Your Garand was overhauled in Texas at the Red River Army Depot during the Vietnam War.
The post-war rebuild rifles are very nice rifles.
Collectors today often look down their noses at “rebuilt” M1 Garands, but hundreds of thousands of M1s had their useful lives extended through the efforts and dedication of skilled ordnance personnel.
www.americanrifleman.org
Assuming you are a competant marksman and you want to make the rifle as accurate as it can be, you can probably (repeat: probably) knock a good couple inches off your group by match-fitting the stock.
There are plenty of good tutorials online, if you are interested in doing it yourself.
Here is Gus Fisher on the subject of fitting a CMP Stock for accuracy:
Folks, we have been getting a lot of questions on commercial stock sets for the M1 Garand, so I believe it is time to begin a thread on them. So we can stop some confusion right off the bat, Boyd's makes the basic blank sets for their own sets and for Dupage who makes the CMP stock sets and...
www.m14forum.com
For stock work this Red Devil Scraper does a helluva nice job.
You can get them razor sharp (and keep them sharp) with a couple strokes of a mill bastard file.
The most important accuracy mod is to make sure the operating rod isn't making contact with the stock when the rifle cycles.
Google: Garand Tilt Test.
Look for shiny spots/wear, and relieve the wood until the operating rod no longer rubs.
Gus Fisher also recommends relieving the top of the stock from just behind the receiver legs to a couple inches in front of the heel of the receiver (see photo). Not a lot, just enough to allow a thin sliver of light through to be seen under the receiver.
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The rear handguard should have a sliver of space (just a business-card thickness) between it and the front of the receiver, just a little play so the handguard doesn't pinch and crack when the rifle heats up in sustained firing.
The front/upper handguard (near the gas cylinder) should also have a business-card's space between it and the gas cylinder.
It isn't difficult to accomplish the mods, but you do need to completely disassemble the rifle, remove the gas lock and cylinder, etc. Shortening the rear/lower handguard takes just a couple or three strokes while standing the handguard perfectly vertical on a flat surface atop a piece of 100 or 120 grit sandpaper. I wrap the handguard carefully with masking tape, leaving only a small sliver wood. The masking tape helps ensure that the material you are removing from handguard is perfectly square, and that you do not remove too much. With fresh sandpaper a couple or three strokes will do it. For the front/upper handguard, make sure the handguard's metal hardware is seated firmly. A block of wood and a mallet helps. If it is still too long, careful work with a dremel tool will help shorten it. Touch up any bare wood with Minwax Dark Walnut or Purple Mahogany, let it dry good, then seal it with Linseed oil or Real (repeat: REAL) Tung oil. Real Tung Oil comes in a plastic jug. Fake tung oil comes in cans. It's basically varnish--rubbing varnish.
Good luck. She looks like a sweet rifle.
