Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Ordered on 1-31-14, it took a little over 60 days to get it from start to finish. The CMP Specials are completely rebuilt rifles, with new Criterion barrels and new walnut stock sets. They are built on original SA or HRA receivers, and the small parts are new or reconditioned GI. They can be ordered in .30-06 or .308 Win. I ordered mine in the latter.

This is basically a brand new rifle. I opened the case that it came in and wasn't disappointed. It has a nice replication of that kind of gray-green Parkerized finish on it that is so often seen on US military arms of the period.

This evening, I took it apart and cleaned it (had been test fired). The new stock was bone dry, so it's being treated with linseed oil before I reassemble the rifle.

The US did use some M1 Rifles in 7.62mm NATO, mostly the US Navy. When the M14 was adopted in 1957, the navy wanted to continue using their M1's but in the newly-adopted 7.62mm NATO cartridge. Experiments lead to adapter kits made to change the rifles over to accept the new cartridge. These weren't entirely satisfactory, so some rifles were rebuilt with new barrels in 7.62 NATO.

I've got several M1's in .30-06, so I wanted one in .308. Yes, I know historically it's not an original rifle. But, it should turn out to be a wonderful shooting machine and it replicates the real deal used in WW2 and Korea.





Brown spots on new bolt are remnants of Cosmoline.




That white thing near the bottom of the chamber is a spacer. As I understand it, it serves two purposes. (1) To help guide the 7.62 NATO-loaded bullet into the ramp, and (2) To prevent loading of .30-06 charged clips into the magazine.

very nice , makes me consider getting one , i think you did great

Very cool! Can't wait to hear how it shoots. M1's rule!

Last night, I oiled up the stock with linseed. I took it apart and cleaned it, all very dry inside. Gas cylinder very tight because mating surface on bbl. Parkerized, not white. I may carefully take that down with some #400 grit and oil.

The op rod has been reconditioned. I know this because I've had a couple of flacked-out op rods re-done myself. They weld and re-machine the cut-outs for the bolt lug that take a hammering, also they replace the piston disc on the end. Then they put it in a jig to make sure it's true and not bent, then it gets refinished.