M1 Garand,How do I tell if it's original or not? Help.

4

45automan

New member
Hey guys I was looking at an M1 Garand. On the reciever just behind the rear sight it said "US RIFLE 30 CAL" "Springfield Armory" and then it had a serial number under that. So is this an original M1 and not a parts gun? I don't know much about the M1 rifle. It is in pretty good shape. The bore looks good. Wood is nice for how old it is. The asking price is $600. Is this a good price? I am waiting to tell the guy if I want to buy it or not.
Thanks,45automan
 
Well....

Thats a hard call. Whats a parts gun? Most WW11 era rifles will have been rebuilt, more than once in some cases. So the chances of it being original are slim. It could still be a U.S.G.I. spec rifle which would be good for use as a shooter. The biggest thing to check is that the reciever is not a re-weld. One that has been cut and halfs matched up and welded together. Stay away from them if you can. For a G.I. rifle with a good barrel,600 is not a bad price. Check the barrel behind the front sight for a stamp "Blue Sky" these are inports that were re-barreled with non GI barrels. If you have time a visit to the links page for Fulton Armory is a good start. Also one of the Garand books by Scott Duff can answer most if not all Garand question. Good luck.
 
Original Receiver

45automan,

From what you have described, the rifle has an orignal GI receiver. If you give us the first few digits of the serial number (e.g., 3,500,xxx - leave off the last three), someone here can tell you the approximate date of manufacture. You can also check serial numbers on the bolt, barrel, and probably one or more other parts, to determine if they are GI, who made them, and when they date from.

As far as this possibly being a "parts gun", you have to define your term. There are very VERY few M-1s left which are composed of all the same parts they left the factory with. Military SOP seems to have been to field strip rifles when necessary, clean them, then usually just grab parts and reassemble the rifles. This inter-changability of parts was a strong point of a battle rifle, but left few examples of a rifle with all of it's original parts intact.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. You can buy a rifle made out of mixed parts, then buy the appropriate parts to make a rifle with at least all parts from one manufacturer and the same time period.

You may be able to get more information from Dick Culver's Shooting page,

http://www.jouster.com

or from Scott Duff's page,

http://www.scott-duff.com

If the rifle seems to be in good shape, if may be worth it. CMP is charging $500 plus &19.95 shipping for service-grade M-1s. Others on this forum, or the two references I gave you can give you some good tips on what to look for.

Good luck! M-1s are good rifles!

Frosty
MOLON LABE
 
Hi by "parts gun" I mean the ones from CIA and things like that. The ones that are mostly thrown together from diffrent pieces. Forgive my ignorance here as I said I don't know much about the M1 Garand.
45automan
Also the serial number is 835xxx, I think. I only glanced at it. It could also be 385,I'am not totally sure.
 
If I am not mistaken, the guns you are referring to may have been made with new receivers, not the GI receivers. There have been some mixed reports on the quality of those new receivers. I am going to stick with GI receivers from known sources (CMP mainly, Orion7, and other quality companies).

The two serial numbers you mention fall with the range of the Sept 1942 contract to SA. It started with ser # 165,501 in Sept 1942 and ended with ser # 865,500 in about Jan 1943. So this one should be an early WWII model.

There is a good book which is sold at gunshows and other places on Collectable Garands which outlines the various serial numbers of various parts and can help you analyze a particular rifle as to parts and condition.

WARNING: If you buy this book and one M-1 rifle, you will probably be seriously tempted to buy more!

It's hard to make a buy recommendation from a distance without eyeballing the item, but this sounds like it may be worth checking out some more. I would suggest finding a local Garand expert (a real expert, not a self-proclaimed one) and ask him to check it out. If he buys it out from under you, you know it was a good deal.

I wish I could help more.

BTW, my first M-1 from CMP was a Springfield Armory, s/n 24,xxx. Not 2,4xx,xxx, but 5 digits! And it was in very good shape also.

Frosty
MOLON LABE
 
Man that was a low numbered one Frosty! 45 Automan there were 4 places that built the M1, Springfield Armory, Winchester, International Harvester and Harrington & Richardson. IIRC the H&R's were made in the 50's. With any of these 4 you have an original receiver. As you stated yours is a SA one. If you look at the parts those that are made by SA will have that stamped on it. You can even see the mark on the barrel without field stripping it. Lock the slide back and look at te back of the barrel just over the op-rod. It will have the amker plus the batch number. I was lucky mine came from CMP and it was all Springfield parts. Tight muzzle and very little TE. It was made in April of 45 and so was the barrel. As far as I can tell it is the original barrel.
 
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