CMP M1 Rack Grade Special, Looking for pics and experience with them

[oldsoldier54]

Writing to see if anyone has received any of the current $650 rack grade specials with the reparked receiver, new wood and new barrel and has pics and experience to report. They are out at the north store and a week ago had no idea, nor did Anniston, when more would be shipped there. The receivers were described as heavily pitted above the wood but am curious to see how bad it is. Seems like they should be great shooters for Garand Match as long as there is no issue with rear sight table and detents. There were some 03s and M1917 in stock at the store when I was there. Thanks in advance for any pics and info you can provide.

[Sunray]

This says a lot.
"...new production Criterion barrel..." Criterion barrels are really good barrels. Some say they're close to match grade.
There's a discussion about 'em here you may want to read.
https://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=238869

[lyman]

Criterion used to be made and owned by Krieger, not sure if they still are affiliated or not,

and yes, good barrels,

[oldsoldier54]

Thanks all for the info so far. I understand that criterion barrels are good as are the "special" stocks. I'm looking for a report, hopefully with pictures, from someone who has actually recently purchased a CMP rack grade special, the $650 rifle with the "heavily pitted above the woodline" refinished receiver to get an idea of how bad the receivers look and if the sight table and detents are intact for accurate windage and elevation adjustments. They are out of them at the North Store and I was told yesterday by them they will not receive any until some time in January at the earliest.

[Sunray]

"...how bad the receivers look..." The new Parkerizing will fill in any really ugly bits. Best to ask on the CMP forum.

[lyman]

"...how bad the receivers look..." The new Parkerizing will fill in any really ugly bits. Best to ask on the CMP forum.

how will parkerizing fill in the ugly pits?

[Major Tom]

Parkerizing will definitely NOT fill in any pits from rust. Years ago I had a SA garand reparked. It had a few 'pits' and the repark did not fill them in!

[lyman]

Parkerizing will definitely NOT fill in any pits from rust. Years ago I had a SA garand reparked. It had a few 'pits' and the repark did not fill them in!

wondering if Sunray knows some secrets,

I've parked hundreds of firearms, and some random tools,

sandblasting, if you use an aggressive media, will soften them a bit or fade the edges if not too deep, but will not fill them at all,

parkerizing is a controlled chemical rusting process, of sorts, and not very thick

[dryheat]

A Rack grade special is kind of a trade off. You get a nice barrel to ease the pain of getting a(maybe) awful looking receiver. I have seen some barkers, but on occasion, like anything else you might get a fairly nice looking receiver. I'm not a fan of the light phosphate park and it surely will not fill in any pitting. Some of these are aggressively blasted to the point where you can't read the ser. no. Keep that tag. I'd post a pic but I haven't figured out how to move pics from the phone to the PC yet.
Just for fun here is a bizarre auction on GB. This is an older purchase. I don't think there even are field grades any longer. The ser. no. is blacked out. Probably unreadable anyway. That didn't stop two nitwits from bidding it to OZ.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/886912887

[oldsoldier54]

Thanks, dryheat. Sounds like you have a rack grade special or have a picture so I'm getting closer to an answer. I'll query on the cmp blog as well. I've found with an apple phone i send a text message with the picture attached to my email address that I've already put into the phone as a contact. Once i get the pic in my email on the computer, I then just use the paint tool to adjust size, brightness etc if I didn't do it already while stored on the phone. Hope that helps and Merry Christmas.