Guns: Getting the Garand, Part 2 - Waiting is the hardest part...

I'm in the middle of acquiring an M1 Garand from the CMP, and I thought it'd be fun to document the experience in a series of posts. Today, we'll make a (virtual) visit to the CMP store and discuss what to expect after you've sent in your CMP order...

If you don't feel like completing the mail order process, the CMP actually has a couple of physical stores - one in Anniston, Alabama (90 miles from Atlanta, 65 miles from Birmingham), and one at Camp Perry's Ohio National Guard training site (80 miles from Cleveland, 40 miles from Toledo). If you live around those areas and you want to purchase a CMP Garand, it's probably worth a trip - there's something cool about being surrounded by so many pieces and getting to handpick your favorite:



If you're like most of us, though, you don't happen to live anywhere near a CMP store, and you're stuck getting your Garand via mail order. The CMP takes awhile to ship; about a week after sending my order form, I got the following e-mail:

We have received and verified your recent order. There is nothing that we will be able to tell you about the order until we have input all orders received ahead of yours into the system. Your order will now advance to our sales area and from there to our shipping area.  Please note, that unless otherwise listed, our order to ship time is at least 30 to 60 days. You will receive other emails as the order progresses.

Your customer # is XXXX.  Your password is XXXX. Your email address and password are  what you will need to use to log into our estore to check order status, purchase items, view your account, etc.   The order will not show as pending until the Sales Department processes and assigns an order number to it. If you have any problems doing this, please let us know.

Thank you for your order and your support of our program.

Sharron R Wautelet

CMP Customer Service

My credit card was charged soon after, so I guess that means they're processing my order. Still going to be a few weeks at least, it seems...