Great Garand

[72Rover]

I've been in lurk mode for a while, but I have a question that I haven't seen addressed in this forum.

I've got the opportunity to buy a really great Garand. New, actually, as in *unfired.* Disassembled it yesterday (surprisingly, I still remember how 35 years later), and the internal bits show absolutely no sign of wear. Ran the serial numbers and it was made in October of 1944. The rifle was a prize at Camp Perry, and is owned by someone who has won several of 'em.

I've been considering the CMP Garands for a while, and for everyone who was pleased, there seems to be someone else who received a stovepipe for a barrel. So I waited...and this deal came along!

Other than financial objections from the SO, my only concern is what might happen to the value of this weapon. I'm not a collector who would hang this pristine piece on the wall; rather, it'll go into the rack with the other long guns and 'exercised' every so often.

The current value is probably several times the purchase price. On other forums, several folks have said that it should be kept in its dull Cosmoline finish and that some serious collector would pay handsomly for it - unfired. (I have no plans to resell it) Just as with new cars where the greatest depreciation occurs when you drive off the dealer's lot, what's gonna happen to the value of this if I take it out for a drive on occasion?

Cheers

 

[ReadyontheRight]

Congratulations on a great find!

Well -- They are not making GOOD new Garands, so the BRAIN says you're best off buying this one, saving it as a collector's item and also getting a $300 Rack Grade or $500 Service Grade from CMP.

The HEART says rifles are meant to be shot...

Well-used, all-matching H&Rs go for $1400 at the CMP and for much more at dealers. If this is in this price range or less, I'd say jump all over it.

For more info:

Here is a serial # lookup page:
http://armscollectors.com/srs/lookup_m1.php
If it's listed there, it's probably worth even more.

You may have been here, but here is a site that has some very knowledgable Garand folks:
http://www.jouster.com/cgi-bin/garand/garand.pl

There's also the Scott Duff books and the Garand Collectors Association.

Maybe buy it now and do some more research before you shoot it.

 

[yesterdaysyouth]

i might have a C&R, but i don't collect a thing...
wall hangers are useless to me..
buy it, shoot it, repeat..


over and over i hear that firearms are tools, when's the last time you bought any other tool with the intent to just let it take up space??

 

[Chipperman]

I'm generally not a safe-queen kind of guy, but this is spepcial.

A GEN-U-WINE NIB Garand from WWII.

It is a piece of history that should be kept new. Buy it and keep it unfired.
Buy a second one from CMP and shoot the snot out of it.

 

[bigjim]

I too am of the gun is a tool mind set. HOWEVER a unfired pristine Garand is more than a tool. It is historical. Garands are not made any more. Once they are gone they are gone and they do wear out!

Lots of good shooters around. Buy this nice Garand and keep it holy. But also buy a shooter. One of our forum posters (ejohne) may have some nice shooters left.

Keep that gun clean and unfired and stop taking it apart. In 30 years you will be sitting in a chair talking to a kid about the war and he will never have heard of WW2. Then you can pull that Garand out and show him History. Let him feel the wood. Run his fingers over the Parkerizing. Show him how to load a enblock clip. Tell him aboout the men that carried this rifle to save the world from a mad man.

What is that worth? Surely you can shoot another gun?

 

[Darkmind]

I to consider firearms to be tools but

when's the last time you bought any other tool with the intent to just let it take up space??

I've been doing that quite a bit lately!

 

[jefnvk]

when's the last time you bought any other tool with the intent to just let it take up space??

Have you heard about a place called an Antique shop? Most of that stuff has no practical value to it, especially any tools.

 

[LiquidTension]

I'd jump all over the deal and decide what to do with it later.

 

[homeka45]

A chance in a lifetime for a lot of us, buy it and keep it pristine, then pass it on to someone who will cherish it after you're done with it.

 

[ksnecktieman]

If you do not want a "safe queen" and you think that this one should be,,, consider the purchase price? If you can buy it cheap, buy it, and find someone that wants a "safe queen" for investment, make some money, take your original investment and buy ammo, and a shooter grade, and BAUUR.

If your income is such that a five hundred dollar loss is offset by your enjoyment? WELL,,,,, that is why we all have jobs, to buy things we enjoy, to use them up and wear them out... This decision has to be YOURS

 

[iamkris]

My lord, an unfired 1944 Garand? That would be worth...what $10-15,000? Are you sure it's an unfired 1944 Garand or is it actually a rearsenaled (and not since fired) one? BIG DIFFERENCE!!

If the former, it's a crime to shoot it. The latter can be fired all you want. I believe in shooting guns as much as the next guy but the can't be more than a handful of genuine unfired WWII Garands in the world. It is devaluation of an investment best case and destruction of a true national treasure at worst.

Now I certainly don't know if this is the case for sure but if you friend won it at Camp Perry, it is most likely rearsenaled. Get the P/N's from several of the parts and post them on www.jouster.com or the M1 forum at AmBack http://www.ambackforum.com/viewforum.php?f=109&sid=1a4f7ff3fba4fc590e25e4d90151b3aa

 

[Trebor]

I truly doubt that it's a unfired, as built in 1944, Garand. It may be unfired since rebuild though. Tear it down and look at who made what parts. That will help you figure out if it's been rebuilt or not. Go to jouster.com and they can help you decode the drawing numbers on the parts.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

over and over i hear that firearms are tools, when's the last time you bought any other tool with the intent to just let it take up space??

I can't remember when, but I have two unused Estwing leather-handled hammers that are, and will remain, unused. They are "tools," but they are also works of the toolmaker's art. I also have my father's old Estwing and a newer, rubber-handled Estwing to use for pounding nails.

Keep the unfired Garand unfired.

 

[Selfdfenz]

Guys...

72Rover
New Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1

First.....welcome 72Rover to THR and the Rifle forum.

I would buy the rifle but I would also fire it. If you are luckly enough to have such a find enjoy it and remember you only live once.

Let the museums pile up the relics. This life should be about you and your journey.

S-

 

[jobu07]

I'd buy it just to have a garand! If you wanna shoot your rifle, it's your rifle. If you wanna hang it on the wall, it's your rifle. Either way, enjoy it!

 

[72Rover]

Thanks Kris and Rob, I'll do just that this weekend.

I neglected to mention that is is a Springfield Armory model. The wood looks just as 'new' as the rest. Only a couple of minor dings in the fore-stock where it was rudely placed back into the same rack several times. Real nice grain to the stock under that dull, matt Cosmoline finish....

Thanks for the help. While it's not in my possession yet, I do 'own' it now. The SO figures I have enough guns...which, in my book, is like saying you have enough money...or hair. Both seem to be diminishing....

Cheers

 

[George S.]

While this sounds like a true collector rifle, the only thing IMHO, it doesn't seem to have is "history". It would probably be much more accurate to shoot as some of the other WWII-era Garands that have had hundreds or thousands of rounds thru it.

One reason I bought a Garand frm the CMP was hopefuly getting a rifle that had some sort of historical past. I decided on one of the Danish return SG rifles with a VAR Barrel in hopes of getting a good shooter. I had read stories of the VAR barrel being very accurate. The available money at that time would not allow a USGI Service Grade.

When I got my Garand, the first thing I found was a 6-digit serial number that showed it was an April '41 receiver. After thinking about this for awhile, I began to wonder where the original rifle went. Was it issued to some GI going to Anzio? Did it wind up in the hands of a Marine at Iwo Jima or Okinawa? Did it get a rest before having to fend off the North Koreans on the Pusan Perimiter? Or did it simply serve as a training rifle to teach our fighting men how to shoot?

I guess that's what makes my Garand special to me. All of this can be speculation, but it's very possible that (parts of) my rifle helped to keep the world free of facism or communist domination.

In any event, I would probably wind up occasionally shooting a rifle like yours and get the enjoyment from having an example of what helped keep the world free and safe.

 

[Lonestar.45]

Tough call. Generally, I only buy rifles to shoot. But this one sounds a little special. There are just too many "shooter grade" Garands out there to buy this one and shoot it though. It's you're money, and you're gun, so do whatever you feel is right and don't let anyone knock you for going one way or the other.

It's a double edge sword. If I bought it and didn't shoot it, I'd always want to know how it shot and I'd be proud to take it to the range and show it off. But if I did shoot it, and somehow it got dinged, scratched, or worn looking from use, I'd be sick about it, remembering how it was when I got it. Guess that's why I try to stay away from really nice collector grade weapons. Some people, like me I guess, just aren't meant to own guns like that. I have to stick with either the shooter grades, or the commerically common run of the mill guns or I'd go crazy.

 

[MAUSER88]

I hope for your sake it truley is an unfired 1944 M1. But reason dictates it probably is a post WWII rebuild of some sort. It will be easy to tell. First, pull the slide back and check the barrel date. The stock will have the inspectors cartouche on the left side. Let us know some of the details when you get it.
By the way, if iti s a NIB UNFIRED M1, no way I'd ever shoot it!!

 

[kimbernut]

Welcome

Welcome to THR, 72 Rover! WOW!!!! What an opportunity.Please keep us informed and congratulations.Enjoy it in any way you see fit.Fired or unfired it's a treasure.

 

[Gewehr98]

I had a similar quandary some years ago...

My first DCM M1 Garand, after I paid the obligatory $165.00, arrived at my front door. (The price should tell you how long ago that was!) I ripped the inner plastic bag open, and underneath the grease was a 1942 6-digit Springfield Armory, serial 6690xx, with an extra "0-66" serial number electro-penciled behind the rear sight, and the receiver serial number penciled in yellow crayon elsewhere on the rifle, including the stock in front of the floorplate.

The wood was a brand new dark reddish walnut, the parkerizing was a beautiful black, and the gas system had a dark black finish. The action was a bear to remove from the stock, it fit so tightly. Most interesting of all, the barrel was a brand new Marlin version, no wear on the throat erosion gauge, dated April of 1953.

Something just wasn't right. Did they always arsenal rebuild M1 Garands to this level of fit and finish, and engrave the receiver with odd numbers?

Then I did some snooping, and talked to Scott Duff. Turns out this rifle and others like it were rebuilt at Crane Naval Weapons Depot to new condition, then issued as Secretary of the Navy Trophy Rifles for awards to fleet match winners. How Anniston Arsenal got receipt of one is still a question for the history books. I'm not complaining, regardless.

It shoots like a house on fire, and I've won several High Power and John C. Garand matches with it. But once I learned what it was, it doesn't get taken to the range much anymore, my other M1 Garands with less provenance get that job these days.