Is it Proper to Shoot Garands with GI Barrels?

[jimthompson502002]

Would that there were some kind of hard, cold objective answer. But there isn't.

Back when I could still afford Colt Single Actions, Lugers, M1's, and some fairly rare Mausers, I got in the HABIT of preservation of the most perishable parts of my "babies". Back then I had a running deal with superb 'smiths ( some have retired, some have died, one just retired) because I shot almost every day, and a LOT.

With Lugers, I'd remove authentic, original grips, replace them with repros, and on one particular 6" M1906 Naval and a very similar custom Krieghoff, I also replaced the barrels with some of the stash of Austrian tubes I'd gotten for peanuts long before. Back then had all three popular lengths, a few "short/fat" commercials in 7.65, and so on, all brand new. Got in the habit of having my 'smith number them to the receiver but NOT IN THE ORIGINAL STYLE. This allowed me to burn ammo at prodigious rates and if called upon to cull out the dollar value--divorce, surgery, deaths in the family, new vehicles--I could either sell them with "all the stuff, original and replacement", or revert to original status. This became important early with the single actions. I did wear out quite a number of replacement barrels in all those platforms and many more obscure types.

There were several folks I ran across whose rifles I photographed back in the eighties and nineties who owned very few M1's but had swapped out the parts they felt were most "perishable". One had a clone stock created by a 'smith with the same stampings, but a Fajen that was glass bedded. He also replaced a very uncommon operating rod with the postwar D35382, shot it with a barrel I got for him. And he shot it quite a bit every weekend. He documented all this and made sure his heirs inherited it in such a fashion as to glean what he was doing That's another matter: if you do this and have heirs, leave tracks!!

With M1's it was less complicated because it's all much easier to SEE. I shot very few rounds in my lengthy associations with Mister Garand's brain child out of rifles with valuable cartouched stocks, most especially early ones.

The decision was made much easier when I found out commercials, especially heavies and especially .308's, tend to shoot MUCH more accurately and also last longer.

Whatever one does, it is best if condition and authenticity can be maintained in some way over a lifetime.

It's not our place to ridicule or condemn anything well thought-out someone does to or with his own property, unless it truly is criminal. And in the literal sense.

I was always especially fond of the Italian rebuild Tipo 2 (type two) configuration because there literally is no exact original configuration, and they are lots of fun and consume ammo that is easy to find and where some surplus will be around for a long time.

Everything else is gray areas.

Another note: yes, barrel LIFE is indeed greatly increased if one cleans regularly, properly, and avoids lots of rapid fire. Yes, it can double the old approximate G.I. standards. Commercial barrels tend to last considerably longer than G.I. Gentler leades, improved metallurgy, and especially the more appropriate 1 turn in 12" is some of that in objective terms.

Fact: no one is making original 1936-56 U.S.G.I. barrels. No one makes actual military Beretta or Breda barrels from 1952-84, either.

This is stuff worth some thinking.

[Red Devil]

GCA - did a field test for M1 rifle sustained fire barrel erosion.

They determined that TE occurs at a rate of ~ 0.001" (one gauge number) per every 2,000 rounds fired, and that ME is ~ 1/3 that (0.001"/6,000 rounds fired).

According to TM 9-1275: SERVICEABILITY CHART - Figure 23
http://www.biggerhammer.net/manuals/garand/tm-fig23.htm

U.S. Army M1 rifle Breech Bore Max. for Storage and Reissue - is 0.305".

So, given a SG M1 rifle w/ a TE=1.5/ME=0.5 Bbl....?

That's 0.3050" - 0.3015" = 0.0035" (3.5 gauge)... x ~ 2,000 rds./gauge... = ~ 7,000 rds.

If you take that to 0.306" (issued overseas)... ~ 9,000 rds.

To 0.308"? (Generally accepted accuracy threshold)... ~ 13,000 rds.




Red