Should I trade a pristine Garand for this M1A?

[Father Knows Best]

Well, y'all have convinced me. I guess I had too high of an opinion of the National Match M1A. I still want a good long distance rifle, but I'll keep looking. The Garand will stay in my safe for the time being.

 

[Sunray]

"...My dad has offered to swap me my collector grade Garand and $200 for the M1A..." As long as your da will promise not to sell it to anyone else and changes his will so it goes to you when he does. You'll be getting it back, eventually, anyway. An M1A you can buy any time. You won't always be able to buy another 'collector grade' Garand.

 

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

"and it has $800+ worth of optics and scope on it."

Only according to Springfield Armory.

Sorry. I'd rather have an old Leatherwood ART II any day.

Glad you've decided to pass on the trade. You'll understand why in 10 years.

Regards,
Rabbit.

 

[El Rojo]

Glad you've decided to pass on the trade. You'll understand why in 10 years.

Yeah, when the value goes up to $3000 and inflation has driven the price of an M1A up to the price too and when you realize you still haven't shot that Garand in 10 years and you still don't like dust bunnies. Sorry, I thought you were going to go for it. Oh well.

 

[natedog]

No.

 

[Father Knows Best]

I honestly struggled with this decision. I ordered the Garand in the first place. Some part of me wanted it, obviously. I pulled it out of the safe and looked it over again yesterday. It really is beautiful. It's actually a later rifle than I remember. The serial number is in the high 5.8 million range, which is the very last block of serial numbers assigned to SA. The books I have say that these late Garands are "some of the most finely crafted." It looks it.

I still don't like safe queens, but I'll hang onto it for now. Perhaps I'll find something else to trade it for, later. In the meantime, I may clean it up and shoot it a little -- very carefully and with high quality ammo. If I ever get my gun room built, I'll also have a place to display it rather than have it hiding away in the dark recesses of my safe.

I'll go back to building up my PTR-91 heavy barrel as a medium/long range rifle for the time being. They're supposed to be pretty accurate as far as battle rifles go, though I know it won't ever be a winner at high power matches (I don't plan on competing, anyway). I've got the rifle and scope mount, already, so all it needs is a trigger job and optics I'll have something I can take to the club's high power (600 yard) range.

 

[Steve Smith]

FKB, once you start hanging with that Highpower crowd, I bet you'll eventually meet someone that has a REAL match built M1A/M14 that could use a few bucks to fund a new gun for themselves (all gun people are the same, I swear...we are always thinking about the next gun). You should be able to buy a true custom built M1A.M14 with a thousand rounds or so through it for around $1600-1700. Even if that is the *same* cost as a "brand new" SA NM gun, I assure you it will be twice or three times the gun and it was probably originally built for close to $3k. The bottom dropped out of match M1As in the late 90's becuase of the AR and now a slightly used top quality "giant killer" M1A is worth about as much as a Springfield NM. Sad but true. This also means that the SA "Supermatch" is not worth even looking at.

 

[Father Knows Best]

Good tip. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.

 

[captain obvious]

Is your dad going to be keeping the M1? If so, and the rifle stays in the family, then trading might not be a bad idea - he's your father, after all. If there's the chance you might not see it again, then you'd better think real hard.

 

[El Rojo]

In the meantime, I may clean it up and shoot it a little.

Ok, I know I was all about the M1A, but don't shoot that Garand. You already have a shooter Garand. Just leave the expensive one alone. Seriously, if you are going to keep it, treat it like it is an investment. The less you shoot it the better.