Garand Bore Condition

fort_knox

Does anyone know an improvised/resourceful way to check the bore condition on an M1 Garand w/o using a throat erosion gauge? I have priced them at Brownells for about $50 and can't rationalize it.

nmeyers mentioned inserting a .30 carbine round into the muzzle to determine wear on those...looking/measuring how much projectile remained exposed.

I have used a dime to determine whether a shotgun has a full-choke, or was a full-choke until someone put a slug through it (the dime shouldn't fall into the muzzle on a full-choke).

Anyone know something simple like these examples that work for a Garand?

Thanks in Advance.

njretcop

You may be putting a pretty cheap price on your safety.

If you are not certain about the condition of the bore/barrel of any rifle, you should not fire it until you have it checked by a qualified gunsmith.

Throat erosion of 1 to 5 is acceptable for the M1 Garand.



Charlie

"It's the stuff dreams are made of Angel"NRA Certified Firearms InstructorMember: GOA, RKBA, NJSPBA, NJ area rep for the 2ndAMPD. njretcop@copmail.com

MIKE WISKEY

you can use any .308 dia. bullet to check muzzel wear, only way to check throat erosion is with the proper guage. if you only want to check one rifle, pay a gunsmith to do it (& check head space at the same time).

nmyers

It gets more complicated than that.

THROAT EROSION is wear at the BREECH end of the barrel. While the US military usually replaces a barrel when TE > 5, a TE of up to 10 is still considered serviceable. I have seen many rifles with a TE in the 5-10 range that are still quite accurate. So, some of us don't think that it is really that important. In any case, there's really no short cut to measuring TE without a gauge.

MUZZLE WEAR is wear at the muzzle end of the barrel. Muzzle wear may be caused by firing many rounds, but is primarily caused by improper cleaning (imbedded grit on cleaning rods used without a muzzle guard). It can quickly render a rifle inaccurate (althought still safe). A MW measurement translate the muzzle condition into a more meaningful term; a muzzle measurement of .300" = MW of 0, measurement of .301" = MW of 1, & measurement of .302" = MW of 2. An approximate measurement can be made using a round of USGI M2 ball .30-06 ammo (NOT M1 carbine ammo), with the pointed end inserted in the muzzle.

I have read that one dealer is now selling a combination TE/MW gauge, but I have not yet seen one or heard if it works. I only own a MW gauge; it only takes 1 bad purchase to make that $50 look cheap.

Neal

v35

The Army Breechbore Gage is the only proper tool for measuring extent of throat erosion on the M-1 Garand.

nmyers

fort knox, what I meant was that you use the same BULLET (USGI M2 ball, .30-06 copper jacket) on BOTH the M1 Rifle and the M1 Carbine. Both are .30, so the same gauge (or "poor man's" gauge) will work equally well on both.

Your dilemma is one of being too fortunate; most collectors would love to be in your position.

MY choice would be to keep the collector grade SA. CMP has sold only Korean War collector grade M1's for the last several years. The disclaimer about not guaranteeing the TE applied mainly to the WWII collector grades, many of which were well used but still had most original parts. If it LOOKS like a Rack Queen, it probably IS a Rack Queen; most Korean War era collector grades are those rifles that saw little or no use. If your serial # is > 6,000,000, you have an especially rare rifle. And, in any case, you can even shoot it occasionally without lowering its "collector" value.

Neal

v35

Throat erosion is what you need to evaluate. If it reflected in wear at the muzzle you wouldn't need ordnance gages. For a primitive comparative of several M-1s, drop the same 30 cal bare bullet in each of the chambers and using a 3-4"long 1/4 or 5/16 rod, mark how deep it goes into each chamber. If all bores are equally bright and unpitted pick the one giving the shallowest measurement.