New (to Me) M1 Garand Won't Fire

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Bought a CMP Garand on GB. Looks great and was really happy until I tried to dry fire. Hammer will not fall and it feels like the trigger is just stuck.

Took out the trigger assembly, and everything works as it should. Nice crisp trigger, a little on the heavy side, but good.

Put the trigger assembly in the stock, hammer falls just fine.

Put the trigger assembly in the receiver with no stock, everything works just fine.

Only thing I can think of is that there is too much tension between the stock and receiver when fully assembled.

Anyone have any advice?

[BPTactical]

Are you sure the hammer is cocking fully?
How much of a "gap" is between the trigger guard and trigger plate when you begin to feel resistance for locking the trigger guard? It should be about 3/8"to 5/16".
Tough to say without eyeballing it.

[Skip]

Are you sure the hammer is cocking fully?
How much of a "gap" is between the trigger guard and trigger plate when you begin to feel resistance for locking the trigger guard? It should be about 3/8"to 5/16".
Tough to say without eyeballing it.

I was hoping you would respond! [Beer]

Fully cocked.

I've got just a tad over 3/4" when it starts to get tight.

[Skip]

Update...

After working with it last night I can get the hammer to fall if I squeeze nearly as hard as possible. Kind of like that bad dream a lot of us have :)

I'm sending you an email.

[BPTactical]

3/4 is waaay too much.

[thvigil11]

3/4 is waaay too much.

I agree, I've found if you need a tool to latch or unlatch it, then something is wrong.

[Alpha2]

That sucks. My M1 came directly from CMP. Gunbroker adds a huge level of suspicion to an M1. CMP's armorer's are pretty sharp. I'd say the gun didn't come from CMP that way. It sounds like maybe the FCG was put together incorrectly at some point.

[james_bond_007]

If you have CMP paperwork, they may be able to help.
Give them a call.
...they have all the parts you will need.

[Skip]

Thanks for the posts/ideas guys!

BPTactical has me in the right direction now. I will keep the thread updated in case anyone is curious on the resolution.

[bryjcom]

Change the trigger pin.... Betcha that's it. Had the same problem years ago.

[Skip]

Change the trigger pin.... Betcha that's it. Had the same problem years ago.

That is the track I'm on.

[Skip]

Update...

She's all good now! Ordered a new trigger and trigger pin to eliminate both of those variables. There was a lot of play on the sear pin and triggers are cheap. Even found a SA period-correct one.

Trigger pull is perfect now, nice and crisp. Got her all put together and in a couple of weeks I'll run a few clips through her.

Thanks again to BP Tactical for the help!!!

[BPTactical]

Great to hear!
Enjoy the Ol Gal!

[Alpha2]

And balance is achieved in the universe. Good to hear! NUTHIN' worse than a gun that doesn't work. Except maybe an airplane.

[SAnd]

And balance is achieved in the universe. Good to hear! NUTHIN' worse than a gun that doesn't work. Except maybe an airplane.

That reminds me of an exchange I had years ago... I asked a friend why he didn't spend some money fixing his beat up old car rather than spending every cent he had on his airplane. He said he could always walk to the airport but he couldn't fly without the airplane.

I suppose I could always walk to the range but I couldn't do any shooting without a functional gun. Or ammo.

[Skip]

Thanks guys!

Here she is all cleaned up...

http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/yy316/skip237/M1%20Garand_zpsserulfku.jpg

[Alpha2]

That is one purty, clean sling!

[SAnd]

That looks real nice. Congratulations.

[wctriumph]

Purty girl, get to shootin' boy!

[Musashi]

That's one sexy Garand!
New stock or did it just clean up that nice?

[Aloha_Shooter]

That looks like one of the new production stock sets that CMP has been selling for a few years. Very nice, not as fat as the Boyd's stocks.

[bryjcom]

Glad its working good.

There's a garand state match this month at WCFW in Galeton. You should come.

[bryjcom]

http://wcfw.org/highpower/high_power_2015.pdf

[Skip]

The stock has an uncircled, non-serif P and Two armory stamps (numbers). Receiver is marked TLE '65 so it could be the stock from the rearsenseling.

It has a few dings and chips so I imagine the CMP touched it up.

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Second one, straight from CMP, came in this week...

http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/yy316/skip237/M1%20Garand%20II_zpsvjzxsllo.jpg

It's a Feb '43 SA with a completely new (I assume) CMP stock. Not as interesting as the '42 and doesn't suffer from the same trigger pin problem :)

There some light pitting on the receiver so I'm sure it was re-parked at some point.

http://i803.photobucket.com/albums/yy316/skip237/M1%20Garand%20II%2002_zpssm0yu3gf.jpg


I love these rifles--I don't know what took me so long!

[zteknik]

One can never have just 1 Garand, their just like potato chips!! (just more expensive) :D

[roberth]

Garands are GREAT!

[Skip]

^ x 1,000 to both! Now I'm fighting the urge to get another but my credit card can't handle it now.

And rumor has it that the CMP will stop selling soon. Can someone confirm that?

If so, and you're watching this thread, jump! I always thought ordering from the CMP was difficult but it's actually really easy once you place your first order. CO CCW helps. Shipping and BGC are included, so $730 out the door for a service grade M1. Much easier/cheaper than buying private party and ships direct with an adult signature.