I've put up a couple of pics on the LGC Facebook page on this, but I wanted to post here as well.
CMP holds a lottery each November to see who gets to attend its very popular M1 Garand Advanced Maintenance Class throughout the next year.
I put my name in on a lark, and to my amazement, drew a late March date. I arranged for time off work and travel to lovely Anniston, AL. CMP's description of the class is here: http://thecmp.org/training-tech/advance ... nce-class/
The class was really excellent. I learned a lot, including techniques I had never attempted before and can now apply to the other M1s (and the M1A) that I own, such as trigger "cleanup" (removing second-stage creep). A big part of the class is to build your own rifle, essentially a "CMP Special" grade with the guidance of CMP armorers in part selection, assembly, and tuning. That rifle is now being shipped to me by CMP -- my first use of the FFL03 license I applied for in January and received a couple of weeks ago.
At the end of the class, we went to the amazing new CMP Marksmanship facility at Talladega (about 20 miles from Anniston) to function check and sight in our new rifles. This pic shows part of my rifle and the screen of the new automated target system, which is fantastic. Pretty good first 100-yard group on a very windy day.
In other CMP news, they are receiving crates of 1911s but will need lots of time (months at least) to sift through them and see what's there. No pricing set, either, but don't expect cheap. They want them thought of as collectors, rather than shooters. In our instructor's view, "The first time one of these gets used in a crime, that's the end of the [CMP] program."
As for M1 Garands, they are currently selling from a batch of Turkish returns, originally 15,000 rifles with about 13,000 currently left. Quality is very mixed, as expected with old rifles. They are also getting in a larger group (80,000) from the Philipines, but the percentage of serviceable rifles and parts in this group is expected to be much lower.
Just back from CMP Advanced Maintenance Class
1"To initiate a war of aggression...is the supreme international crime" - Nuremberg prosecutor Robert Jackson, 1946