The CMP, it its effort to get enough Garands out of its armory to meet the high demand for Garand purchases these days is slipping a little on quality. My CMP garand would not lock in an en bloc clip, and the rear sight peep was loose. You can't find a Garand for a better price than at the CMP, but not all the rifles that are sent out are functioning perfectly.

OK well I found out what was wrong.

 

I tried the same enblocs (AEC3 stamp) with the new follower, and the same old jam.  Just about every 7th round wouldn't feed, it would go crosswise and jam with the bullet against the outside of the chamber and the primer end against the bolt.  I tried another batch of enblocs, and it was the same, along with another jam where the bullet end of the cartridge would be in the chamber, and the primer end would be sticking up at a 45 degree angle and pinched by the bolt, actually enough to bend the cartridge!  Looks like the enbloc didn't grab the round enough and it actually flew over the bolt as the bolt went forward.

 

However, a THIRD batch of enblocs that I got on Ebay worked 100% reliable.

 

So it was the enblocs.  I saw something on the internet that there are some fake chinese made AEC3 stamped enblocs, that must be what is it.  I trashed them.  Maybe my garand is just finicky with enblocs, but I know now that I have some that work 100% reliable.  Could be the reparkerizing in the receiver is too thick in the area where the follower moves.  Could be it will get better with time.  All I know is that I need to get more enblocs and try them out beforehand to see if they work.

Anyone have experience like this with enblocs not working properly?  I didn't think it would be so sensitive to them.

bad enblocs are a common issue.  I use real GI blocs and dont have issues, but friends that use the repo's have issues. 

What are the tell tale signs of knock off enblocs?

Got ya Nick.. Thx

Where do you recommend getting enblocs from?  I bought like 80 enblocs from Dillon, AEC3 marked, and they were the ones that gave me problems, I am throwing them all out.  I bought two lots from Ebay, both of which were purportedly "USGI", one lot worked fine, the other lot jammed.  Any suggestion as to where to get more from, what stamp to look for, etc?

send me a pm with where you are located.  I have access to crates of WWII SA clips......

Kman, it was as simple as the clip? Holy cow. 

 

Im glad I know where an easy button lives. 

I had the same type of failures on my CMP special, my problem was out of spec enbloc clips. They were to tight and not releasing the rounds properly. This is usually the problem especially if the if occurs on round 7 or 8 which is usually when spring pressure is the weakest. Check the CMP forums if you can't find the garand guy. They may b able to help.

http://forums.thecmp.org/

Bad enblocs. Never would have guessed

Bad enblocs. Never would have guessed

 

Yes you were right.  And since it was the clips, I have to take back at least a little bit of the criticism I made of the Garand Guy.  I mean, he could really have exhibited better customer relations, in terms of actually inspecting the action parts, and his diagnosis of weak ammo was completely wrong, but in the end the rifle he sold was good, it was the clips that were bad.

 

What gets me is that the enblocs I had were purchased from Dillon, which is supposedly a place that doesn't sell garbage, and they were marketed as being built by the same company that made them for the US Military, on the same machines.  So I figured I was buying the 100% best clips I could buy.  Nope.  They were heavily parkerized, and extremely tight compared to the milsurp ones that I used that worked good.  Either chinese knockoffs, or this purported company "Aggressive Engineering Corp" (AEC3) isn't making them properly.

send me a pm with where you are located.  I have access to crates of WWII SA clips......

I bought some WRA clips and damn they were pricey.  What do the SA clips go for?

Make SURE that all the rounds are at the SAME HEIGHT and the case rim is UNDER the lip at the bottom of the clip. Not surprised it was the clips, but loading them properly and smacking them down a bit on something semi soft never hurts

I have a 5 gallon pail of SAs.

http://forums.thecmp.org/archive/index.php/t-76740.html

 

Here is a link to the CMP forum discussing the same issue.  Pay attention to the responses from "lapriester".  He is one of the guys there that know what he's talking about.