Disassembly of the A&K M1 Garand

[ScottCollins]

For those not fond of the standard picture size imgur.com/a/llB9K

Also, for those thinking about upgrading to a tightbore barrel, the barrel measures 590mm and the outer barrel is slightly larger than the inner. A few wraps of electrical tape would stabilize it easily.


The tools needed for disassembly. Metric seems to work better than the Imperial in reference to the Alan Keys.


Remove gas plug screw which releases another piece (Can't remember what it was called)



Unscrew Alan screw in front sight


Under the front sight, unscrew the Alan screw releasing the front gas assembly



Front handguard will slide off easily once this piece is removed



Remove the four Alan screws underneath the magazine. Be careful when removing these screws as there are very thin washers underneath to protect the wood from stress.


CAREFULLY remove mechanism from the stock. Lift up and out at about a 20-25 degree angle. It will be stiff. Then slide off the rear handguard.



Remove the operating rod screw. After this is removed the rod and sled can be easily removed.



LOOSEN the two Alan screws holding the ring in front of the spring. These are easily lost and do not need to be fully removed. All pieces will then slide off.


Move to the floorplate area.
Remove the Alan screws on both sides


And near the base of the trigger guard


And near the bb feed


AND the pin by those Alan screws. Not the one on the right, the pin on the left.


Floorplate can then be removed


As well as the gearbox itself


Moving to the Hop-Up
Remove Alan screw near hop-up wheel


The receiver will then disconnect from the hop-up area


Remove four philips head screws


Remove hop-up wheel


CAREFULLY pull apart upper and lower. There is an o-ring that is used to hold these pieces together. Be aware of that.


Remove Upper from barrel. BE CAREFUL NOT TO LOSE THE HOP-UP NUB! It's very small and I would not want to go hunting for it if I were you.


A few notes. I'm not an expert on hop-up units but this one seems to be somewhat different as it has two points of contact. Not sure if an improved bucking would be in order.


Also, the wood looks far superior (at least in my opinion) when sanded down and stained, in accordance with 2ndbat's M1 which convinced me to try it. Here is a comparison between the handguards (sanded and stained) and the stock (untouched yet). I'd also like to add that the handguards are darker than in the picture. The lighting has an odd effect.

[shiftysgarand]

Thanks for posting, Matt! This will be a big help to members with this rifle. It looks like they gave it a double point hop rubber which is, according to the experts on other forums, superior to a standard rubber design (less allowance for horizontal deviation when loading a BB.) However, it appears to me (I don’t have one so I can’t confirm) that swapping the bucking with a standard or flat one would be a relatively straightforward task, and flat-hopping pretty simple after that if one wished to do so.

[2nd Bat]

Matt if Bronze Stars could be awarded on this site I'd put you in for one. Excellent post and great timing. I have been impressed from the get go on this rifles precise hop up and the double nub concept make sense as an enhanced design. I really appreciate your pictures and cautionary notes. I hope you're enjoying your A & K as much as I am enjoying mine.

[crono986]

Please let us know if AEG barrels and hop up buckings can be used.  It appears to be a normal AEG barrel and a normal bucking.  Any idea what the inner barrel length is?  Also, can you measure the outer diameter of the barrel to see if it's possible to tap it for -14mm?

[ScottCollins]

AEG barrels and buckings can be used although I can't advise changing the bucking, as it come with an unusually good one. As mentioned in the beginning of the post the length is 590mm, so a tightbore is going to run you a little more than usual. I don't have the tools to give you an accurate measure of the outer barrel so I cannot answer that with any authority.

[shiftysgarand]

Also, why would you want to thread for 14mm? In my opinion, silencers do not belong on Garands.

[2nd Bat]

Perhaps a tracer unit ? Although for this weapon (and frankly all WW2 weapons). I'd recommend installing one of the hop up installed tracer set ups. Something I have seriously considered but have NOT done as yet on any of my WW2 units. For those who have never experienced airsoft tracer units or held a night event where everyone had tracer elements its something you have to do!

[rodbuilder]

Thanks so much for the tech on this! My son and I have been looking for this info for months now since the wiring on his pulled loose in the stock. Now I van get his M1 back up and running.

[crono986]

Jan 1, 2018 13:12:12 GMT -5 ScottCollins said:

AEG barrels and buckings can be used although I can't advise changing the bucking, as it come with an unusually good one. As mentioned in the beginning of the post the length is 590mm, so a tightbore is going to run you a little more than usual. I don't have the tools to give you an accurate measure of the outer barrel so I cannot answer that with any authority.

I run tru-hop buckings in almost all of my guns.  It is a poor man's R-Hop, and it's actually made by a friend of mine here in Arizona.  As avid airsoft hobbyists, we have fun getting better performance by modifying bucking and barrels.  

Jan 1, 2018 15:30:32 GMT -5 shiftysgarand said:

Also, why would you want to thread for 14mm? In my opinion, silencers do not belong on Garands.

Two fold. 

1) In case you need to increase the barrel length further, you can always put a longer inner barrel inside of a mock suppressor to get better performance, especially if you decide to make your gun use an HPA system.  It's also easily removable without modifying the gun too much, so if I ever decided to run an authentic US WW2 impression, I could simply remove the mock suppressor, replace the stock inner barrel, and not too many people would notice the small threads on the end.

2) It would match its German sister, my Kar98k, which I threaded the barrel of in favor of an optional suppressor/increased barrel length





My guns are more modernized takes on a historic rifle, but could always be reverted back to their original form.