Near Mint M1 Garand. Authentic?

[samnev]

The 9-50 barrel date and the boxed eagle cartouche leads me to believe it a post war rebuild. Nice looking Garand but I agree with the others that $1200 might be a stretch. With out provenance I would be hesitant to accept the story being offered.

[Adrian Stevenson]

I would forget the story and just enjoy the rifle.

Cheers, Ade.

[GIZMO8Z]

Hello All! Thank you so very much for the kind responses and for your honest opinions on the rifle.

We know that you should always buy a piece of militaria for what it is, not for the story behind it unless their is solid, proven provenance. With that being said, there is nothing to disprove the claim that it was brought home by a Korean War vet and sat in a closet for years until the vet's widow sold it. It is in new, almost unissued condition and it has no import marks... Maybe there is a slight possibility that at the end of the war he was able to purchase an unissued rifle to bring back with him? Who knows!?

What it comes down to is that my buddy had never seen a Garand in this good of condition available for purchase in our area. He is very happy and proud of it and he does plan on shooting it ASAP!

[MarkV]

Based on theheat lot number on the top of the bolt, I'd guess it is a replacement. The heat lot number is associated with rifles in the 3.5mil range and above. It's certainly a nice rebuild in great shape - without provenance, though, which he certaily would have been given had he bought the rifle to bring home from the war, I would not bank on thestory. I would guess that the greater likelihood is that he may have bought it in the early 60s from the pre-cursor to CMP, the DCM. It's just too niceto have been an issued rifle, IMHO.

[Walkwolf]

The 'Citizen Marksmanship Program' seems likely - I've heard these guns
were in 'catch-as-catch-can' lots - from 'minty' to horrible.........!

[MarkV]

CMP is still selling them. Most of what they have now are returns from Greece and they do range from Service Grade to Collector grade. But, in the 60s, the DCM had access to weapons that had been refurbished after WW2 and then never issued. Back then, you could buy M1carbines in storage bags.

[Walkwolf]

Must be what these are - inused/unissued refurbs. They sure are beautiful rifles.
Fell in love with mine the second I saw her on the dealers table - of course,
I had more money than brains back then.

I guess the only thing that has changed is, today I don't
have much money........!