Assembling an M1 Garand Rifle From Parts

Getting the Parts

We got the parts from a variety of suppliers. ODCMP at Camp Perry was the source of my receiver.

What A Country supplied the barrel. It's a Citadel barrel, newly manufactured, so we had to do the finish reaming as described on the next page.

We got some individual parts (gas cylinder assembly, components of the action) from "Italian Andy", a guy in Italy who sold parts over eBay until they stopped gun part sales. Now he sells through gunbroker.com

We got a parts kit of most of the remaining parts from Dupage Trading Company or similar. I think these were NATO returns from either Greece or Denmark, rifles they had kept stored somewhere in case of Soviet invasion. Greece used the M1 Garand until the late 1970s, and the honor guard on Syntagma Square in Athens still carries them.

Once we had the parts, we parkerized most of them. I have another page describing the parkerizing process.

The exception to the parkerizing is the gas cylinder. It is made of stainless steel to withstand the high gas temperatures. This made for a fairly large and very reflective part near the muzzle. Back in the day, the men in the field re-blackened their gas cylinders with smoke from a campfire, a candle, or a trusty Zippo.

Now we use chemical blackening. This isn't a colored coating, like paint, but it is a chemical reaction that darkens stainless steel. Think about that: it changes the color of otherwise stainless steel. So yes, it involves some rather caustic chemicals! We used Caswell's stainless steel blackener.

Complete collection of M1 Garand parts ready for final assembly

Other places we looked at, or that my friend used as a source for his, included Boyd's Gun Stocks.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that some sources of Garand parts sell through Amazon.

© Page author Feb 2012.