Well Worth the Wait

August 14, 2013

Civilian Marksmanship Program▸Well Worth the Wait

Hi Melissa,  I’ve been meaning to get back to you . My Garand arrived over two weeks ago. I couldn’t have been much more pleased. It was well worth the wait. Though I knew that I would get one and I wasn’t in a hurry. I have been wanting one since the mid-nineties. My concern before I placed my order was that I may have waited too long and that there would be no decent ones available anymore, or that they would get cost prohibitive. When I placed my order, I knew that neither was the case.

But I ordered an HRA, because that was what was available. My first choice, since this is my one and only Garand would have been a springfield. Even though a Garand is still a Garand, regardless of who manufactured it. Well, then a few springfields became available and you offered me one, and I jumped at it. Well it is everything I had hoped for and more. The wood is old wood(which was my preference) showing some signs of use, but in overall good shape. Better than I expected. The stock reminds me of my dad’s 1903A3 with a nice deep color, but not too dark. The upper and fore end are slightly darker(which I understand is to be expected) but the difference is not significant. I would have been perfectly happy with new wood so it was a win-win either way on the wood. I know that these things often came from the factory with parts from different manufacturers. And it wasn’t something that was terribly important to me to get all springfield parts. But it was a very nice bonus that (according to a co-worker who knows Garands) mine is all springfield. And the blueing all looks better than I expected. Most importantly, aside from some normal wear, it is all uniform with no major variations in tone.
But it is a really fine looking rifle, while still looking like it has seen the field(which I wanted). And the muzzle graded at 1+ and the throat at 3+, but it looked like they had originally graded it a 2+.

You couldn’t ask for much better in a service grade. It really exceeded my hopes and expectations. Thanks so much to you and all the folks there at the CMP. It’s a great service making these fine rifles and working pieces of history available to so many of us with an interest in owning them. Thanks again.