What is this Rifle worth? Springfield Armory Cal 30 M1 *Pics

[SIG229R]

I have a friend that wants to sell a rifle that he owns, I know nothing about these Springfield Armory M1 Rifles, it looks like it has seen Combat and is in around 80% condition, it functions flawlessly and shoots very well, The Bore looks good and so does the Crown, this rifle was purchased around 14 years ago from CMP and it was 1 grade above Rack? The serial number is 2147463 on the back of the top receiver has these markings,
U.S. RIFLE
CAL 30 M1
SPRINGFIELD
ARMORY
2147463

It comes with a nice leather sling, 1-5 round M-Block clip, and 5-8 round M-Block clips. He has shot around 250 rounds out of this thing in the 14 years that he has owned it, not one malfunction at all.

What is this thing worth? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here are some actual Pics.

http://i51.tinypic.com/16nx4g.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/fxxatu.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/15p1qb7.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/2wgi0bl.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/2vvp8oo.jpg

[ro2]

that is a M1 garand 30-06 caliber. I have one from the cmp and they are great shooters, mine is a recent purchase so it is a compilation of parts from different manufacturers. Seeing how that one was purchased about 14 years ago the is a good chance it is original and was from WWII, most of what is left at the cmp now is stuff from korean war and weapons that were lent to other countries after the war and then returned to the us. check the bore with a gauge. they go for about $499 starting at cmp now

[1-504 PIR]

I would put the value between $600 to $700 for the Springfield M1 Garand. The receiver was made Oct, 1943. Check the barrel by the op rod and see what date is stamped on it. Also, are there any letter stamps on the stock? There might be arsenal refinish stamps.

[pgaplayerless]

that is a M1 garand 30-06 caliber. I have one from the cmp and they are great shooters, mine is a recent purchase so it is a compilation of parts from different manufacturers. Seeing how that one was purchased about 14 years ago the is a good chance it is original and was from WWII, most of what is left at the cmp now is stuff from korean war and weapons that were lent to other countries after the war and then returned to the us. check the bore with a gauge. they go for about $499 starting at cmp now

All Garands are from WWII and the chance of a Garand from CMP being original in last 20+ years is little to null.

Even the Garands what stayed in US service after war have been rearsenaled once or twice due to the wear and tear.

[ro2]

they may have been manufactured then but may have not neccesarily seen service then(WWII)

[ro2]

[QUOTE=pgaplayerless]All Garands are from WWII and the chance of a Garand from CMP being original in last 20+ years is little to null. ]


Much of the M1 inventory in the post-World War II period underwent arsenal repair or rebuilding. While U.S. forces were still engaged in the Korean War, the Department of Defense determined a need for additional production of the Garand, and two new contracts were awarded. During 1953-56, M1s were produced by International Harvester and Harrington & Richardson.[22] A final, very small lot of M1s was produced by Springfield Armory in early 1957, using finished components already on hand. Beretta also produced Garands using Winchester tooling.

The M1 proved an excellent rifle throughout its service in World War II and the Korean War. Surplus M1 rifles also armed many nations allied to the USA postwar, including West Germany, Italy and Japan. Some Garands were still being used in the Vietnam War in 1963; despite the M14's official adoption in 1957, it was not until 1965 the changeover from the M1 Garand was completed in the active-duty component of the Army (with the exception of the sniper variants, which were introduced in World War II and saw action in Korea and Vietnam). In other components of the armed forces, such as the Army Reserve, Army National Guard and the Navy, Garands continued to serve into the 1970s or longer.

[ltdave]

All Garands are from WWII and the chance of a Garand from CMP being original in last 20+ years is little to null.

they may have been manufactured then but may have not neccesarily seen service then(WWII)

yes and no...

Harrington Richardson Arms, International Harvester Corporation and SOME Springfield Armory (the US arsenal NOT the commercial concern in Ill) built M1 garands as late as 1957. match rifles were built into the mid-60s...

Springfield Armory began building Rifle caliber .30 M1 in 1937 when it was first accepted by the Army. the USMC didnt accept it as general issue until after WWII started. Winchester Repeating Arms was given a contract to produce 500 rifles under an educational contract. they later built somewhere around 510,000 rifles. between SA and WRA they built a few over 4 million rifles. i dont have the numbers in front of me to be certain...

until the Korean War started SA rebuilt about 1/2 million rifles. after June '50, they went back into production, turning out another 1/2 million + rifles until production ended in May 57. the M14 was adopted as USGI standard sometime in 57 (again i dont have the exact date in front of me)...

in 1951 International Harvester (yes the tractor company) started providing rifles for issue. they build somewhere in the neighborhood of 330,000. IHC in indiana was chosen because the world had gone nuclear and it was thought that they could avoid total loss of production if they moved some building out of the 'cradle of firearms manufacture' that was new england. IHC used SA and HRA manufactured receivers when they first started and used barrels made by Line Material Company (LMR) throughout production...

HRA got a contract in 1952 and started delivery a year later. their last rifle was built in early 1956 with a total of 428,000 +/-...

all told, 5.4 million garands were built. WRA, IHC, HRA and SA indicates who manufactured what part. the other numbers on the parts are 'drawing numbers' for the part. they are NOT serial numbers. depending on whether it starts with a 65 or not will indicate a certain period of manufacture. a dash followed by a number indicates a revision. i.e. bolts started with "D28287-19SA" the 19SA indicates a revision number and who made the bolt in this case Springfield Armory. there will be another alpha-numeric code and that is a heat treat code...

a barrel marking may look something like this S-A-4-50, indicating a barrel made by Springfield Armory in april 1950. it may also be in this format: 4-45-SA showing april 1945...

because almost EVERY garand in the world went through A) squad or platoon level cleaning at one time or another, the bolts might have 'incorrectly dated' drawing numbers/manufacturer codes and B) an arsenal rebuild, the barrels may have dates that do NOT match the approximate date of manufacture based on serial number. i.e. an SA from 1942 may have an LMR dated in 53. or it may have an HRA from 55 or it may have an SA from 46. all indicating that the barrel was MOST LIKELY replaced during a rebuild...

if you pull the receiver out of the stock and look at the numbers on the side (below the wood) that would show the drawing number and heat treat code. there were a series of garands that had been demilled after the various wars and sold for scrap. some persons got permission to rebuild rifles by welding two torch cut receiver halves together. if a rifle doesnt have CMP or other provenance the receiver integrity can be checked by comparing heat treat codes with date of manufacture (based on serial number)...

also on the receiver leg there may be an electropenciled code and date. i.e. LEAD 4-64. this is Letterkenny Army Depot in april 1964...

get a piece of paper, write down all the numbers on all the parts (trigger housing, hammer, safety, op-rod, barrel, bolt) and then maybe post up a picture of the rear sight. it may have a 'bar' type lock on it or it may look like the same type on an M14/M1A. if it has the bar, take many pics from different angles because there were THREE revisions of lock-bars. get a picture of the front sight ears if they look extraordinarily flared. it is possible it has an IHC front sight on it. also look for any stampings in the stock. that could help indicate whether it is an original stock, or a rebuild replacement...

a lot of information but i just BARELY scratched the surface...

this took me so long to type that i got superseded by ro2. lol...

Beretta and Breda (both Italian, one commercial one governmental) bought all of Winchesters tooling and machines after WWII (WRA didnt get compensation for the tools, only the completed, accepted rifles). Beretta and Breda built garands for anyone with the money to pay for them. they built about 20,000 garands for Denmark who adopted them as the Gevær M50 or the Rifle, model 1950 which is when they adopted the m1 for their Militær. the Danes also had access to several tens of thousand USGI garands that we gave them after WWII. these SA (and WRA?) were the 'danish returns' of 10 years ago. a lot of them got stripped because of the clintoon importation ban on 'foreign' arms. the receivers went to the same place as 1/2 a pair of socks, the parts came into the states and were assembled onto the CAI junk receivers. CMP got some of these rifles back from Denmark, same as they did with Greece. Danish returns may have USGI or Italian parts and possibly VAR (Våbenarsenalet or Arms Arsenal) barrels. they sometimes have a 4 digit number stamped on the bolt so it will go back into the correct rifle and there may be an anchor stamping on the rear sight cover...

[Wolfe Toilet Co]

$600-$700 is what i would pay. Anymore these days is a premium unless its got some rare parts.

Folks that shoot these are really interested in TE (throat erosion) and MW (muzzle wear). These are measured by a guage you slide into the barrel and start at 0 and get bigger from there. The higher the number the worse the barrel. My Feb/42 Winchester was rebarreled in 52 and it guages almost new. I paid $700 for it as it had some rare parts and a tight barrel.

Alot of folks buy rebuilds based on the value of the combined parts, which can be various manufacturers by the time they rebuild them 2/3 times.

For example my M1 has:

Winchester receiver, trigger guard, opperating rod, and mag floor plate with springfield barrel, trigger group, gas tube and stock.

You may want to break it down into its main sub groups to see what you have.