M1 Rifle, Building a Dummy for Dummies. Or At Least This Dummy

[john k]

One step at a time!

 

I like the “been there” look of the stock.  Perfect for a project like this.

 

Have you had any luck finding a Garand rear receiver half?  I never did come across any rear halves, only the fronts.

 

FWIW if you are not already familiar with it, “kroil” soaking can work wonders on rusty old demil parts.  

[mikie]

Hi John,

I found someone selling both halves of demilled receivers!

 

I can’t seem to paste a link here for some reason, but my searching found a guy on northwestfirearms.com.

search for topic Demilled M-1 Garand receivers.

its an old thread but I contacted him and he says he still has some sets, front and rear. I’m waiting to hear back from him now about ordering a set. Price is $60. It’s been since last Wednesday that he contacted me last. 
Good luck with your project. 
mikie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mikie]

More sparks this weekend! I attacked the welded trigger with my dremel. I forgot to take a photo of the weld mark until I already started going at it. It took a while but eventually the trigger came free. I’d like to take the trigger out so I can clean things out better but the pin seems badly stuck. Videos show just pushing the pin with something like a rifle cartridge bullet, but it is stuck way too badly for that. 
that’s ok though. I’ll get it out eventually. 
mikie

[john k]

14 hours ago, mikie said:

Hi John,

I found someone selling both halves of demilled receivers!

 

I can’t seem to paste a link here for some reason, but my searching found a guy on northwestfirearms.com.

search for topic Demilled M-1 Garand receivers.

its an old thread but I contacted him and he says he still has some sets, front and rear. I’m waiting to hear back from him now about ordering a set. Price is $60. It’s been since last Wednesday that he contacted me last. 
Good luck with your project. 
mikie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Mikie, thanks for that info.  I'll send you a PM, I'd love to connect with that person as well if possible.  I might just have to build another wall hanger to go with my M1 /m14 hybird.  

[mikie]

I have all the parts for the trigger group. But something is seriously wrong with the trigger pin. It is stuck solid. I’ve tried banging away with a hammer and punch (at first quite gently but harder as my frustration grew). It moved out maybe half a millimeter. And that’s it. Notice that one of the punches has bent, but the pin won’t budge. The housing came with the trigger installed, but without the plunger assembly. I can only guess that at some point someone took it apart and removed the plunger and put the trigger back on, maybe with a wrong pin? After my grind job, the trigger swings free. I am perplexed. 😕

The only thing else I can think of is to drill the darned pin out and replace it. 🤬

How is your day going? 

mikie

[mikie]

If finesse doesn’t work, try brute force. If that doesn’t work, get a good nights sleep and try again. 
Today the brute force attack with the hammer and punch finally loosened the pin. But it wanted to go farther in than out. The small end of the pin had mushroomed out and would not fit through the hole. So I had to de-mushroom it (finesse) with a small file and it eventually pulled out. I badly regret making the file marks on the housing, but I didn’t see any other good options. 
Next up will be putting it all together. So stay tuuuuuned! 
mikie

[mikie]

I did a test fit of the trigger group parts last night. I was simply unable to compress the plunger spring enough to get the hammer pin inserted correctly. It looks so easy in the online videos. Gotta do some more thinking on this one 🤔. 
mikie

[mikie]

With a little cheating, I have the trigger group together and working. The cheating involved using a weaker spring for the plunger. The hammer snap is a bit wimpy but everything works, trigger, hammer and safety! Pictures show the safety on, safety off and “fired”.  This is good enough for my wall hanger. 

[mikie]

More progress! I’ve got everything needed for the muzzle group. The only thing missing is the stacking swivel. But since I won’t be stacking it any time soon,I should be ok for a while on that. Here for the first time is a fit check…

 

[mikie]

I ordered a set of demilled receiver sections that arrived yesterday. I am very happy with it and it solves a big difficulty with the build. I had asked Larry for a Springfield receiver with as low a serial number he had. He sent me this one. Serial number dates it to October 1943. 
This project is coming together much faster than I expected. 
mikie

[Brian Dentino]

7 hours ago, mikie said:

I ordered a set of demilled receiver sections that arrived yesterday. I am very happy with it and it solves a big difficulty with the build. I had asked Larry for a Springfield receiver with as low a serial number he had. He sent me this one. Serial number dates it to October 1943. 
This project is coming together much faster than I expected. 
mikie

Soak those in some Kroil!  will make your life of fitting the receiver sections in much easier and will remove all of that rust with a good soak and some wiping down.  Love the build so far!  Glad I have one that goes bang.  Such a fun shooter!

[mikie]

15 hours ago, Brian Dentino said:

Soak those in some Kroil!  will make your life of fitting the receiver sections in much easier and will remove all of that rust with a good soak and some wiping down.  Love the build so far!  Glad I have one that goes bang.  Such a fun shooter!

Thank you for the recommendation of Kroil. I’ll take a look for some at my nearby Home Depot. Making this a wall hanger is the best my budget will allow. Before this I never actually handled an Garand before, none the less fired one. I’ve fired my Dad’s deer rifles in my younger days. One was an ‘03 Springfield, the other was an M1917. Dad  sporterized both of them. I really got a kick out of shooting them. I wonder if the Garand has a lighter recoil? 
Thank you for looking in. 
mikie

[Brian Dentino]

1 hour ago, mikie said:

Thank you for the recommendation of Kroil. I’ll take a look for some at my nearby Home Depot. Making this a wall hanger is the best my budget will allow. Before this I never actually handled an Garand before, none the less fired one. I’ve fired my Dad’s deer rifles in my younger days. One was an ‘03 Springfield, the other was an M1917. Dad  sporterized both of them. I really got a kick out of shooting them. I wonder if the Garand has a lighter recoil? 
Thank you for looking in. 
mikie

Mikie, having shot both the '03 and Garand I can say that certainly the recoil is lighter with the Garand as a result of it being a much heavier weapon.  Recoil is not bad at all on the Garand and I would say much less than say an '03 or K98 8mm Mauser (which I also have and shoot).

[M1Garandy]

7 hours ago, Brian Dentino said:

Mikie, having shot both the '03 and Garand I can say that certainly the recoil is lighter with the Garand as a result of it being a much heavier weapon.  Recoil is not bad at all on the Garand and I would say much less than say an '03 or K98 8mm Mauser (which I also have and shoot).

 

Being gas operated helps too with the felt recoil.

[mikie]

On 5/2/2025 at 5:46 PM, Brian Dentino said:

Soak those in some Kroil!  will make your life of fitting the receiver sections in much easier and will remove all of that rust with a good soak and some wiping down.  Love the build so far!  Glad I have one that goes bang.  Such a fun shooter!

Thank you for the recommendation of Kroil. I’ll take a look for some at my nearby Home Depot. And thank you for looking in. 
mikie

[mikie]

Fit check with the receiver parts before I start cleaning them up.  It’s really starting to look like a Garand! 
I had the boys again today so they took priority. We will see how much time I have tomorrow. 
mikie

[mikie]

I spent a little quality time with the receiver, the dremel, files, and sandpaper yesterday. Things are cleaning up nicely. There is still a long way to go, though. There is also some more slag from the torch cut that needs to be removed. I’ll try to stop at HD and pick up some of that Kroil tonight. 

[mikie]

Baby steps for yesterday’s activities. I just got the upper sling swivel and installed it. 
 

[doyler]

On 5/3/2025 at 11:28 AM, mikie said:

Thank you for the recommendation of Kroil. I’ll take a look for some at my nearby Home Depot. Making this a wall hanger is the best my budget will allow. Before this I never actually handled an Garand before, none the less fired one. I’ve fired my Dad’s deer rifles in my younger days. One was an ‘03 Springfield, the other was an M1917. Dad  sporterized both of them. I really got a kick out of shooting them. I wonder if the Garand has a lighter recoil? 
Thank you for looking in. 
mikie

 

 

Evapo rust would work well on this type of rust and is also resusable as I recall. Usually available at many home stores or farm supply stores.

[McDermut99]

41 minutes ago, doyler said:

 

 

Evapo rust would work well on this type of rust and is also resusable as I recall. Usually available at many home stores or farm supply stores.

 

+1 on this. I've used this stuff before on some pretty rusted antique car and tractor parts and it works quite well, less hassle than electrolysis. It is reusable to an extent and some auto parts stores have it too. 

[ludwigh1980]

This is a great thread. I've collected de-milled / dummy firearms and ordinance for years. Great work and great display piece. 

[mikie]

1 hour ago, ludwigh1980 said:

This is a great thread. I've collected de-milled / dummy firearms and ordinance for years. Great work and great display piece. 

Thank you! I greatly appreciate the positive comments from you, and everyone else.
This is the third and possibly my last of these demilled restoration projects. The other two were an Enfield No 2 revolver and a Bren gun. I put up threads for both of them on our worldmilitariaforum.com.  I’m having fun with these things but I’m at the point of wanting to wind down my collecting activities. But then I’ve been saying that for about 5 years now. 😁

mikie

[doyler]

here is an old topic on a M1917 Trench knife I used Evapo Rust on. I didnt use any wire brushes or scotch pads etc. 

 

https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/71118-1917-trench-knife/#comment-516207

[Franklin45]

Love these projects.  The Civilian Marksmanship Program confirmed a few weeks ago that they will soon be offering new reproduction Garands.

 

I have a spare rear hand guard retaining clip you can have if you are still looking for one.

 

 

[mikie]

I haven’t had a chance to look for any rust treatments yet. 
Do either of the recommendations, Evapo Rust, or Kroil, harm the original finish on the parts? I don’t want to do more damage to the original metal finish than I absolutely have to. I’m much more of a history buff than anything and I want the gun as original as possible. Refinishing the metal would spoil it for me. 
Thanks, 

mikie