Fitting an M-1 Garand Stock

Replacing the stock set on your Garand first involves buying a stock set.  Which set to get is an entire debate unto itself, but I like the set from CMP for $118.95.  The CMP web site says "may require minor fitting."  This is a bit of an understatement.  The first step in fitting is getting the trigger guard to fit and clamp down with the right amount of pressure.  Tom Findley has an excellent resource on this:  http://www.trfindley.com/pgtgfix.html  Read Tom's page before you do anything.  To inlet some of the areas it is handy to have a set of small woodcarving tools.

This set is $9.99 at Harbor Freight.  Not fine tools, but they will work just fine.  Work slowly.  Remove only a little bit of wood at a time, and frequently test fit the parts.

When you get to the part in Tom's instructions where you are ready to start sanding the long surfaces that the trigger housing clamps against, you will need a sanding wedge, a block of wood that has a 10 degree incline.

This is the one I made from a block of 4x4.  You could cut it on a miter saw, but I prefer to use a table saw with a sled.  The base is a scrap of 1/4" plywood.  I used a protractor to draw a 10 degree line on the base, and then attached a scrap of 3/4" plywood along that line with brad nails from underneath.  Use the miter gauge to push the sled.

Use a phone book to adjust the height of the wedge and a block of wood to hold your sand paper.

It is very important to clamp the forend of the stock to your work surface.

Once your trigger guard is clamping down correctly, there are a few areas you want to inlet.  On commercial stocks, the inlet for the foot of the clip latch may be too far back.  Put a thin coat of grease on the foot of the clip latch to see if it is rubbing.  You may need to do some inletting here:

Be careful that you don't remove too much wood such that the inletting is visible when the stock is on the rifle.

Another problem area if the foot of the firing pin.  Use grease to see if it is hitting the stock and inlet here as needed:

Again, be careful that the inletting does not show when the stock is on the rifle.  Inletting for the clip latch and firing pin can be done with a Dremel tool and 1/8" flat bottom cutting bit (#194).

You also want to check that your op rod is not rubbing the stock.  Use a thin coat of grease as before to check.  The pencil sits in the area of interest.  The area near the point is more likely to rub.

Use a Dremel with a 1/2" sanding drum to clean up this area.

If either of your hand guards is too long, remove wood from the rear of the hand guard.  The buttplate may not be centered evenly on the butt.  Draw a pencil line all around the buttplate.  Then remove it and sand the stock until there is an equal amount of wood all around the line.  I had to use 60 grit sandpaper to remove a lot of wood on mine.

This, along with Tom Findley's page covers the basics.  There are a lot of finer points as well.  If you want to be well versed on the fitting of M-1 stocks, go the the M-14 forum and read everything that Gus Fisher, MGySgt USMC (ret.),  has posted on the subject:  http://m14forum.com/gus-fisher/  You are unlikely to find anyone for knowledgable on the M-1 or M-14.