Carnival of the Cordite (#9) is up. So is Les Jones' Gun Links #37 (Lee-enfield Edition).
& some of you may have noticed during your shopping for Buy A Gun Garand Day - the CMP has changed its pricing & grading of the surplus Garands it sells. There are three additions to the grading system; Collector Grade, Correct Grade & Field Grade. Collector Grade is a Garand with little or no wear on the original finish & all parts are period correct. Correct Grade is more or less a Service Grade with all correct parts & 80% of the original finish. Field Grade is similar to the service Grade but with slightly more wear in the bore (though less than Rack Grade). Also they've dropped the Barreled Receiver option & are just selling Stripped Receivers, but at a reduction in price.
They've changed the prices around as well. No more $295 Greek Rack Grades I'm afraid. But the up side is that Rack Grades are going for $325 for Greek, Danish & U.S.G.I. Springfield Armory Garands.
I've spent many hours crunching numbers over the new pricing & grading system. If you want a rifle for casual shooting & not-so-serious competition I think the Field Grade is the best bargain (at $375). But if you have a stock lying around (with the accompanying metal) & you plan on rebarreling soon anyway then the Danish Rack Grade Less Wood (at $265) is nothing to look ascance at.
I plan on spending some more time drooling looking over the choices. I might even post about the ways you could spend your money (buying a certain grade & the parts & labor you'd need to make it a real shooter) but in the mean time if I can be of any assitance ot anyone who is thinking about buying a Garand just give me a holler.
BTW, if you're looking for an Enfield don't think you're just limited to the British rifles. The CMP is still selling 1917 Enfields & a fne rifle it is. To learn more about the rifle that the u.S. used in WW1 visit this .pdf article written by Dick Culver.
Posted by Publicola at April 18, 2005 04:32 PM