I have three two as 30:06 and one rebarreled as a .308 aka 7.62-51. All are wonderful weapons. From a bench rest I can make three inch groups at 100 yards with consistency using military surplas ammo. At three hundred yards I can make consistent kill shots on a silhouette. Unfortunately bad guys do not stand up to make a silhouette unless they be stupid.
However, the Garand can make the shot with assurity of a kill at 300 yards.
ps
The first time I fired my first garand it failed to function. The second round did not chamber and I was most displeased. An old “War Dog” from Korea was at the range and noticed my displeasure. I explained that I had cleaned my rifle well and applied just a little bit of oil to it. He went to his car and pulled out a bottle of milspec and said “lube it garands like being a little bit wet.” My Garands have never failed to function properly since. I tried to give the bottle of milspec back to him but he refused nor would he let me pay for itl
They really need grease to work right, at least on the bolt and op rod. Little pots of grease (that stowed in the buttstock) used to be issued...the original milspec grease was Lubriplate, more recently Plastilube, but I’ve heard a lot of guys say that Mobil-1 grease works well with the Garand design.
Something to watch for with Garands is the “reweld” rifle. Garands were not commonly available on the civilian market in the 50s and early 60s, and a number of enterprising souls purchased Garand receivers that had been scrapped (by shearing or torching in two) and welding them back together, then building up rifles using surplus parts. There are issues with fit-up and alignment of the two halves, metallurgic issues related to the original metals and whatever weld rod was used, and the reality that Garands scrapped in the 50s were not “surplus” but were condemned for a valid reason, such as having been in a fire or worn beyond spec.