M1 Garand / M1A / M-14 Thread

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Shadowrider

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My one and only...

1955 SA CMP service grade with '55 dated SA barrel and a few HRA pieces including the stock.

i181.photobucket.com_albums_x97_mach_won_GIStock021edited.jpg


i181.photobucket.com_albums_x97_mach_won_GIStock046edited2.jpg
Coolhand these pics are just too cool. The rifle and and all the gear make it seem to have been done somewhere in Paris. Well done!
 

coolhandluke

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That's some lovely tiger striping on the stock - when did you get this M1? Looks like a 5.6M rifle? Is the barrel original to the rifle, do you think?

I picked up the rifle in late July from Harry at the Canadian Valley (Banner Rd) range. It is a 5.88 serial number which I believe makes it a mid to late 1955 production. The barrel is 5/55 dated. It's tough to find any detailed info on the late post war serial numbers and some of it is conflicting so I'm not sure if the barrel is original. The MW gauges at a 1 and the TE was around 1.5 if I remember correctly. The bolt and op rod are HRA from the same time period, and there are a couple small internal parts that are not correct as well.

I picked up the HRA GI stock set from Harry as well along with an SA stock set that would be correct for my rifle. I liked the tiger striping better so I installed the HRA. The rifle came with a birch stock originally.
 

Garand

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What other "tweaks" did you do to the rifle? Is that a walnut stock or a synthetic stock hiding under the paint? I'm guessing synthetic, from the looks of the pistol grip...

Yeah its just a cheap surplus M14 stock I got from Freds M14 Stocks. I have the original walnut stock as well, it sure cleans up well in the original wood!

All I've really done to it was add the gas block front sight and the QD mount for the Can, well and the repaint of course.
 

AKguy1985

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Yeah its just a cheap surplus M14 stock I got from Freds M14 Stocks. I have the original walnut stock as well, it sure cleans up well in the original wood!

All I've really done to it was add the gas block front sight and the QD mount for the Can, well and the repaint of course.

How long did it take to get your order from freds??
 

Perplexed

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I picked up the rifle in late July from Harry at the Canadian Valley (Banner Rd) range. It is a 5.88 serial number which I believe makes it a mid to late 1955 production. The barrel is 5/55 dated. It's tough to find any detailed info on the late post war serial numbers and some of it is conflicting so I'm not sure if the barrel is original. The MW gauges at a 1 and the TE was around 1.5 if I remember correctly. The bolt and op rod are HRA from the same time period, and there are a couple small internal parts that are not correct as well.

I picked up the HRA GI stock set from Harry as well along with an SA stock set that would be correct for my rifle. I liked the tiger striping better so I installed the HRA. The rifle came with a birch stock originally.

5.88M would indeed be about mid- to late 1955; it's too bad the post-war M1 manufacturers didn't keep the detailed records as the WW2 manufacturers did. The barrel could well be the original one, especially if the finish matches the receiver. As for the non-SA parts on your rifle, they probably found their way onto the rifle during an arsenal rebuild; once M1 production ceased, the arsenals gathered up whatever parts were available from any of the manufacturers to use in these rebuilds.

I'd love to acquire a 6.0M SA M1, but the prices on those rifles are ridiculous!
 
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mblaney

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It's tough to find any detailed info on the late post war serial numbers and some of it is conflicting so I'm not sure if the barrel is original

If you don't have it already, you might want to pick up a copy of Scott Duff's book on the post WW II M1 Garand.
http://www.amazon.com/M1-Garand-Pos...2002/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322757232&sr=8-2

According to Scott's book, your 5/55 barrel is probably correct for your 5.88 serial.

From the book:

"However, a review of the records that do exists gives a good idea of when the deliveries were made
and when production ceased. This information coupled with a comparison of a large quantity of rifle serial
numbers and barrel dates has proven helpful. The accompanying table should enable the collector to
determine, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, whether a specific rifle has its original barrel."

[Broken External Image]

My SA 432XXXX with 9/53 marked barrel

[Broken External Image]
 

Perplexed

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Duff's books are first-rate, no matter what the topic. It's interesting how many M1's from that list that mblaney posted went on to become National Match rifles - 12 out of 27 on the visible part of the list. That's a 44% incidence rate.

Nice rifle, mblaney. Did you pick it up from the CMP?
 

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