You seem like a Garand expert. When the South Korean Garands start pouring in, I intend to consult with you.
“You seem like a Garand expert. ...”
Not sure I’d qualify, though I hasten to add that I do not know what objective criteria one might use to distinguish an expert from a non-expert.
I did enter USAFA when M1s were still being issued, in a fully functional state. Did close-order drill with one for years on end (also a couple punishment tours). Never fired a live round through one, though I did light off large numbers of blanks in field training.
Also won a spot on the cadet rifle team, though all we fired were rimfires.
Throughout my cadet career, I was struck by the lack of interest classmates displayed in the M1, as a firearm or a mechanism. To them, it was naught more than a too-heavy chunk of steel and wood, to avoid dropping during parades, kept clean only to the extent one had to, to avoid earning a downcheck during inspections.
Fixed a few M1s on the fly, during field training, when no one else knew what was going wrong. Didn’t know much myself - just followed my nose through a murky mess of conflicting clues, and got lucky.
At no time was I enrolled in any formal armed-service training course in small arms, ordnance, or weapons maintenance. I did work my way through a number of USAF’s flight training schools, and aviated hither and yon as an aircrew member, in B-52s and B-1Bs.
In between, I spent 21 months obtaining an MS in operations research and weapons system engineering, courtesy of the Air Force Institute of Technology - so I can admit to being trainable.
On active duty, I engaged in High Power competition and joined a NRA-affiliated local club. A number of members signed up to receive loaned M1s; one requirement was annual qualification firing club-issued ammunition.
At one qual session, we found that at least half the members knew nothing about sight adjustment nor how to obtain a zero. After completing my own requirements, I again learned that (aside from the club president) I was the only person present who knew anything. So I assisted the rest in adjustments and repairs, standing in as rangemaster while the president ran through his qualification requirements.
After that, I put more effort into reading up and studying. But most of my hands-on repair experience came my way through employment by a parts-sales firm that has been moving more fully into manufacture of obsolete, hard-to-find parts no longer available from gunmakers; we sold guns and offered gun repair services also.
Since that time, we enjoyed good relations and profited by technical interchange with some of the national-level sales-and-services outfits that specialize in US service rifles.
But I would urge all owners, and prospective buyers, to read Julian Hatcher’s _The Book of the Garand_, and get copies of Jerry Kuhnhausen’s repair/service manuals. Study up before committing your funds, or putting your safety in play.