garand experts help please?

[theduece]

OK first off, Thank you guys. I'm amazed at the wealth of knowledge on this site.

I'm contemplating the purchase of one that was offered to me recently, I know nothing about garands.

On this particular one I will list what I do know and hope the gurus of calguns can give me some information.

It's a Harrington & Richardson
s/n 5,683,2xx
has the .5" square eagle in the stock on left side
has the circled P on the bottom of grip
stock is birch

now stamped on the barrel
6,535,4xx
P
M
X
46025-1
9-55

has the buttplate 2 screwholes 2 holes inside both empty
In my uneducated opinion the rifle looks to be in good condition no obvious signs of wear and or abuse. I am not able to dismantle further due to the current owner. I am told that it was purchased in 1960. I do not know from who or where.

now how old is it? whats it worth? I Will post a pic up soon.

[Milsurp Collector]

now how old is it? whats it worth?

It was made in 1955.

Your description is of a CMP Service Grade if the barrel muzzle wear (MW) and throat erosion (TE) meet Service Grade standards. The CMP is currently sold out of Service Grades but I believe they were $595. http://thecmp.org/Sales/rifles.htm

[theduece]

can this be measured with calipers or? I do not have a guage to check.

[Milsurp Collector]

The gauges aren't essential unless you are shopping for a Garand and want to check the condition of the barrel.

http://www.scott-duff.com/ShooterAcc.htm#ShooterAccessories

https://estore.odcmp.com/store/catalog/catalog.aspx?pg=product&ID=818&item=&sfv=&cat=TLC&desc=&udc=&mct=&vndr=&ba=&pmin=&pmax=&note1=&note2=&note3=&note4=&note5=&max=

You can get an idea of the muzzle wear by putting the tip of a .30-06 round in the muzzle.



The more bullet showing the better. If it swallows the bullet the muzzle is worn.

[big103]

It sounds like it is legit. H&R used birch stock towards the end of production. Sounds like the right stamps on the stock. H&R was produced post WWII.

The barrel sounds right to the gun to. It sounds like it`s an LMR barrel. A lot of cmp grands have them and lot of people believe they were in intalled factory not as replacements. The 6535448 is a drawing number which is stamped on all LMR barrels. The 46025-1 is heat treat lot number. The p is a preffix for lmr.

Sounds like a legit gun, you want to see if the trigger housing is marked HRA and bolt, op rod, and hammer. Then you would jump to correct grade garand which I believe runs around $1100. Also if the finish is at least %89-%98. From what you describing I would go with service grade if you cant look at the rest of the parts. Best guess in value which is a shoot in the dark $700-$800 if it`s service grade condition.

Some Info from:M1 Garand book by Graig Riesch.

[Sailormilan2]

OK first off, Thank you guys. I'm amazed at the wealth of knowledge on this site.

I'm contemplating the purchase of one that was offered to me recently, I know nothing about garands.

On this particular one I will list what I do know and hope the gurus of calguns can give me some information.

It's a Harrington & Richardson
s/n 5,683,2xx
has the .5" square eagle in the stock on left side
has the circled P on the bottom of grip
stock is birch

now stamped on the barrel
6,535,4xx
P
M
X
46025-1
9-55

has the buttplate 2 screwholes 2 holes inside both empty
In my uneducated opinion the rifle looks to be in good condition no obvious signs of wear and or abuse. I am not able to dismantle further due to the current owner. I am told that it was purchased in 1960. I do not know from who or where.

now how old is it? whats it worth? I Will post a pic up soon.

Barrel "Drawing" number is 6535448, which is the number for all post war made barrels. Some barrels may show a "D" in front of the number "D6535448". Which is a carry over from the WW2 numbering system that used letters instead of numbers. The WW2 "D" became a postwar "65" number.

Your barrel should have the barrel maker's initials stamped in front of the drawing number. HRA used and made their own barrels, how ever late issue HRAs often had Springfield Armory(SA marked) made barrels. Randomly through out production HRA used LMR made barrels. Line Material Company barrels were made for International Harvester Garands, and are considered to be very good shooting barrels.
The Circled P should be without Serifs(sans serifs) for that serial number. A non or sans serifed "P" looks like the "P" I just typed. No extentions, bottom of the vertical line does not have a bar. A serifed "P" looks like the "P" I just did.
The 9-55 is the date the barrel was manufactured.
If the stock is an HRA stock, the "porch" (flat area behind the receiver) should be wider than a standard stock. The 1/2" DAS (Defense Acceptance Stamp) sounds proper.
Depending on how original it is, value could be from $600(CMP Service Grade price) up to $1000(CMP Correct grade price). My dad's HRA is close to yours in serial number, but has a walnut stock. It cost my dad $170 or so when he got it from the DCM(now called the CMP) in the 80s. It is very close to being a Correct grade.

[theduece]

ok I thnk I may have judged the overall condition too harshly.

The finish on the stock is very good looks a little dry, all the wood matches. It is walnut not birch. There are very few dings or nicks etc.. Didn't know it made a difference.

The barrel is stamped HRA, from what I could see it looks unmolested I dont have a barrel guage but do have access to ammo so i will check that way.

The trigger group was also marked hra.

There is little to no pitting or rust on any of exposed metal.

So What I'm trying to do is make sure the actual owner gets fair market value and without actually grading it or taking it to an appraiser it's seeming to me that good to very good condition shooter = $600-$800ish

[theduece]

It is not a museum peice by any means. It just seems to be in very good condition. Anything else I should check?

also it has a few rounds of ammo with it. I do not know when it was last shot what should be inspected prior to shooting.

[Sailormilan2]

ok I thnk I may have judged the overall condition too harshly.

The finish on the stock is very good looks a little dry, all the wood matches. It is walnut not birch. There are very few dings or nicks etc.. Didn't know it made a difference.

The barrel is stamped HRA, from what I could see it looks unmolested I dont have a barrel guage but do have access to ammo so i will check that way.

The trigger group was also marked hra.

There is little to no pitting or rust on any of exposed metal.

So What I'm trying to do is make sure the actual owner gets fair market value and without actually grading it or taking it to an appraiser it's seeming to me that good to very good condition shooter = $600-$800ish

If the stock is dry, a few coats of Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO) or Tung oil(pure Tung ,not Tung finish which has varnishes to make it shiney) will make the stock shine. After 3 - 6 coats of BLO the stock willl start to shine. BLO will darken a bit with age, so the stock will get a nice reddish brown color on its own.
From your description, I would say a price range of $750 - $800 would be fair. Better price than a Service Grade, and not quite as expensive as a Correct grade, as you don't know how many truely correct parts there are inside. Pretty much all the parts should be HRA marked parts.
Compairing yours to my dad's gun, my dad's is a 5.65 million. It is overall grey green finish, with the sight knobs(HRA) and the sight cover black. As well as a two internals being black also(opr od catch and floower). Unfortunately, the entire trigger unit is a WW2 unit. It looks like it was repaired/replaced/rebuilt just by adding a "new" triggerhousing.

[big103]

Make them an offer offer of between $600-$700 and go from there. Make sure that the ammo that come with is is not commercial. If it is don't shoot it in the garand you want to get a hold of specific loads for it or military surplus M2 ball ammo. If you join the cmp you can get surplus for good price for it.

[theduece]

It was offered to me at a bit less than what seems to be the standard. I was not aware of what they should go for so I came looking.

Now I get to decide as to what I'm going to do, tell them it may be worth more than what they think or hand over the cash grab it and run.

The ammo is mil stamped it only has about 100 rounds. It also comes with 12 clips, a sling, 2 manuals, and a soft case. As soon as I can figure out how to measure the throat and muzzle wear.

[003]

http://www.odcmp.com/Sales/rifles.htm

If you haven't already, be sure and look through the CMP web site. A wealth of information, and you may decide to get your M-1 from CMP. The one thing you can be sure of with a CMP rifle is that it will be what they tell you it is, and you will not have to worry about it not being safe, or a parts gun that was put together in someones garage.

Getting a CMP rifle is a very easy process. A few simple forms and a bit of time with a range master unless you are listed as exempt. Nothing difficult, the CMP will deliver it to your door. No DROS or 10 day wait.

I recently purchased a "correct" grade rifle, and it is in near new condition.