Good Morning. Here I am back to talk about my M-1 Garand again. If you read my review here on it back in the surplus rifles section I did then you know after we fired that day I was less than thrilled with the groups. As it turns out about 15 mins away from me there is a guy named Tim Shufflin that is a pretty well known Garand Guru and makes his living building his version of the “Tanker” Garand he calls the “Mini-G”. These creations of his are gorgeous rifles by the way! He also does any kind of Garand work and work on the other US military rifles like the M1 Carbine, 03 Springfield and such but it seemed like his specialty is Garands. He has a parkerizing service for anything you want parkerized as well. I’m going to have him do a couple 1911’s for me next.
Tim was a hell of a nice guy and I could tell very good at what he does. I learned more about the Garand in 30 mins with him than I knew in all my life before that. He did all the work in front of me, I was pretty amazed actually. I walked in needing a barrel we found out, along with half a dozen other things adjusted and tweaked a bit. In 5 minutes he’s got a pile of parts in front of him and 30 mins after that he hands you back a rifle that will actually shoot. 🙂 New barrel installed already. Who knew that could happen in less than a half hour?? I didn’t. Tim was impressive, great sense of humor and he doesn’t try to sell you anything you don’t want or need. I was teetering on buying a Mini-G he had sitting there and he offered to put it away so the temptation would be gone. 🙂 He also gave me a free stock. It was used but was a much tighter fit than the one I had. He just threw it in for free and gave me my old one back too. He’s a craftsman for sure. Have you ever met those guys who are in high demand for a service that are just cranky old dicks because they know you need them and they don’t need you?? The old transmission pro who built my Turbo 400 for my 73 Stingray Corvette comes to mind. The old man about yells at me on the phone because I didn’t know my cam numbers off the top of my head but you tolerate it because he’s the best dude you can get. He built an awesome tranny for me but his customer friendliness skills need work. 🙂 Tim’s not that way at all. It’s like you showed up at a buddies house and he’s doing you a favor.
So after he does all his gauges and tests my chamber was borderline but my muzzle was an absolute disaster. The bullet would just rattle in the barrel, totally shot out. No wonder I was getting the groups I was getting. So he installs a Criterion barrel which is made by Krieger. My groups were LARGER than 20 inches at 100 yards before, yes larger. This is what she is doing now at 100 yards. 🙂 My first sighters at the bottom. Then I overdid it with the elevation change and hit high, last I walked them right down center with a nice 5 shot group. This is cheap Greek surplus from CMP. Before 2-3 rds of an 8 round clip would miss entirely a 20 inch plate at 100 yards, obviously that’s pretty bad. So on top of the new barrel the important things he did was tighten up the gas system and tighten up the stock and trigger group fit. With the gas system properly in place my rifles habit of ejecting a clip early seems has ceased too.
So that’s about it, Tim Shufflin gets 3 thumbs up from me. I got a rifle with a new barrel and stock. He tweaked, adjusted and completely technically checked the old girl out as I watched him do it. All that set me back 300$ total. I think that was a hell of a good deal. The other thing is I could have gotten that done in a lunch hour, no waiting for weeks. Very impressive guy and gunsmith. I tried to get him to give me a part time job, he hasn’t heard the end of that yet from me. 🙂
If you need parkerizing for anything or work done on a US Military rifle like the 03, M1, 1917 or carbine then definitely talk to Tim. His website is “shuffsparkerizing.com” check it out!! He builds some gorgeous custom Garands! At least check the site out to see the nice pictures he has up. He even has a selection of magazine kits for the Garand so you can use 20 round m-14 mags. I emailed him using his website’s contact thing and heard back in a day or 2. He said he spends the first hour and a half or so daily answering emails then heads for the shop. You won’t be disappointed with him. I plan to be a return customer myself.
As always thanks for reading and train often.
By: Cary Kieffer
Cary Kieffer
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Nice comments from an appreciative individual who seems to know the value of those unassuming pros who love their fellow man. I had a similar experience in that I traveled almost 1300 miles to bring a CMP M1 receiver to Tim with a barrel from a Korean War vintage parts kit. Tim checked out the barrel and approved it. While waiting in his shop and great conversation, Tim had it aligned and pronounced the assembly fit for reassembly. The M1 is a nice shooter. Thanks Tim!