[MMHouse]

Hello All. Not only am I a newbie here but I'm not particularly knowledgeable about guns so please bear with me.

I have an M1 Garand that belonged to a family member who died in WWII. It has some residue on the stock that appears to be from duct tape or something similar. What would I use to clean this off the stock that wouldn't damage it?

[gunnerdave]

Mineral spirits. If it looks odd when dry, a couple of hand-rubbed coats of boiled linseed oil should take care of it. If you plan to shoot it, use M2 ball or ammo loaded to M2 specs. Or, get an adjustable gas plug to protect the op rod & receiver heel. These are awesome rifles and they deserve to be well cared for. You'll fall in love with it rather quickly.

BTW, Welcome to the forum!

HTH

Dave

[ArkansasHunter]

Hey MM a good soaking with a cleanser will prolly work. Now don't take this info and run off...We want you to join in and learn as mush as you can about guns.

Your sure off to a good start owning a Garand so maybe once you get that ole war horse cleaned up, go shoot the dang thang !

Do you know how to safely do that ? If not ask some more question's feller.

Anyways WELCOME to GUN and GAME Were delighted you joined and asked a question, let's hear some more...A.H

[A-FIXER]

I use wd-40 on most sticky jobs

[MMHouse]

Thanks guys.

I would like to get the gun checked out and learn to use it. I have done only a little shooting and it's been a long time ago so I will need to find a good instructor who knows Garands to teach me how to care for it and use it.

Assuming the gun is all original, and I believe it is, will shooting it affect it's value?

[gunnerdave]

Here's a good place to start:

Collecting and Shooting the U.S. M1 Garand .30 Rifle - HISTORY


Enjoy!

Dave

[dmazur]

Fulton Armory has a couple of WWII training films, in DVD format, which are interesting.

"M1 Rifle Marksmanship - Part 1" - Use of sling, controlling your breathing, squeeze the trigger, etc.

"M1 Rifle Marksmanship - Part 2" - Sight adjustment for targets at different range and allowing for wind.

Of the two, IMO, Part 1 is more useful. I'm fairly certain that present day competition doesn't use the "hasty sling" in the standing position as is shown in the films, but the other sling positions are accurately shown.

Surplusrifle.com has .pdf files that you can download that show field stripping various parts of the M1 Garand -

Collecting and Shooting the Military Surplus Rifle (2005) - Surplusrifle.com

"Will shooting it affect its value?" Hard question to answer. If you shoot thousands of rounds annually, you're eventually going to wear out the barrel and replacing it with a new one will destroy the "original" status.

Some folks have "shooters", which are sort of mutts rather than "all-original" collector's items. As such, rebarreling these doesn't do much to reduce an already low value...

[MMHouse]

Thanks for all the good information.

I've been reading it all....but still have a ways to go.