M 1 Grande

buckhunter1948

I have an M 1 Grande-Tanker in .308 made by Springfield. How would I go about finding out the history of this weapon? s/n 620281

Tailgunner1954

What history? The history of when your M1 Garand (note spelling) receiver was made, or the history of what Bubba did to it after it was first sold on the civilian market?

32 Magnum

The Springfield, Inc. Geneseo, Il. comercially made M1 "Tankers" are put togethers - meant to be sold in the comercial market. They were never used by the US military. Records indicate that as few a three prototypes were produced during the later years of WW2 - but the design proved to be unreliable and not combat worthy, so the project was dropped. Springfield Armory, Inc. produced a few of these "Tankers" but in general they were not reliable (as the US military had already discovered) and difficult to maintain. Current value of examples of these commercial pieces is between 500 and 700 bucks - if you could find an original "Tanker" prototype/pattern room piece - it would be worth just around 100 grand.

Laredo Lefty

I have one of the "Tanker" Garands in .308. Its a nice shooter, but thats all. They were modified from original Garand rifles and have little to no value to collectors.

As mentioned, tankers have no real history other than being after market modifications.

oreegun

Nothing like a real Garand but I have had a "Tanker" and really liked it. I understand that it wasn't ever produced for issue by the US but regardless of the caliber (mine was 30.06)it was truely a pretty gun, no op-rod issues, fired accuratley and was a real blast. 18" barrel with no flash suppressor produced a big bang, big muzzle blast and recoil but it was still fun to shoot. Never had a problem, the receiver was a SA in the 1M range. The only reason I got rid of it was to make room in the armory for a couple of ARs that I needed to beat Obama to the quick. I sold it for $750 and the new owner is very happy......

beachmaster73

I have heard that the the two happiest days of your life are the day you buy a "tanker" Garand........and the day you sell it![:D]
Beach

tsr1965

You might want to check this, but any Garand issued and/or used by our armed forces was not in 308. All the M1 Garand's used in the service were 30-06. The 308 used in our armed forces as a battle rifle was the M1A/M14 rifle...actually they were M14's the M1A is the civilan model. Therefor, I do believe your rifle has no battle history, unless it is a bubba butchered rebuild, and some of the parts were in other rifles that were in combat.

Best

nmyers

Some M1's were converted by the US military to 7.62mm NATO by use of a chamber insert. That didn't work too well, so the US Navy contracted with Harrington & Richardson & AMF to convert thousands of M1's to 7.62mm by replacing the barrels. This conversion is relatively easy & lnexpensive to do commercially.

One problem with "tanker" conversions is that many of the earlier rifles were built on demilled receivers that had 2 receiver halves welded together. Some of these will not function properly because the halves are not properly aligned. All are considered to be unsafe. Any owner of a tanker of unknown origin should field strip it & carefully examine the receiver for signs of welding, & scrap the receiver if it is found to be welded.

Neal

beachmaster73

Like Neal said the original Navy 7.62mm NATO conversions with inserts didn't work out too well; but the Naval Weapons Station Crane Indiana Navy Service Match rifles in 7.62mm NATO were pretty much the epitome of M1 match accuracy of all time. The Navy made two varients of these superb match rifles "A" grade and "B" grade. Those match rifles all had pretty much late 65 and early 66 SA barrels in 7.62mm NATO. I kind of doubt that any of the Navy rifles were ever bubbized into tanker shooters. They are just too expensive and rare a varient of US military M1's. Beach