CMP Now Scraping the Drill Rifle Bucket
As a teen back in the early 1990s, I spent hours every week caring for and maintaining the 40 WWII vintage M1903 drill rifles we had in the armory of my NJROTC unit. They had a steel rod welded in the barrel and the magazine cut-off welded up, making it so that you couldn’t work the bolt. When we had to fire blank salute volleys, say, for Veterans Day, we used still-functional M1903s borrowed from a local VFW.
Other units I saw at regional competitions had M1 Garand drill rifles that similarly had the barrel and receiver gouge torched and bolt welded to receiver.
Years ago, such drill rifles were replaced by fully fake replicas, and the welded-up war vets were put in storage. Over the years, they have floated out via CMP and other outlets. I bought one for $150 at the Anniston location back in 2017 and still have it. Heck, the wood was worth that alone.
I thought about recovering it to make a working rifle but figured it would not be salvageable or worth the effort.
Well, CMP is apparently running so low on M1 and M1903s that they are now doing just that, but at least seem to have done the homework when it comes to making them safe.
The CMP, in conjunction with leading industry experts, completed a comprehensive engineering program to determine whether weld-repaired drill-rifle receivers for the M1 Garand and Model 1903-A3 can return to live-fire use while meeting—and potentially exceeding—the same safety and durability standards as original receivers. Heritage Arms performed the weld removal, machining, and assembly of the test rifles, while Prospector Training LLC executed the proof-firing and destructive metallography and supplied quality-engineering support. Additionally, each rifle produced will undergo testing (further described below) before they will be deemed available for sale.
The reasoning behind it makes sense:
For collectors, these efforts keep authentic U.S. receivers in circulation rather than consigning them to scrap. For competitors and recreational shooters, they sustain rifle availability without altering grades, prices, or warranty terms. Most importantly, the initiative advances CMP’s Congressionally mandated mission: expanding marksmanship opportunities, promoting firearms training and safety—especially among youth—and preserving America’s military heritage. Through technical rigor and historical stewardship, the Drill Rifle Initiative exemplifies how that mission is executed for shooters across the nation.