Dave91
Ultimate Member
It's been six or seven years since I bought a C&R rifle (I don't have a good excuse), but I decided recently that I wanted another CMP M1. I sent in an order form on July 31 anticipating that the process would take about a month. To my delight, this rifle was at my door ten days later.
Based on the Rack Grade description I was expecting the worst, but I'm very happy with what I received. It's a Springfield receiver made in February/March 1945 with a 1954 IHC barrel. As described it is a total mix-master with parts from every M1 manufacturer as far as I can tell. There was surface rust on most of the metal parts, which I have mostly addressed with some oil and elbow grease. There are a couple areas of fairly heavy, parkerized-over pitting under the woodline. The bore (while showing heavy use) actually looks really good to me. It's shiny with good rifling that's visible at the muzzle. I don't have erosion gauges and the CMP didn't provide any readings, but based on my experience with other surplus rifles with worse bores, this M1 should shoot just fine.
The wood appears to be all USGI walnut. It shows a ton of wear with scrapes, chips, gouges, etc., but there are no cracks that I can see and the lock-up with the receiver is very tight. The only stock cartouche I could find was a circle P on the underside of the wrist. I'm pretty sure this was one of the batch of rifles the CMP received from the Philippines, and at some point over there they put a yellow, flaky varnish/shellac-like coating on the stock over the original oil finish. With a couple hours of careful work I was able to scrape all of that junk off with a putty knife. After that I applied a couple coats of boiled linseed oil and it's now back to it's US-issued look. See before-and-after below.
I'm looking forward to shooting this one soon, and I'm definitely already very tempted to send in another order. Yeah, for the money you used to be able to get a lot more from the CMP, but it's still a very good value and I'm totally pleased with what I got. Here are a few more pictures.
Based on the Rack Grade description I was expecting the worst, but I'm very happy with what I received. It's a Springfield receiver made in February/March 1945 with a 1954 IHC barrel. As described it is a total mix-master with parts from every M1 manufacturer as far as I can tell. There was surface rust on most of the metal parts, which I have mostly addressed with some oil and elbow grease. There are a couple areas of fairly heavy, parkerized-over pitting under the woodline. The bore (while showing heavy use) actually looks really good to me. It's shiny with good rifling that's visible at the muzzle. I don't have erosion gauges and the CMP didn't provide any readings, but based on my experience with other surplus rifles with worse bores, this M1 should shoot just fine.
The wood appears to be all USGI walnut. It shows a ton of wear with scrapes, chips, gouges, etc., but there are no cracks that I can see and the lock-up with the receiver is very tight. The only stock cartouche I could find was a circle P on the underside of the wrist. I'm pretty sure this was one of the batch of rifles the CMP received from the Philippines, and at some point over there they put a yellow, flaky varnish/shellac-like coating on the stock over the original oil finish. With a couple hours of careful work I was able to scrape all of that junk off with a putty knife. After that I applied a couple coats of boiled linseed oil and it's now back to it's US-issued look. See before-and-after below.
I'm looking forward to shooting this one soon, and I'm definitely already very tempted to send in another order. Yeah, for the money you used to be able to get a lot more from the CMP, but it's still a very good value and I'm totally pleased with what I got. Here are a few more pictures.
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