West Texas Armory
Restoration and Gunsmithing Services
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West Texas Armory is the place to send your M-14, M1 Garand and other US service rifles for repairs or custom gunsmithing. I can do anything on them from reparkerizing to an all out match conditioning job. Our rifles have been top scorers at all the matches around the country since we started 5 years ago. The M-14 and M1 Garand rifles are my specialty. I have over 20 years of US Navy, US Army and civilian experience on them and have learned the secrets of doing the job right the first time on them. Most of the match conditioning work I do is a combination of the USMC style and my own style of gunsmithing. I own all the Army manuals and have worked with some fine Army armorers in the past but I don't do anything like they did here. My thinking is that if the Army knew as much about rifles as they do about wasting money then we'd still be using the M-14. Whenever you call or EMAIL me just keep in mind I care about making your rifle last. I'm sure, if you are a civilian, that you don't have an endless supply of repair parts and a few million people contributing money to buy parts with either. The things I do different will help you in the long run making your rifle last so future generations can enjoy the piece of history it is. In most cases, my requirements are stricter than the Army ever was. In some cases just different. A couple examples are; M14 gas cylinder unitizing and M1 Garand pistons. I never could understand why the Army MTU armorers chose to screw together the gas group on M14 match rifles when it disables the spindle valve. You can close that valve to keep solvent out of the cylinder when you clean the bore if it is done USMC style (my way) but not when it's screwed together. You just never know when you might want to mount a grenade launcher on yours too. I actually have a few times with practice grenades. It's a lot of fun shooting one at a moving tumbleweed. M1 Garand gas pistons were not originally made of stainless steel. If I have to replace them they are. I machine my own using one of the 440 series stainless steels. They are machined and ground to original specs, or to custom fit a worn gas cylinder. (still cheaper than a new op rod and gas cylinder) In that case the gas cylinder must be rebored and honed to a true cylinder first. Sure it's harder to machine stainless steel but I doubt one will ever wear out. The Army TM also specifies no lube on the gas cylinder plugs for the Garand. That makes no sense at all. Any machinist in his right mind knows better than to screw two stainless steel parts together repeatedly without some sort of antiseize compound. I use high temp copper anti-seize on all M-14 and M-1 Garand gas plug threads. It only takes a little but it will sure prevent you from galling the threads one day. These are not cheap parts anymore to replace. Both rifles need about 12-15 foot pounds torque on the gas plug and it will never come loose. What a lot of people don't understand is the Army, when they wrote all those manuals, was only thinking about soldiers and maintaining the rifles in a wartime environment. They also had an unlimited budget for replacement parts. They never intended for these rifles to still be working 40-100 years later so the game has changed a little bit now. Military manuals and MILSPEC procedures have their place but if things can be done better why not? We have a fully equipped machine shop and the experience and knowledge to keep your rifles running smoothly for years to come. I'm not just someone that knows how to read a book and likes to tinker with guns. I am rewriting the book. Why choose anyone else? Some of the services we can provide are: *STEEL BEDDING special note on my bedding techniques: Ask any other gunsmith out there if it is ok to field strip your weapon after it is bedded and they will most likely say no! Most will say never take it apart. To me this is about the most stupid thing any person could do. You have spent your hard earned cash on a pretty expensive rifle and had it bedded but now you are told never to take it apart. M1 and M-14 rifles especially NEED to be regularly field stripped, cleaned and lubricated if you expect it to last. My bedding technique uses Brownells steel bed and my own special procedures that do allow easy field stripping. I would never sell a rifle that can't be properly cleaned and I would never tell a customer not to clean one. Some "gunsmiths" even say it will void their warranty on the bedding if you take it apart. Just ask yourself is that kind of customer service something you want to spend your hard earned cash on? I have modified and improved on military (specifically USMC) bedding procedures over the years for these rifles and tried and tested it on my own rifles before doing it for customers. I field strip and clean my weapons properly every time they go out and have never once had a problem related to taking the action out of the stock. In fact the bedding job on my last rifle outlasted 2 heavy match barrels. It maintained sub MOA performance through almost 10,000 rounds. Sure the bedding got a little loose but not enough to cause accuracy problems. It just came out of the stock a little easier is all about the time I replaced the barrel. Bedding jobs are done in several variations depending on the weapon. Short barreled 16 inch socom M1A rifles do not need the full length pillar bedding of a 22 inch heavy barreled sniper rifle. On these short ones the bedding can be just as tight but more emphasis is placed on ease of maintenance than making it super tight. These rifles tend to be fired a lot more and a whole lot faster so they, probably more than any other need proper cleanings if you expect it to last. Long barreled snipers and match rifles get a full length pillar bedding job. The entire receiver is supported from front to rear with a few modifications to make it easier to take apart without damage. Steel bed by it's own nature is extremely tough but some of the places people are putting the bedding compound are completely unnecessary. With the added strength of this compound it is possible to leave it a little loose in certain areas so field stripping is possible without damage. Sometimes one or two shots may be needed to fully settle it back down into the bedding before you regain maximum accuracy but not very often. I've never missed a prairie dog yet that I could blame on the bedding. I have so much confidence in my bedding procedures that they are guaranteed for the life of the barrel to maintain accuracy. *M-14 GAS CYLINDER UNITIZING (WELDED) *REBARRELING *CUSTOM BUILDS FOR ANYTHING FROM HUNTING TO A MILITARY SNIPER RIFLE *NEW STOCKS, MCMILLAN, JAE-100, SEVERAL GRADES OF WALNUT HAND MADE TO PERFECTION *CMP AND JCG MATCH REWORKING This is just a short list to highlight some of the things we do. Take a look around at the site and for prices click the link above for gunsmithing price list. If you don't see what you are looking for then please call. This is the only place you need to go to keep your rifles running right. We don't use off the shelf factory made stocks for our rifles. These are not Boyds. These are custom made one at a time to true military patterns using the best woods available. They are not oversized and will fit like a glove. We put a lot of attention to detail into our stocks just as you would expect. Only the finest will get my stamp on it.
QUALITY IS OUR TOP PRIORITY. QUALITY WORK TAKES QUALITY TIME.
The rifle above is one of our semi fancy American walnut stocks
These three are a semi fancy grade English walnut. I stained this one a little darker than normal by customer request so the figure doesn't show as much with the camera but still, anywhere is goes it will be a real head turner!
The crown is one of the most important parts of making a rifle shoot accurately. We face off and put a .45 degree muzzle on all of our rifles. If you have a CMP rifle or yours has just seen better days then send it to me to have yours redone. Don't be fooled into having another type of crown done on your M-1 or M-14. If you clean it from the front it needs the military 45 degree crown. It's just as accurate as the now popular 11 degree target crown but much less prone to damage.
Normally the English walnuts I leave unstained to really highlight the grain like the one that is 2nd from the right above. The stock on the right is a extra fancy Claro walnut that has tons of figure and fiddle back throughout. I really wish I was good enough with a camera to show it off. Most of these fancier grades of wood will start about 550.00 and can go as high as 800.00 in some cases. These were all in the 600 dollar price range after fitting and finishing but it really depends on the piece of wood. If you are looking for something to pass down to your kids then one like these is the way to go. |
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About Us My main specialty is refinishing and restoring antique US military weapons and building custom match rifles. I learned how to do Parkerizing while I was in the Navy and I do it just like it was done originally on your weapons with modern MIL-SPEC processes. I can do Zinc or Manganese phosphate and make it match any era in US military history you desire. I also do match conditioning on M1's and M14's. Trigger jobs, unitizing, rebarreling and anything else you could need. Right now I carry Barnett Turned Douglas match barrels in standard to heavy match profiles for the M-14 and Criterion, Barnett and Wilson barrels for the Garand. I am working on adding Kreiger to the inventory also but don't have them in stock yet. If you have other USGI rifles and pistols you would like me to work on please EMAIL or call and lets talk about it. Anything from the 1903 Springfield to the M60. Even registered full autos we can work on for you. Just let me know what you would like.
We produce our own stocks in a variety of different woods. Above are two styles for the M14. The top one is a heavy target stock with a more vertical grip designed to be bedded. The bottom stock is a standard GI contour.
Parkerizing We do some of the finest Milspec parkerizing you will ever find. Meticulous attention to detail and a lot of time is spent on each and every piece we work on to make sure it comes out perfect. Anything I do here will be done just as the craftsman of yesterday would have and it will be done right the first time with customer satisfaction our number 1 priority. We are not a rush shop turning our second rate work so I may run behind sometimes, but you will see why when you get yours back. Below are a few examples of some of the things we do. I'm constantly updating this page so check back often. We can do your choice of Manganese phosphate or zinc phosphate Parkerizing. Rifles or pistols as long as they are made of steel. Stainless steel cannot be parkerized. For rifles with stainless barrels we can make it match closely though if you like. We use Brownells moly teflon baked on finish on the barrel and it will look just like the M-14 below.
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These are some rifles from my collection that I have built. Sorry they are not for sale but they should give you a good idea what I can do for you. |
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| Eddystone M1917 Enfield | |||||||||||||
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I had to do a lot of work on this one. The barrel was a smoothbore and it had severe surface rust and a stock that looked like it had been through 3 wars. It now sports a brand new JA 2 groove GI barrel and has been reparkerized. I spent a couple of weeks steaming out the dents and oil that had accumulated in the stock before giving it a couple light coats of boiled linseed oil. | ||||||||||||
Springfield Armory M-1 Garand |
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This rifle also had seen considerable use in it's day. It was one of the Danish M1 Garands that the CMP was selling. The barrel was well taken care of and was still bright and had sharp lands and grooves but the stock was black with age and use and there was no finish left on any of the metal. I had to completely clean and sandblast all the metal and reparkerize it. The gas cylinder was one of the cut modified ones and I replaced it with a new GI cylinder. The op rod was also loose in the receiver so I replaced it with a used Rem NM op rod that I also reparkerized. This stock also took several weeks of steaming and working on to get all of the dents and soaked in oil out. It is now finished with Birchwood Casey tru-oil. It's a real reliable and accurate shooter now. | ||||||||||||
Polytech M-14 |
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I purchased this rifle new in the 80's. It came from century arms with a GI barrel already installed and a GI bolt. The headspace was not good on it right out of the box so I had to fit a new TRW bolt to the receiver and barrel. I also replaced the Poly op rod after a few thousand rounds when it started to pop off on it's own. Now it has a winchester op rod. This rifle has seen well over 50,000 rounds on the gi barrel that was on it now. Recently I fitted a Douglas heavy barrel and bedded it to a gi birch stock and a gi heavy walnut stock. It also has a set of NM sights fitted with a lockbar rear pinion assembly so I don't have to worry about anything coming loose when it gets bounced around on horseback or on the tractor. I also weld unitized the gas group and did a NM trigger job. The gas piston and op rod spring guide are made by Sadlak industries. | ||||||||||||
Copyright © 2001 [West Texas Armory]. All rights
reserved.
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