Here's a schedule of Garand shop services from Fulton Armory, who have been in the business of service rifles (and nothing but service rifles) for some time now:

http://www.fulton-armory.com/M1-Garand-Services.aspx

 

[4V50 Gary]

Bring it up to Trinidad State Gunsmithing School. Dunno what it'll cost, but it won't be a thousand. You supply the barrel though.

Second semester does the cleaning and can reparkerize it. BTW, I saw an engraved shotgun that was re-blued by the instructor who teaches bluing/parkerizing and browning. The owner was afraid that the engraving would be removed. The instructor polished it by hand. The end product was outstanding! (OK, he had to do the barrel twice because one part didn't take the blue very well).

Provided you supply the barrel, the new barrel can be installed there and then chambered to mil-spec (on civilian guns they hold us to minimum SAAMI specs so as to have match chambers).

 

[Unclenick]

Bush,

Since I do my own Garand work, I haven't kept abreast of the retail market for gunsmithing this rifle. Brownells keeps up a survey of gunsmithing charges. From that, Parkerizing itself should be between $95-$145. Clean, oil and inspect, $50-$100. Barrel replacement will depend on the cost of the barrel itself plus the format of it. A new Krieger heavy weight stainless barrel with breech end contouring but no chamber cutting will involve stock modification as well as the chamber work to fit. That's not cheap. I think the best bargain is the CMP price on new Criterion standard weight barrels for under $179 (most places sell if for $250) that have lapped bores, are standard weight, and short chambered so that only need final cutting to headspace. Otherwise they are basically entry level match grade quality, are more than up to standard weight Garand potential and, if you don't bed the stock, qualify for the as-issued rule matches and would be an excellent choice.

You then have to install and chamber the barrel. Brownells has chambering and fitting a barrel at $150 to $250. However, if someone is set up to do Garands, specifically, and considering the Criterion barrel is already short chambered, I would expect the bottom number. I would also expect that if you gave him all the work he might come up with a package price.

So, with barrel cost included, I would guess you could get it done for less than half what you were quoted, based on Brownells numbers. But, again, if you deal with someone who specializes in that rifle, it could be less. I would get a couple of quotes.

Note that, unless the rules have changed since I last looked, you can ship a gun to an FFL holding gunsmith directly, and he may ship back to you directly without going through an intermediary for transfer, as ownership isn't changing. The shipping will set you back something, though.

Also, you should check out the CMP forums. Lots of guys there are doing Garand work, specifically. You'll find information about inspection and gaging there, and can learn to do that yourself to save some money.