Run With The Fox,
I suggest you enlist the help of another post member, if you are not familiar with field striping the M-1. Likely your WW2 members will either be "gone" or won't feel like it. Korean war vets or early Viet Nam vets that were in ROTC could also help. The handle of the M-1 cleaning rod is milled to fit the gas plug and function as a wrench to remove it, by using one of the rod sections placed in the hole at the other end, as a T handle. Disassembly of these parts is pretty much self-explanatory, but while you are doing it, you may as well field strip and clean the whole rifle. The Post will be better off buying blanks than loading them. Actual arsenal loaded blanks are loaded with a very fast burning powder known as "Flash Powder" and if you could find it, is tricky and possibly dangerous to load. You can load blanks the same way as fire forming loads, using Bullseye for powder and a filler to fill the case. However, if you do this you should remove the BFAs (blank firing attachments) and reinstall the normal gas plugs. With blanks loaded this way, the filler will build up in the BFA, stopping it up and making a possible dangerous situation and maybe damaging the rifle or injuring someone. I appreciate your service, good luck.
Mike
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