I will soon be visiting my mother who lives in AL near the CMP store. My area has many gun shows so I have many opportunities to buy a Garand locally. Is there any advantages to buying from CMP? Do they still have anything special at a good price? I am not a expert who might find the needle in a haystack gun. Nor do I want to spent $3,500 on a rare sniper rifle. I just want a good collector type rifle in very nice condition.

I bought a H&R M-1 about a year ago,$595. The rifle had a new CMP stock and the metal finish was great. The fact that you can visit the store and select your rifle is even better. Go for it! Good luck.

The Garand I bought from the CMP is 1950's vintage. If it saw a war it was Korea. And that's a big maybe.

It shoots 4" groups at 100 yards with Iron Sights from a rest, often clumping 5 shots into 2.5".

The stocks? Doesn't matter really. You can buy a replacement stock set for $80 or so.

My dad got a Garand...1938 production date. Simply amazing to think that rifle was in the European theatre...and maybe on D-Day. The stock is positively hammered on that gun and we won't do any restoration on it to preserve it's history.

I think that would be the best place to get an M1, as you can look at several of them.

Also, you are getting a rifle that has not been tinkered with by someone that might not know what he was doing.

I like M1 Garands thay are fun to shoot.

I would buy a bunch of ammo with the clips while I was there.

If you hunt in a state that limits you to 5 rounds in a semi auto you can get 5 round M1 clips.

I dont think I have ever seen a Garand for sale cheaper than the CMP. Certainly not at a gun show.

If you want a Garand, visiting the South Store is the way to go!! Take a look at their "Special" grade if you want an "old" like new weapon!!

I just read some place South Korea is going to export to the US 86000 garands and another 40000 m1 carbines it might pay to wait a little bit.

Hopefully these will be in better condition than the "Blue Sky" Korean imports of the late 80's . They were advertised as "arsenal refinished" I think that meant they were thrown in a parkerizing tank. Most had badly worn barrels at the muzzle from improper cleaning and many worn parts. I bought a couple of Springfields and rebarreled both. But every now and then a good one would come thru. I have an International Harvester that had a good original barrel on it that is blue sky marked. They did not always plug the barrels when they parkerized them so there was a lot of frosty bores.

The current rifles imported by the CMP range from excellent to very good.

The fact that you can examine about 200 M1's before making a choice is a wonderful thing.

Incidentally, try to find one at a lesser price.


I have purchased a number of Garands from the CMP, they always meet the criteria in their web page.

Blue Sky Garands were beat up ready for the scrap heap, compared to CMP Garands.

Garands are one of the most fun guns to shoot...

They are very reliable....

A good one is very accurate...

I saw the condition of one that a friend bought not long ago, for $595.00...it was a steal...

what has stopped me is that they are quoting a six month waiting list...and I don't trust the dumocrats in power...from showing up after I get it and confiscating it...

so if you can pick up one in person...I'd jump on it...