My source for things Garand is
ammogarand.com, a kind of catch-all location for all the things you might want to get him. It's a decent vendor who provides quick and courteous service.
To shoot, he'll need ammo; and I recommend
this; and yes it's out of stock, but the current political climate has made all ammunition hard to find.
Other sources are facing the same temporary demand/supply shortages. Eventually, that will change. Besides the rifle and the ammo, he'll need
Garand Enbloc Clips, which group the cartridges by 8's and make them loadable and shootable in the Garand's unique ammo feeding system. Ten clips should be plenty to get started with. They'll fit nicely in this piece of reproduction
WWII Garand Ammo Belt gear.
Some bits of advice.
First; the Garand has vulnerabilities, and the foremost is that it requires ammunition that generates less energy than customary 30-06 hunting ammunition.
If it is not specifically marked and advertised as being for the M-1 Garand, don't put it in the rifle. Very expensive damage would result.
Next; WWII memorabilia is just that, 75+ year old collector bait, likely to be crumbly, and way overpriced. Leave that stuff for the collectors.
That replica belt I mentioned above is a much better buy than an original one. The only other things I'd be thinking of getting is
a good cotton sling, and maybe a
bayonet, 'repros' in both instances. Here are
the proper installation instructions for the cotton Garand sling. Finally, the proper lube for the Garand is
Lubriplate Grease. It is applied very sparingly on the areas that show bare metal from wear.
Hope this helps. This is a rough time to be looking for gun goodies, but hang in. It'll either get better or it'll get worse, and if the latter, buying Garand goodies will probably be the least of our problems.
Greg
PS After reviewing the following post (which I heartily support), I am reminded that some forms of service rifle competition require single fed firing, i.e. only one round in the rifle. A device, known by the acronym
SLED (Single Loading Enhancement Device) makes this possible without doing all sorts of extra gyrations. No Garand Service Rifle Competitor's kit is complete without one.
Attempting to load and fire a single round my manually placing it in the chamber and releasing the bolt to close freely can produce a slam fire. This slam fire event can produce serious personal injury, as well as damage to the Garand.
Other modified clips can accommodate state hunting laws limiting magazine capacity to
five rounds, and other ones can allow the completion of a 10 round course of competitive fire by combining the standard 8 round clip with another
2 round clip.