a fella here now has three M 1 rifles, his two brothers gave him theirs and he had one already.

none of them have more than 350 rounds through them since purchased in the 60's.

He says that all three will kill 1 gallon water jugs at 100 yards , but at three hundred yards, they all only hit 2/3 of the time.

This fella wants to know if swapping parts out among the three would hurt or help the accuracy .

It's probably the shooter, not the rifles. If the shooter can only hold 2-3 moa, even if the rifle is capable of better, that's going to equal a lot of misses at 300 yards.

For some reason, I thought you were talking about M1 Carbines? but for a Garand, i'd say if it's not the shooter himself, it could be ammo-related, or barrel related. If it's with all three guns, it's the shooter. if accuracy varies between guns, it's the barrel. I

I'm not sure how much of the gun's parts would impact accuracy more than the barrel?

he should probably have two other people shoot them , all with the same ammo, prior to dismantling anything.

Regardless of how little they've been shot, they were purchased decades ago. I'd still start with a good cleaning, a quick inspection of the muzzle, and a selection of good .30-'06 loads before swapping parts.

Check the crown and have a gunsmith recut it if necessary.

For God's sake tell him NOT to exchange parts. He will kill any possible collector value by doing so. Yikes. He probably has old DCM rifles that are all factory matching.

It could very well be the ammo. I know at our club, there's a few diehards using the surplus greek ammo that the cmp used to sell, and that ammo is less than worthless is accuracy is the goal. Swapping out to quality match grade loads will tighten up the groups in just about any Garand I've seen, even with high muzzle and throat erosion values. That said, it's probably the trigger puller...

quote:

Originally posted by Wreckless:
For God's sake tell him NOT to exchange parts. He will kill any possible collector value by doing so. Yikes. He probably has old DCM rifles that are all factory matching.

factory matching,,,,,,,,, this always cracks me up,


may be DCM guns, or maybe not, (likely they are, not many M1's in the wild back then compared to today,,) and even then will likely to have been thru a rebuild or 3, or not

ask him to look at the crown
is it greased correctly?
bore clean?
type of ammo ?(they like 147g to 173 gr)
sights not loose or sloppy?
stocks tight or loose?

best to get some quality ammo , and another shooter,

no need to swap the little bits, doubt one follower or clip latch will affect accuracy at all

two have set in the closet and the third one
took four deer in 6 seasons.

I did not ask him , but what do you suppose he and his brothers paid for those in the mid to late 60's ?

First thing he needs to do, is either buy gauges, find someone who owns them, or take them down to the local smith to check:

Headspace

Throat Erosion

Muzzle Erosion

Then, try different ammunition.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
I did not ask him , but what do you suppose he and his brothers paid for those in the mid to late 60's ?

Around $60-$80 each, most likely.

(Equates to roughly $400-$600 in today's dollars.)

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
I did not ask him , but what do you suppose he and his brothers paid for those in the mid to late 60's ?

Around $60-$80 each, most likely.

(Equates to roughly $400-$600 in today's dollars.)

wanna say they were cheaper than that,

when I started shooting in the 80's it was $165 , one per life

quote:

First thing he needs to do, is either buy gauges, find someone who owns them, or take them down to the local smith to check:

Headspace

Throat Erosion

Muzzle Erosion

Then, try different ammunition.

talking to him this week, will let him know , thanks for taking the time