I Was Hosed By The CMP Big Time!

[Phil McGrath]

I got my first M1 back whan it was the DCM and rifles were once in a life time, me and my buddy did a few matches and sent in our paperwork the wait times were forever almost a full year long wait. I got what you would discribe as a total beater rifle. A WWII SA and a total mix of parts, that rifle looked like it was drug from a jeep, its only saving grace was that it did shoot well ugly as it was. What did my buddy get? a brand new/pristine out of the box looking arrowhead IHC, everything correct right down too the date in the stock, as good as my rifle shot his IHC was even better.

About a year later we get the idea too have the wives go out and shoot a few matches, so we guy's can double down and get another rifle, sounded good at the time and the wives are good sports and go along with our plan. After almost another years wait our rifles came in. My wife gets a better looking rifle than the one that I had, but its a dog in the accuracy dept. it wouldn't hold the black at 200yds. My good buddy what does his wife get? same deal buts its the sweetest H&R I have seen in my life and the walnut stock has the cleanest well defined tigerstripes in not just the stock but up and down both handguards as well, for accuracy its a good shooter almost as good as his IHC.

The two M1's that I have now have been private pickups, seems that I have to find mine the hard way, 1 is a sweet DCM rifle, the other is a good CMP rifle that I rebarreled with a 7.62mm tube, everyone else gets there sweetharts like there M1 magnents.

[Punch The Clown]

Phil, I got my DCM gun in the mid 70's. It was mint and included a muzzle and rear sight protector. I thought all the DCM guns were rebuilds. Guess not and welcome to the forum.

[andykev]

My first CMP rifle was their "CMP SPECIAL" which is the rebuilt. It came with new barrel (Criterion), new CMP stock, and all the metal refinished. It looks magnificent. I wanted a "new" rifle, a shooter that would last me forever (at my age, that is about 25-30 years!).

Since then, I have bought some others, from local people. One is a very nice 1944 SA with very nice metal, and an orig. stock that someone sanded and oiled.

And as my education on these guns grew...I KICK MYSELF for turning up my nose at a M1 just because it has very dirty wood and some idiot carved "JIMMY" in
the stock! It was $1200, and I asked "why do I need another"? I know better now. You know what it had?

Original stock (would have easily cleaned up), uncut op rod, original 3-44 barrel with excellent bore, Lock Bar Sight, all matching numbers inside. Metal finish was excellent. The gun was some guys dad's WWII gun. Of course, the next day, someone came to the club and whipped out the cash and got it!
I then did my homework and found out what I missed. I began research right away......and now I know "the rest of the story".

[timshufflin]

My first CMP rifle was their "CMP SPECIAL" which is the rebuilt. It came with new barrel (Criterion), new CMP stock, and all the metal refinished. It looks magnificent. I wanted a "new" rifle, a shooter that would last me forever (at my age, that is about 25-30 years!).

Since then, I have bought some others, from local people. One is a very nice 1944 SA with very nice metal, and an orig. stock that someone sanded and oiled.

And as my education on these guns grew...I KICK MYSELF for turning up my nose at a M1 just because it has very dirty wood and some idiot carved "JIMMY" in
the stock! It was $1200, and I asked "why do I need another"? I know better now. You know what it had?

Original stock (would have easily cleaned up), uncut op rod, original 3-44 barrel with excellent bore, Lock Bar Sight, all matching numbers inside. Metal finish was excellent. The gun was some guys dad's WWII gun. Of course, the next day, someone came to the club and whipped out the cash and got it!
I then did my homework and found out what I missed. I began research right away......and now I know "the rest of the story".

Don't kick yourself to awfully much, that was a nice rifle to have but not a super bargain. You could do better and you could do worse, it was priced just a bit below top dollar and a bit above bottom dollar.

[Punch The Clown]

Some guy over at the CMP forum commented that the average CMP customer is in the shallow end of the collecting pool. He is correct. If you ever saw Tony Giacobbe's guns you'd realize that and I'm sure Tony is a piker next to some others. I collect within my budget. All of my rifles are restorations as that is all I can afford. I just try to make them as nice as I can.

[Roadkingtrax]

Some guy over at the CMP forum commented that the average CMP customer is in the shallow end of the collecting pool. He is correct. If you ever saw Tony Giacobbe's guns you'd realize that and I'm sure Tony is a piker next to some others. I collect within my budget. All of my rifles are restorations as that is all I can afford. I just try to make them as nice as I can.

Send the link...this guy does not sound very nice.

Honestly though, my departed grandmother used to always say..."What you don't have, you never miss." Someone who survived allied bombing of Munich on several occasions...I'd say she would know more about that than a lot of people.

[dpd3672]

Some guy over at the CMP forum commented that the average CMP customer is in the shallow end of the collecting pool. He is correct. If you ever saw Tony Giacobbe's guns you'd realize that and I'm sure Tony is a piker next to some others. I collect within my budget. All of my rifles are restorations as that is all I can afford. I just try to make them as nice as I can.

Who cares whether they are or are not?

I collect for my own pleasure, I really don't GAF whether anyone considers my collection to be impressive or embarrassing. I'm very proud of every gun I've purchased, restored, tweaked, cleaned up, and learned about in the process, but I'm sure there are people, at the "higher end" of collecting, that wouldn't cross the street to receive one of my guns as a gift...God Bless 'em, I hope they're happy pursuing their own interests.

There's a guy I work with whom I talk with every morning, as I'm leaving and he's coming in. He saw me shopping on Gunbroker, looking for some part or another, and we got to discussing guns. He mentioned he had a Garand that he'd got a LONG time ago ("long" meaning about 10-15 years in this case). He said his grandfather had carried one in the Army, and had bought one just like it for himself. Grandfather passed on a while back, he wound up with the gun. He was very proud of it, and wanted me to take a look at it, tell him what he had, and give it a good cleaning and function check. I said I'd be happy to, blah, blah, blah.

He brought the gun in a case he'd obviously spent a bit of money on. I was actually a little excited, the optimist in me anticipating some rare or unusual specimen. What came out of the case was a Century receiver, with a mix of parts from every country that'd ever made M1 parts. He was extremely proud of the gun, so I really didn't want to disappoint him by telling him it was basically worthless as a collectible, had absolutely zero history, and other than a few odd parts, had probably never fired a shot in anger.

The point is, it doesn't matter. HE is proud of his gun, HE has a piece of history (in a manner of speaking), and HE is the owner of a gun "just like his grandfather" carried off to war. High end collectors would sneer at his gun. Even the so called "newbies" at the CMP wouldn't touch his gun, at best they'd offer him a few bucks for the few desirable parts that it had. Me, I told him it was a beautiful gun, and was in very nice condition (it was, the metal was a mix of finishes, but the finish was all factory new; the BMB barrel looked unfired, the PB stock was clean and free of any damage, matched the handguards well, and had a very nice aged look). I took it home, detail stripped and cleaned it, filled out a data sheet for him, with notes for each part, when and where it was manufactured, and wrote a little paragraph on the back about the Century built guns, and how they came to be.

If anything, he's even more proud of the gun now, has a bit more of a connection to it, and will probably get more out of shooting it. He's not a "serious collector" as most of us would define it, but he's certainly a passionate lover of the gun, someone who'll possibly add indirectly to this hobby of ours.

We all have our own list of priorities. Some are blessed with the ability, the luck, the time, and the finances to take a passion "all the way;" others make sacrifices to accommodate other obligations or priorities they have. Some just want to dip their toes into the "shallow end." It doesn't really matter, as long as you are getting what you want out of it. If you're doing it to impress anyone else, you're in it for the wrong reasons, and probably have a few psychological deficits, too. We all appreciate the validation of others, some even crave it, but all that really matters is that it makes YOU happy.

The folks on the CMP forum, as eccentric as many of them are, are largely a very helpful, very knowledgeable group, and I'd rather be associated with the shallow end of the gene pool than get too high on my horse, hoping to reach the point where I look down on others. I like to show off my toys as much as the next guy, I'm damn proud of them, but I've never thought for a minute I was better than anyone else due to what I've been able to acquire, thanks to hard work, luck, and serendipity.

Ok, rant off, the coffee's starting to wear off...

[The Garand Guy]

Your post hit the nail on the head. It is like the widow's mite in the bible; it doesn't matter how small the contribution, or how humble the M1, it's the thought that counts.

[cuppednlocked]

Thats the rub!

Too many people are worried about forcing their beliefs onto others. We are bombarded daily with the op-ed ads, PSA, and political commentary. Everyone is worried about what happens next door and not worried enough about what is happening in their own home. The level of conceit astounds me. It's a telling problem when you believe you are "squared away" enough to impose your set of values on another.

Rant over...

[MH53GUNNER]

Never complained about any order. Have had a few rifles that I could have bitched about, but just fixed or changed out the part. The CMP is real good at shipping the required part if there is a problem. At least this has been my case.

This said I prefer to rummage through the racks at the CMP stores.