Hey guys,

I bought this M1 from the CMP North Store last month. It's a 1.8 million Springfield, it was on the Field Grade rack. I picked it solely based on barrel condition, I checked the muzzles of all the rifles on the rack and this one was a solid 1. I checked the TE and it was not too bad at 3,so I looked down the bore and found good strong rifling. The rest of the rifle was a bit of a mess, though. The receiver could be wiggled in the stock, and the front and rear handguards were both cracked and had big "Greek repairs". The parkerizing was worn off in a lot of areas, and the gas cylinder was bare stainless. I looked it over long and hard after I got it home and decided to do a full refinish. I love a rifle with history, and I do appreciate battle scars and normal wear and tear, but this one was just too far gone. There is a method to my madness in picking a rifle based on its barrel, though. I can refinish a stock and reparkerize metal pretty easily. I have the skill and tools to replace a barrel, but for me its the most difficult job on an M1 and I'd rather avoid it if at all possible. Besides, a new CMP barrel runs $180, so that just adds cost to the project. My goal with this rifle is to have a totally refinished, brand new looking M1 with all of the tuning allowed in the JCG match rules.

I wish I would have taken pictures before I started the process, but I didn't. I haven't done the anything to the receiver except to degrease it, so here is what it looks like now:









The barrel is an SA replacement dated 1-53. The barrel has a nice dark manganese phosphate parkerizing job, but the receiver's parkerizing is just about worn through. There is a little surface rust creeping up in a few spots on the receiver. I debated removing the barrel and just refinishing the receiver, but it's a hassle (not to mention hard on the receiver and barrel threads), so the whole thing is going to be bead blasted and re-parkerized next week. I have plugs to keep the phosphate out of the barrel and chamber (including the gas port) so that won't be an issue.

I have already blasted and re-parkerized all removable parts that I'm going to do. I don't repark the pins simply because there is no easy way to hang them in the phosphate tank. I do repark the screws by wrapping a paper clip around the threads and hanging them in the phosphate solution.

Here is the trigger housing and guard post repark:



And the rest of the trigger parts:



I'm happy with how these turned out, a nice even gray finish that looks like they just left the Armory. I will be stoning the hammer and trigger to get a nice, crisp 4.75 - 5lb pull. The hammer hooks and trigger and sear hooks look to have plenty of meat left on them, so I think it will work out well.

Here's the stock metal:



I can't do anything about pits and nicks, but I can get the rust out of the pits and make it all gray again.
The buttplate is a little rough, I may replace it if I can find a "new" one. The handguard band is bashed in on the top, I'm going to try to bend it back into shape (which will likely require a reblast and repark afterwards) but if I can't fix it it will have to be replaced. This is one part I don't have a spare of in my stash.

Here's the bolt and receiver metal:



The only part that didn't come out nice is the bolt. It's a D28287-1 W.R.A. I imagine that means is an early bolt (I'm not a numbers expert, esepcially on the WRA rifles). The machine work is kinda rough, and under certain light the bolt takes on a yellowish tint. It went through the same degreasing as the other parts (scrubbed and soaked in mineral spirits followed by a rinse in methyl ethyl ketone) but there must still be some contaminants on the surface. I have a nice SA bolt in my stash, its already reparked and has new springs and extractor. If it headspaces OK, I may use it and just put the WRA bolt in the parts pile.

I lightly bead blasted and refinished the gas cylinder and lock with black high temperature paint. It was supposed to be flat, but its more like a satin. I may blast it off and repaint it. The gas cylinder was saw cut (which I'm not thrilled about), we'll see how it works out. I also reparkerized the front sight:



The next installment will be the stock, It's 3 really nice pieces of black walnut. I started out oiling it daily, and now I'm up to around 20 coats of Boiled Linseed Oil. It's really getting pretty!

Matt