Garand gunsmith shoutout....

[1stmar]

A few years ago I purchased a cmp special in 308. Out of the box it was an excellent shooter, just about 1 moa for 5 shots. Over the past year + it had opened up to 1.5-1.7 moa. Still pretty good but I knew it could do better. I did some research on what sort of work and who to send it to and decided to have it bedded, unitized, trigger job etc so I sent it to Carl leisinger in NJ.

I have spoken with him on 3-4 occasions and exchanged several emails. It has been an excellent experience. Each conversation was enlightening and a pleasure, he is a great guy with vast experience. He has sent me pictures throughout the process, including when my rifle arrived, bedding was completed and target results. The work was completed on schedule and my rifle is in transit. His work is very reasonable, and high quality from what I've seen. The rifle looks to be moa at most and likely sub moa.

I've been fortunate to find some very quality people in the gun business, Tim shuffin from shuffs pakerizing, Carl leisinger, Jim from cts engineering and Millard (scorch) from summit arms. They are all patriots, quality craftsman who stand by their work, people who enjoy our sport and are genuine to talk to. If you are looking for a gunsmith for your Garand or m14, I don't think you could do better than Carl.

I'll post pics of the groups after my range trip. Carl sent me this, first 2 shots are low as the rifle settled into the bedding.

[1stmar]

175gr 41gr of 4895, previous target was 168gr smk 41.5 4895

[polaris joe]

A garand that shoots one minute is very rare.

[Screwball]

That's the Garand Guy, right? I talked to him, but when I had my Century/Lithgow build, never had the time to take it up to him to look at. Ended up sending it to Shuff's... which I would recommend to anyone.







Very accurate rifle, being it had a pretty much new VAR barrel.

[4V50 Gary]

Lithgow, Australia? Are receivers being casted there now?

BTW, it is rare for a M-1 to be able to do 1" MOA. The multitude of moving parts works against it. It would be even more rare after numerous assembly/disassembly that it keeps doing 1" MOA. Some users don't take them apart for fear of wearing out the bedding.

[1stmar]

I have a mini G that Tim did, awesome rifle, great work. I don't believe he does bedding, timing etc.

[2damnold4this]

Very impressive

[4EVERM-14]

Screwball: That's the Garand Guy, right? I talked to him, but when I had my Century/Lithgow build, never had the time to take it up to him to look at. Ended up sending it to Shuff's... which I would recommend to anyone.

No! That is not 'The Garand Guy' . The Garand Guy is a collector.
Leisinger is a retired trooper with a life time of experience building M1's and M14/M1A's. Distinguished Rifleman,National Rifle Team member, State Rifle Champion ,My armorer and friend. Would never have earned any of my awards with his expertise with Service Guns.

[Screwball]

Originally Posted by 4V50 Gary

Lithgow, Australia? Are receivers being casted there now?

Yes and no...

They did a few runs of receivers, about when SAI put out their "new" Garands. If you go on Fulton, they have a big thing on how they are grenades and if you look at them, you'll burn up like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2.

Good thing for me, being I got a great deal on my rifle... which even if the receiver was bad, I could have made money parting out the parts/barrel.

While the quality control wasn't great, problems were due to bad tolerances. Mine is good, rifle functions fine, and Tim did not feel it was questionable. That was good enough for me.

They are not making receivers... what is out there is out there.

Originally Posted by 4EVERM-14

No! That is not 'The Garand Guy' . The Garand Guy is a collector.

Leisinger is a retired trooper with a life time of experience building M1's and M14/M1A's. Distinguished Rifleman,National Rifle Team member, State Rifle Champion ,My armorer and friend. Would never have earned any of my awards with his expertise with Service Guns.

Ok...

The Garand Guy isn't a collector, but a gunsmith that puts together Garands. He used to do BM-59s, but think he is just servicing them. Sorry when someone talks about Garands and NJ, I automatically think of Tony in Rahway (couldn't remember his actual name).

1stmar, that's correct, Tim doesn't do bedding. Wasn't implying he did, just giving my feedback to one of the people you mentioned. While I know there is a competition aspect to Garands, and respect that, a lot of shooters don't compete.

Only Garand related gunsmith I never used to recommend was DGR. I had Dean redo a M1903, and was very shrewd person. Mine was a Greek buyback, which I wanted to clean up. He was very short when replying to emails, and his secretary made it seem like he was working on the rifle as soon as he got it, then asked for the second part of the payment to get him to start working... a month or two later.

Had a broken rear sight slider when I purchased it, which I replaced to make sure the gun was in perfect condition prior to the rebuild. Get it back months later and over $1,000 into it, and there is a note saying the windage adjustment was broken... even though I know it wasn't when the rifle was sent it. Even if it was, for the money I was spending... he couldn't send me an email and let me know? Really pissed me off, because I would have got a new part to him somehow, just so it could all be Parkerized to match. I solved it by turning the rifle into a USMC sniper replica, but for someone that is willing to pay for that extra attention to detail that his website implied, I refused to have him work on my Garand (even though I doubt he would have touched a Lithgow receiver).

That being said, I did hear Dean passed away. While that experience left a bad taste in my mouth, I do feel bad that he died. I know his wife passed away years prior to me sending my rifle in, so definitely had sympathy to his family regarding it. I did hear he had an apprentice/working student under him towards the end of his time, and she took over the company. Can't hold any ill feelings towards her for a disagreement between me and him. I haven't talked to anyone that had work done under her... being considering Dean did know a lot of Garand related stuff, I am interested to see what she can accomplish.

[polaris joe]

I thought it was funny when all these people bought those SA INC Garands thinking they were buying a new rifle. What was even more amusing was many of them thought that SA INC was the original SA that made millions of rifles for the US government

[1stmar]

A couple of 5 shot groups today.

Thanks Carl

[1stmar]

Second one. 42.5 gr 4064 168smk lc and ppu brass

[P5 Guy]

1stmar, Bruce Dow in Date City FL might be too far away from you. He is one of the best around here. Dow's Arms Room, Accuracy Spoken Here makes M1s shoot like lasers.

[1stmar]

Thanks P5 good info, I'm pretty happy with where I'm at and the work Carl did, he has been great. I haven't done any load development but at 1 moa not expecting much more. I may vary the oal a bit and see how it responds.

[Nathan]

1stmar....sorry about resurrecting such an old thread....

Are those 100 yd groups? If so, how do you see that dot at 100 yards?

[1stmar]

I have an ultimak mount and a vortex 2-7x scout with qd rings. I shoot w irons and a scope depending how mucb ahooting im doing. I prefer irons but cant shoot for long periods with them

[agtman]

Very nice, 1stMar.

And regarding Shuff's Parkerizing - yes, Tim does do awesome work at reasonable prices.

His 90-day turn-around time for Garand work (like converting a 'donor' M1 into a Mini-G or his BM-59 conversion) is also impressive.