Unfortunately, CMP has been sold out of Garands for awhile now. They have some on hand for sale at Camp Perry and a few collector grade$$$$ rifles, but that's about it unless they prep some more to sell- they have listed on their site that they might start taking orders for Garands in sept though.
If you buy one, get a service grade if possible- they are listing them at $600, which about $150 more than I paid for mine 4 years ago, but it'd be worth it. The next choice would be to buy a rack grade rifle and plan on rebarreling it. You can have it shipped off to Krieger to have a Criterion barrel installed- the price is reasonable and the barrel is of the original profile and a very good barrel.
From what I've heard ofCMP rifles, the price may be good butit's hit or miss as far as the quality rifle you end up with. I prefer to be able to put my hands on a rifle and look it over real good before I buy it.
With all due respect, you are far off the mark. CMP grades each rifle before selling them. They grade them on throat, muzzle, and stock condition followed by a complete function check. The rifles that are repaired there are repaired by very experienced garand-smiths. Unless you are handy and knowledgeable about checking throat erosion and muzzle wear and have a set of guages to do so, there is no better place to buy a M1 than CMP (though Springfield Inc manufacture new m1 rifles as well for 2x the price). If in the odd event thatsomething is wrong with a rifle from CMP, CMP will make it right for you.
My advice is to
not buy a garand on the seconday market unless it came with CMP papers. Too many people get burned (including a former poster from this board who I had correspondence with) who buy garands with worn out barrels or by sellers who buy cheaper rack grade rifles from CMP and sell them for $800-1000.
If you want to buy a historical rifle, the M1 would be hard to beat. Fortunately, CMP has started selling M1 carbines as well this year and will be selling them in batches for the next 3 years or so. The price they are selling them at is a steal.
If you want to compete in Highpower competition, an M1 is a fun rifle to shoot, but a AR-15 is far more accurate, easier to shoot, and much cheaper to shoot as well. If you stick with Highpower shooting, you
WILL eventually get an AR-15.
Here's my M1. It has a HRA (Harrington and Richardson) receiver, a 1966 Springfield barrel (one of the better barrels put on M1s, the only barrels that are more desirable are LMR barrels and Danish VAR barrels for accuracy) a Springfield stock and was last serviced at Rock Island Armory. With handloads its a very accurate rifle.
