I like your stock too.  I've come close to buying a few Ruger rifles that were stocked like yours.  The other photo makes me think of a departed friend of mine and some of the stories he told me of the Battle of the Bulge.  He had my Garand for awhile, I'd used it as collateral for a little loan he gave me.  Miss the old coot, he was easier to deal with than banks or pawn shops!

When I took the gas system apart, I noted that I had the gas port nearly shut off, the gas cylinder was too far back!  It's a wonder it ran at all, but it did so very reliably, somehow.