GRIZ

Which armory?

If the gun unloaded is locked in your trunk, the ammo can actually be on your back seat. If you do this put it in a bag or something. If its laying about in the open it could be an instant conversation starter if you should get stopped enroute.

I don't think so. When I lived in other states there are handguns I bought as impulse buys and I'd still be doing it if I NJ didn't require permits. I've seen 3-4 guns in the past few weeks I wanted but unable to do so because I don't have any permits right now.

Yeah it would be cheaper to go another route but the little tube fits right in my range bag and I'm good to go. Buy that $8 tube of Mobil One grease and a 50cc syringe and you'll have years of grease and it'll fit in your range bag.

It's prob ok but why risk screwing up your expensive gun by cheaping out on the grease. I use Mobil One grease on M1s and similar actions. Being that they were made to run on any grease there is no harm done. $6-7 for 10cc of grease? I can make a lot on that $8 tuve of Mobil One grease. I know there will be opinions that differ but I see no benefit from using grease on anything else moreso handguns. I've used Breakfree on handguns for over 20 years and see no reason to use anything else. Revolvers get a small drop on the extractor star and rod and a drop into the guts (no disassembly required. Semiautos get all the imnnards brushed with Breakfree (except the breech area) and a small drop on rails and other friction areas. I realize that this brush method puts lube where it isn't needed but i think it adds a layer which makes the gun easier to clean. Brush so its shiny not wet. Blued guns get a patch of Breakfree run down the bore and through chambers followed by a dry patch. Exteriors of blued guns get brushed down (shiny not wet) and wiped down. Lubing this way apparently works as I've put 800-1000 rds through a gun with no furtherv cleaning and no malfunctions. Others have different ideas. My ssytem seems to work for me and it ain't broke so theres nothing to fix.

Until you find an exceptionally good deal on a powder you use a lot. I'm still working off a stock of A2230 (for 5.56 and 7.62 NATO) I bought 7-8 years ago.

You forgot rule #one- keep your mouth shut! Yes but I mad up for it. I broke 2 M14 stocks on the bayonet course. They liked to see you going full power. I also won the company pugil stick competition which took about 5 seconds from my 15 minutes of fame.

This thread reminds me of something that happened in basic training (Ft Dix, 1967). Drill Corporal Kelly told us that if our bayonet was stuck in the enemy to fire a round to help pull it out. I asked "what am I using my bayonet for if I still had ammo". I did a lot of pushups.

Why settle on one... This has been my solution. I've bought some Garands when I really wanted to get something else beacause reasonably priced M1s are a finite resource as has been said. Got some to to shoot (which I will never need to rebarrel) and some for the grandchildren.

Once I figure out definitively what the caliber is, I’m planning on sending it off to one of the places that re-parkerize Garands (probably DGR) to get it cleaned up and presentable. Or don't bother trying to figure it out and let DGR do it for you. That seems like the best answer.

If you are OK with used guns. CDNN has some nice prices on them. They are pricey new. SIGs and HKs are good guns but their price new far exceeds what you get IMO. Durability and accuracy are no better than any quality handgun you can get for substantially less.

Honestly if you bought a correct grade m1 today, you shot it non stop for the next two years Well yes...and no. There was a guy on the CMP forum who was a High Power and service rifle competitor that took the time to track throat erosion with round count. Shooting as he was throat erosion went up one number per 1000 rds (he had tracked it to about 6000 rds when I saw this). It tends to slow down as it gets worse. The barrel needs to be replaced at about 8-10. One guy said he had a M1 that the throat measured a 10 and it was his most accurate rifle. Go figure! Shoot a lot of rapid fire and throat erosion increases faster. I hazard a guess that it would take most of us sometime to add significant throat erosion to a barrel that measyred a 1 or 2. Muzzle wear is mostly the result of poor cleaning practice so that can be reduced with a boresnake from the rear and use of a muzzle guide from the front. Barrels are considered are considered a consumable by serioud rifle shooters. A friend who has his Distinguished Rifelman Badge from CMP and consistently ran in the top 10 (winning or placing at times) in several categories at Camp Perry changes his AR barrels for competition at 3000 rds. The easy way to tell if a M1 has been rebarreled is to look at the breech end. If its bright its been rebarreled, if its finished its original.

I've never been disappointed with the Service Grades ($595) I've gotten. I have gotten new stocks with 2 of them. If you want something more special as a shooter the Special Grade ($995) comes with a new barrel, new stock, and will have other parts refinished or new. A friend of mine bought one and it is nice. The benefit of going to the store is you can find a nice Field Grade ($495)and save $100. I got a FG with VAR barrel measuring a 2 at each end that maybe should have been a SG.

It might still be a Navy conversion. Check your markings against the ones on Scott Duff's or Bill Ricca's website.

All M1s rebarreled to 7.62 NATO aren't rare but you should do something nice for him. If it's a Navy rebarrel or Match Grade Garand made up by the military you really owe him more.

I will admit i have the cheap lee quick powder dispenser(The junky plastic turret ) You're talking about the Auto Disk? You can load good ammo with that but you have to know what it actually is throwing. You need to pull a bullet (better to pull 5 and average the weight) and see what the charge actually is as Lee fixed measures (scoops or Auto Disk) usually throw a bit less than Lee says they do. If the Lee chart said 4.5 grs don't be surprised if the charge is actually 4.1 or so. The case volume under the bullet will change with longer or shorter bullets of the same weight when seated to the same OAL. This effects the pressure build up in the cartridge. This is true. You have to remember in the olden days many manuals would not give you an OAL. They would only give you a maximum OAL. You needed to work your own OAL. If you failed to consider the above underlined quote you could get yourself in trobule very fast.

FWIW if it is a genuine Navy rebarrel I've seen them go for about $2000 in very good condition.

Check the barrel under the charging handle. If it's marked 7.62 NATO Mod 2 it's one of the Garands the Navy converted to 7.62 NATO. A much rarer bird than your run of the mill M1. The Navy first tried putting a chamber insert in the original M1 barrel and it didn't work so well. Then they rebarreled them ( Mod 2!). When I moved by LST in Vietnam the sailors on deck watch carried these. I think some Garands were made up in 7.62 NATO by the military for competition. If you go to the CMP forum and list all the markings there are people there that can give you more specifics. Note that whatever the case you should only shoot NATO spec ammo in it unless you install an adjustable gas plug. The gun is set up for that pressure curve as a standard Garand is set up for M2 ball. I have 7.62 NATO "Tanker". It was made up with an Arlington Ordnance barrel and shoots well. The 18" barrel does throw out a huge fireball though.

I'm going to have to disagree. The Flash and recoil of a .357 is an acquired taste. I agree, it's a great round but I don't agree it's a good place to start. You can do 300 rounds of 9mm without batting an eye...300 rounds of .357 anyone? How about 300 rds of 38 wadcutter? How about 130 gr fmj? That's one advantage of the 357 revolver you can start soft, go to standard 38s, +Ps and +P+s, and have the capability of shooting a round that is more powerful than a 9mm. With a 9mm you have a choice of...9mm. I never said start with 357 ammo.

A 4" 357 maag revolver is the best all around handgun and a good place to start. Small enough to carry and big enough to shoot well. There's a wide variety of factory ammo power loadings for whatever you need. Some will say it's harder to master a DA trigger and there's some truth to that. However millions of people have learned on a DA revolver so its not some unsurmountable feat. First choice would be a L frame S&W or GP100 (my choice). There have been 9mm revolvers made but they have proven to be not too popular. You can do more with a 357 revolver in the same size package.

I found about 10 boxes of my first reloads. now that i have a caliper i can check these things Okay how did these shoot? Any flattened primers or excessive recoil (either is not really the best way to judge) compared to a factory load? How many of these loads did you fire? Did Lee give an OAL for this load? I based them off if Remington umc. Was it a Remington 115 FMJ? Were the bullets you loaded Remington 115 FMJs? I'm hooked on the suspicion that the USA stuff is bad. Maybe, maybe not. While seating a bullet closer to the rifling generally makes it more accurate it can also raise pressures if its too close. If you get 4 loaded 115grs FMJs from different manufacturers you will come up with 4 different OAL due to bullet design as I stated in my previous post.

I know its not much but i wonder what i am winning or loosing with that difference. Or if i can even shoot them. How did you arrive at the 1.087 OAL was that using an already loaded 115 gr FMJ as a gauge. There will be variations of OAL with bullets of the same weigh and style from different manufacturers. A bullet with long tapered nose may have a longer OAL than one with a rounded or flat nose. Generally the clsoer the bullet is to the rifling the more accurate it will be. Do the bullets you used look a bit different than the USA bullets? Check the charge weight in the book. I don't know where mu Lee manual is but Lyman 49 lists 4.8 grs of Bullseye with a 115 jhp as a max charge with a OAL of 1.090. .5 grain charge weight between two manuals is not much of a difference but we're talking at or near maximum. My only concern is what does Lee list as a maximum charge? I usually only load about 20 rds when I try out a new load so if it turns out to be a mistake I don't have 500 bullets to pull. The 9x19 is a high pressure round and if the bullet is seated too deep pressures can rise fast. I really don't want to give you a "seems okay" until you give me answers to my questions above.

I watched the entire documentary. It was something Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of pushing an agenda. The producers ensured that even the pro-gun stuff showed gun owners as a bit wacky.

If your size is up to medium frames.... No discussion g19. The 19 is the best all around Glock 9mm.

A lot of the "bargains" to be had are police or security agency trade-ins (yes, some still carry revolvers) and have been shot a lot. That's true but many have not. If someone carried a Model 10 for say 25 years and only shot it when he had to it could only have 5000 rds through it. Well within the lifespan of a K frame. Another plus would be that just any LE agency would have an armorer who would inspect the gun periodically and make any repairs or adjustments needed. Security agency guns most likely see less shooting. You points are well taken but I wouldn't totally ignore LE trade ins. S&W just reduced the price on the internal hammer J-frames to where you can buy them new for about $350 - $360. Yes those are alloy J frames. If you want a steel J or K frame that price is still north or $500. A decent used J or K frame is worth $300 or so.