The Springfield Armory M1 on the right I bought in ether 2009, or 2010 through Southern Ohio Gun, and other than a quick cleaning, and replacing the oil infested stock, it went to the gun safe.
Finally in December I got it out to fire it, and found what I thought was cosmoline in the chamber, after some industrial style cleaning it turned out to be a broken casing, and after a few hours with my local smith, we found the case was so corroded in place,it was not coming out, and the top of the barrel under the hand-guards was heavily pitted, he said I could re-barrel it but he was somewhat suspect that some of the other parts might inhibit it functioning correctly, and suggested I ether use it for a wall hanger or part it out.
The Springfield Armory M1 on the left, I bought from an individual at the last gun show I attended, he told me it was a CMP gun, and it is indeed clean, the bore is shiny there is no pitting, and it functions well.
But what is interesting is they are less than 1000 apart in serial numbers, and the one on the right is the newer of the two.
You'll have to remove the barrel, but you can tap the case 1" deep with a 7/16-14 tap (it won't cut thru the case into the chamber)then use a bolt and washers to remove the case, like removing a stuck case from a resizing die. Also, unless the receiver is so worn out that it won't work, there is no reason a real gunsmith can't get the rifle working properly.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't a chamber reamer make short work of that corroded case fragment? Won't do much for the exterior pitting, of course, but it would have to be REALLY DEEP to compromise the barrel's strength.
ReplyDeleteLike the first guy said, find a real gunsmith and try again - it would be worth it to have two Garands only 1000 apart..:-)
This is why I only buy CMP Garands, either right from the CMP or with original CMP paperwork.
ReplyDelete5 Garands so far, and no problems yet.