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Winchester M1 Garand - specs? prices?
nekbyte
Member Posts: 6 ✭✭
I ended up with 10 Winchester rifles when my dad passed away last year. I'm thinking of selling a few of them. One is a M1 Garand that was produced in the latter part of 1942 going by the serial. I don't know any more than that about it. To me, it's looks to be in pretty good condition, but that's an opinion of someone who knows little about guns. I find lots of information about Springfields on the internet...Is that because they are more popular? Is there someone who I could get to value this thing who is not biased? I took it to a local gun shop...he told me it was worn out, but he could take it off my hands for $500. I had a heckuva time getting back out the door with it. Thanks for any help with this. Donnie
Comments
If the muzzle wear and throat wear dicatate 'rack grade' and it is a mix of parts, with a beat up stock, then $500 was a fair price for him to offer you, as he'd probably sell it for $600 or so. Tops. At least, realistically.
If a really tight, 'service grade' weapon with all winchester parts, it could easily bring over $1000.
If you know how to disassemble it, do so and look for manufacturer and serial markings on the receiver, barrel, trigger group, gas plug, op rod, etc. etc. and report what you find. Also some pics showing overall shape. Suffice to say, 99% chance it is worth between $600 and $1200.
Behind rear sight:
U.S. Rifle
Winchester
Cal. 30 M1
121xxxx
On trigger guard: C46025 W.R.A.
The 'cover' over the bolt: D28287-I W.R.A.
On barrel: SA 6535448 3 65 Y77
then there's a bigger 'P' stamped on it and a 'M' and also
a little star in a box
On the stock there is a P in a circle.
All the wood seems to match and is a uniform color medium to dark brown. Various nicks and scratch that look old.
All the metal parts are pretty much the same color (dark gray?) and don't show much wear. Everything is pretty tight in my opinion.
The butt plate shows wear around the edges, but the little door opens and closes well. The knobs on the rear sight seem to work well. No markings on the front sight that I can see. Looking down the barrel, it's nice and shiny. On the tube under the barrel, there is a stamping of NHC.
How do I put up pictures on here?
Thanks,
Donnie
Still, it sounds like a nice "service grade". The Winchester receiver probably adds $200. I would expect it to sell in the $800-1,000 range. Had you taken the $500, it would have been on the rack for $1,200 the next day.
The bore is relatively important. If you have a single round of USGI M2 ball ammo, you can use it to measure muzzle wear. Just still it point first in the muzzle & measure how much copper jacket shows: 5/16"=new, 1/4"=slight wear, 1/8"=moderate wear, 0"=suitable for 100yds only.
Photo posting procedure:
This may sound complicated, but after doing it a few times it will seem easy.
1) Establish an account on a photo hosting website; I use www.photobucket.com. This site is free. They accept donations, but do not hassle you if you don't donate. There are a couple of other free photo hosting websites.
2) Put your photos on your computer's hard drive (generally :C). You will probably want to make a file folder that you use just for photos. The photos should be in .jpeg format.
3) You then want to move the photo you want to post to your Photobucket space. Go to Photobucket & login under your account. After pressing the Browse button, find the photo on your computer & Move it to your Photobucket album.
4) Go to the Gunbroker forum & write your response. Click on the icon that looks like a postcard with mountains. This will create characters that look like [img][/img]. You are going to have to paste the address of your photo between the 2 sets of brackets. Go to your Photobucket album & double click on the photo you want to post in order to enlarge it. Right click on the photo to bring up a box with Properties at the bottom. Left click on Properties. This will bring up a box containing the address of your photo. Highlight the entire address with your cursor. Right click on the highlighted address & left click Copy.
5) Go back to your Gunbroker response & left click between the 2 sets of brackets. Right click your mouse to open a box, & left click on Paste.
6) Press the Preview button to be sure that you did everything correctly. If you did, your photo will appear in your response. If not, go back & try again.
Neal
serial 1075196 stamped on receiver and on left side of stock.
Other stamps are W.R.A. and G.H.D. on stock as well as a little symbol with crossed cannons. On end of barrel is a little bomb and initials W.R.A. and what I 'think' is a date (maybe part# ??) 12-42.
I'll try for the photos later.
To back up what nmyers said about the "arsenal re-build": The barrel marking SA 6535448 3 65 Y77 indicates that the piece was rebarreled with a Gov't Springfield Arsenal barrel made in March of 1965. This rebuild was done very late in the service life of the M-1 and overlaps the issuance of the M-14. The value he gave, also fits well with what we see here in Eastern PA for a "shooter grade". If the stock has no cartouches on the left cheek below the receiver it is also a replacement or the originals were sanded off after rebuild. Sometimes you can see faint imprints if you hold it so that a light source is just glancing across the surface of the wood towards your eye. Original cartouches would be a square block about 1 3/4" on a side with two lines of letter, the top being WRA and the bottom some combination of letters indicating the chief Ordnance Dept. Inspector at the plant during the construction time (probably EMcF). The other cartouche would be a round circle over crossed cannons - the acceptance mark of the U.S. Ornance Depts. The Circled P on the front face of the grip, indicates successful proof firing of the piece after assembly or rebuild. If the bore is good (not much wear, usually less than 2 to 3 thousandths inch, which most late rebuilds show, unless they were used for Marine Corps advanced infantry training), it will be an excellent shooter at the range.