Okay, no handloads/reloads there for your problem but...I was pointing to a way to find the problem. Some dummy rounds (no primer or powder) put into the clip and then cycled through the action will show problems most of the time...not always. I'm thinking that your operating rod is bent more that a weak spring. The M1 Garand is one tough monkey but it has that weak link of it's op-rod. Tear the rifle down and clean it and then put the bolt and op-rod back on the action. The op-rod and bolt should work back and forth as you tip the barrelled action from muzzle down to muzzle up. There can be no hang ups. The op-rod may also be hanging up on the wood...something to check. As Spanner stated, lube the rifle with grease and oil the way it should be lubed.

BTW, some Lake City ammo has caused problems for the shooters of the Garands at the Matches at Camp Perry and other Matches. I always thought it was "The" ammo for the Garands until I seen that happen. If it's whacking your op-rod pretty hard, you may not want to shoot it in your Garand...it WILL bend the op-rod. Do a search and check, I'm not telling a big fat lie here.


Not so sure my advice above is all that correct. You don't need to take the whole thing apart, just be sure that you take it out of the wood and be sure it is clean and lubed. And by all means, replace the op rod spring if you don't know of it's condition. Sorry my edit came a day later. Below information was copied from the Midway USA website. Good info when changing springs.

Date Posted: 12/20/2008
I bought this spring kit for 6 M1 Garand rifles that belong to my local gun club. I had the same problem with all 6 rifles. All the springs worked well except the main spring. My gunsmith told me ahead of time that I might run into this problem and how to solve it. The problem is that the mainspring is too long. I was told to shoot the rifle to see if it functions correctly which it did not (too much spring tension). I was told to cut off two coils of spring and shoot again. Keep cutting two coils until the rifle functions correctly. Each rifle needed the spring shortened and the amount differed from rifle to rifle. Thus I was actually tuning the spring tension to the rifle. It took some time to find the correct amount to cut off (two coils at a time) but as I said, cut a little at a time until the rifle functions flawlessly. All 6 rifles now function with no problems.

Last Edited By: Burt Jan 5 09 5:27 AM. Edited 3 times.