I purchased a .308 converted M1 Garand right before the pandemic.
It sat about for a year before I got it to the range; I had jamming issues.
I got it home, disassembled, cleaned (it didn’t need it), and re-lubed up everything according to the reference guides.
I filled an enbloc with Snap Caps and cycled through a couple of dozen times. This seemed to have fixed that issue.
It again sat in the safe for a while as I wasn’t getting to the range for life reasons.
I got it out again yesterday. I rechecked everything was still functioning, loaded up many clips, and headed to the range today.
The first round fired and ejected without issue. I had to pull the slide back to get the second round loaded.
The second round is much like the first. I figured maybe something is off, or I am losing pressure somewhere, but it is still shooting fine, so I load the third round.
Pull the trigger and nothing. The slide is fully jammed shut. Safety won’t move.
The range officer helped with the jam, and after 20ish minutes, the clip and all remaining rounds came flying out.
I called it a day at that point and moved on to another rifle.
At this point, I don’t want to fiddle with it anymore and want a professional to give it a tune-up and make sure everything is working as intended.
I found several Garand specialists online, but all their websites look like they were made in the 90s, so I don’t know if they are even active at this point.
Who should I get to resolve my issues? Not going to do it myself.
M1 Garand Gunsmith
1If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody.