 Greetings friends. This is Survival Dot. I'm very excited today because I just received a package from Federal Express. I just received my M1 Garand that I ordered from the Civilian Marksmanship Program or the CMP. Let's open it and take a look at it. As you can see, it came with this nice hard case for free. And there it is. Very nice. I'll have to say my first impression looking at the stock is very, very good. These stocks can be of in a lot worse shape. They can have cracks and gouges in them. They can have mismatched wood. And I think I'll probably clean up this stock. And this stock will look like almost like a new rifle once I get it cleaned up. I'm very happy. First impressions so far. Here is a tag from the Armorer. It says muzzle reading 2 plus, throat reading 4. So that is well within the guidelines of a field grade rifle. From the Civilian Marksmanship Program you can order different grades and I order the field grade which is approximately $500 which is a bargain in my opinion on this rifle. If you want to spend more, you can spend $1000 or more and get a rifle that's even in better condition. But I know people who've ordered field grades and I've shot their rifles. And people that I know who received field grade rifles have been very happy with it. And I'll have to say first impression I'm very happy so far. Okay, let's look at what came with the rifle. Here's some paperwork, the certificate of authenticity. Here's my receipt. You can see what I paid for at M1 Grand Field Grade. I paid $495 for it plus 29.95 shipping for a total of $517.95 which included a hard case and shipping. What a bargain. See it also comes with a few other things here or they threw in a nice little free target. Okay, there's a chamber flag. They threw in a in-block clip. And here's a little manual. Read this first. This manual put out by the Civilian Marksmanship Program. There's a lot of little information here about the M1 Grand. I'll have to definitely have to read that at some point. This is a World War II rifle. George S. Patton, General George Patton, called the M1 Grand the greatest battle implement ever devised. It was the first semi-automatic rifle to be generally issued to the infantry of any nation. It was the standard service rifle of the United States armed forces from 1936 until 1957 when it was replaced by the M14. However, the M1 Grand continued to be used in large numbers until 1963, until a lesser degree until 1966 when it was replaced by the M14. I'm very impressed with the cleanliness of this rifle. Some of these I've heard have a lot of gunk in them. This rifle looks like it was just cleaned and oiled. Very nice. Springfield Armory. This particular model was made in this particular rifle was made by Springfield Armory. M1 Grand was manufactured by several different manufacturers. When I ordered this I ordered the one from Springfield because I like Springfield. Here's the safety. In this position the safety is on where the rifle can't be fired. In this position the safety is off allowing the rifle to be fired. The M1 was used by U.S. forces in World War II, the Korean War, and to a limited extent in the Vietnam War. And most M1 rifles were issued to Army and Marine troops. Those many thousands were also lent to our allies. And as a matter of fact right now this is a rifle used in World War II and the Korean War mostly. And in the Korean War right now the South Korea has one million of these rifles that they want to return to the United States. And Obama will not let them come back into the country. And there's a fight going on in Washington right now between Obama who who is the most anti-gun president we've had in the history of our nation and members of Congress who want to bring these rifles back. This is a piece of American history. This is World War II rifle. And there are a lot of people who want these for collector's items. Although this is definitely a functioning rifle and people use these for deer hunting. It's a .36 caliber, which is a great deer hunting round. But if we can bring those million rifles back from South Korea then those will go into the civilian marksmanship program to be sold through this program. And a little bit about the civilian marksmanship program or CMP it was created in 1996 by Congress and the CMP had three mandates and one was to instruct citizens of the United States in marksmanship. Two is to promote practice and safety in the use of firearms and three is to conduct competitions in the use of firearms and to award trophies, prizes, batches and other insignia to competitors. So the CMP is a government run organization and they get these rifles of these surplus rifles from the government and they sell them to the citizens of the United States. And isn't it great to live in a country where your government will sell the citizens their surplus rifles only in America. Now here I have some ammunition. I ordered this also from the CMP. They also sell surplus ammunition and I actually ordered this with in a separate order and I actually received this before I received the rifle. This is another bargain. This is 200 rounds of 30 out of 6 for the M1 Garan and this was 200 dollars. I mean not 200 dollars. This was 200 rounds at 98 dollars plus shipping about 7 dollars in shipping. I've actually have been shooting some of this ammo. This ammo is in very, very good condition. There's no corrosion. This is Greek ball ammo and these are reloadable cartridges. Some of the surplus cartridges you get are not reloadable. This is the good stuff. This is non-corrosive reloadable. Here I have eight rounds loaded in an in-block. So the CMP is also a great place to get 30 out of 6 ammunition. Here's how you load an M1 Garan. I want to be careful not to get your thumb in here. That can result in getting your thumb pinched very painfully. They call that Garan thumb and a couple of ways to load it. You take a hand and press back on this lever here. Press it in with this thumb and then that way when you press this all the way down it will automatically close the bolt. If your thumb is in there it will pinch your thumb but if you have your hand on this right here when it closes it will push your thumb out of the way. This rifle is loaded and there's one in the chamber. If you want to, this little lever right here is to remove the in-block clip before you shoot all of your cartridges. You just press this lever right here and it pops right out of there. I want to correct something that I said. I believe I got the safety backwards. This forward is in fire position and we bring the safety back like this. It is in safe position. If you think about it this blocks your finger somewhat and that's the way you can remember when the safety is on. This should not be in the trigger guard. It blocks your finger so you have to push it forward and the safety is off. As you can see the rifle is unloaded. There's nothing in the chamber. The chamber flag is so that when you're at the range to put your rifle in a safe position to go down and check the targets for instance. What you do is you want to pull the bolt back. You want to of course unload, pop out the clip, pull the bolt back, safety on, and flag in the chamber. Set your rifle down like that and then you can go down range. That is considered a safe rifle. Another thing about the civilian marksmanship program, in order the civilian marksmanship program will only sell to U.S. citizens. You do have to fill out some paperwork to order from them. You have to send them proof of your citizenship. One thing you have to send is your birth certificate. Here's their catalog and this is available online at thecmp.org and all this information is available online the different types of rifles and ammunition. They even sell brand new stocks, brand new barrels, plus like I said ammo. But another requirement to buy from the CMP is you have to have taking. You have to be a member of a marksmanship organization that they recognize and you also have to have taken a course that they recognize. And the one that I recommend, the one that I took and I recommend is Apple Seed. And I've done other videos on Apple Seed, Project Apple Seed. You can also check out their website. But when you go, when you attend an Apple Seed event, you can attend a weekend event, two day event for $70 and you can't, it's a non-profit organization and you cannot beat that deal anywhere. And their training is top notch. And I have been to about a half a dozen Apple Seeds. I've been to boot camp and as a matter of fact, I am an instructor in training for the Apple Seed project. And none of the instructors get paid anything that is completely volunteer organization, which is one reason the fee is so low. And if you attend an Apple Seed event and you're interested in buying from the CMP, you want to ask them to give you this little piece of paper here and this proves your completion of a marksmanship clinic, which will qualify you to buy from the CMP. And you also need to join an organization. The organization that sponsors Project Apple Seed is the Revolutionary War Veterans Association. And the RWVA membership only costs $20 a year and you can absolutely not beat that deal either. And another thing about the Revolutionary War Veterans Association $20 year membership is if you're a member of the RWVA, then you can repeat the Apple Seed project weekends. Your first one will cost you $70 for the whole weekend, two-day weekend, but then you can repeat that as much as necessary until you can qualify, shoot a rifleman's score and qualify for this nice rifleman patch right here. So you will not find better instruction anywhere and you will not find a better bargain. But these are the two things you'll need in addition to the other paperwork you have to send in like your birth certificate. If you want to order from the CMP, you want to get this right here, you want to get this right here, membership card in the organization completion of a marksmanship clinic. You make copies of these and you send that in with the other paperwork that when you go to the website, you get the forms, all the paperwork you have to fill out to send in. And you make copies of these and you send it in and then you can qualify to buy from the CMP. This rifle right here, I see these rifles in this condition right here, I see these at gun shows all the time. Typically this rifle, if you get a good deal on it, you're going to pay about $900 for it and you could easily pay $1,000 or more for this rifle. So getting this rifle from the CMP is definitely a bargain. And if you're interested in owning a piece of American history and at the same time owning a very good, very accurate functioning rifle, you can use this for deer hunting and it's just great for a marksmanship practice as well. Then I can't recommend the CMP or the M1 Grand anymore than that. Okay, I've had a chance to check my rifle out a little bit better and I've had a chance to shoot it even. And one thing I found out about my serial number, I looked up my serial number, there have charts online where you can look up your serial number and find the date of manufacture. And I found out that this receiver was manufactured in May of 1943. So this is a World War II rifle. This rifle was probably used or at least it was issued, probably issued during World War II. And these rifles were used and re-issued, reworked and re-issued over and over and this could have very well have been in the Korean War as well. And I've actually had a chance to shoot the rifle now and I'll have to say I'm very, very happy with the way it shoots. It's just perfectly functioning rifle. I have had a chance to, when I shot it, I zeroed my sights and it's very, very accurate. Now, as I mentioned, these rifles have been reworked and very often we'll have parts from different manufacturers. I ordered a Springfield, like Springfield, so I ordered a Springfield rifle and what that means is the receiver was a Springfield. And I found out actually my trigger group was manufactured by Harrington and Richardson Arms Company, which is also in Massachusetts. Springfield Armory is in Springfield, Massachusetts, but Harrington Richardson is also there in Warchester, Massachusetts. So my trigger group actually was manufactured by Harrison and Richardson. But I'm very, very happy with the way this rifle functions. And so I recommend, the M1 Grand, if you want a piece of American history, I recommend the Citizen's Marksmanship program. And of course, I certainly recommend the Apple Seed project, even if you don't want to buy from the CMP but say if you want to learn to, you want to learn Marksmanship, you want to learn how to shoot with the best technique, I definitely recommend the Apple Seed project. This is Survival Doc reminding you be prepared or be prepared to be pleased.