New Garand owner

So my wife, being the best wife in the world, took me on a gun store crawl of Louisville and surrounding areas on Saturday.  Went to the Kentucky Gun Company (nice folk, good store), Knob Creek (still overrated), Tilfords (very s-l-o-w service), Lotus Gun Works (overpriced), Danny's (nice guy, he might get some of my business later if I need a gunsmith), and Biff's (which had reloading equipment from the stone age still new in box), and didn't find a single k98 worth buying. 

I did however see an M1 Garand at Tilfords that was advertised as "needing an op rod."  Now oprods are an expensive part, but I'm thinking that some of those 86,000 Korean Garands will get parted out and oprods will get a little less scarce.  Buying a used rifle is like buying a used truck, sometimes you just know you'll have to tinker under the hood (or in the case of a Garand, under the wood).

So I took a chance and bought the Garand on a return trip.  It is on a "CAI" reciever but has a Winchester bolt and trigger group.  I'm sure if I shopped around for a Win receiver/barrel combo I could increase the value of the rifle to a collector.   I got it home and pulled out the spring and follower rod the oprod and bolt didn't move under their own weight until the rifle was tilted around 90 degrees.

So I guess that is a "tilt test" fail, but the place where the oprod is rubbing is just under the chamber of the barrel, which from what I can gather is a normal contact point that needs to be greased. The old wisdom is that if it goes round and round it gets oiled and if it goes back and forth it gets greased.  I'll pick up a tub of grease tomorrow and see if the oprod is rubbing in any other spot.  If it isn't I'll take it to the range and toss the dice with some M2 ball ammo for a functions check.

The biggest reason for buying a Garand was the massive number of "Garand Matches" that seem to be held in Kentucky and Indiana.  I may not be the worlds best shot, but I've got the better part of 6 pounds of IMR 4064 and 1k of M72 match bullets already on my reloading bench.

Now I know that I went shopping on a non payday weekend, but having visited more than a hands worth of gun shops in the Louisville area I didn't see any particularly frantic gun buying.  However, if just every gunshop in America sells one more gun per week than they did over last year, that is still enough to make people sit up and take notice.  A Republican would say, "Great! my stock in Colt will go up!" and a Democrat/Communist/Fascist (but I repeat myself) would say "There oughta be a Law!"

I look forward to the day when voting is made every bit as easy as puchasing a firearm.  After all, they are both specific Constitutional rights, it would make sense to treat them as such.