I've always wanted a Garand. I found one today at a pawn shop, Springfield, serial in the mid 3.5 million range, no import marks. Stock is almost too nice, and feels very clunky, so I'm guessing it's a replacement. I know enough about Garands to know that I don't know enough. They have $699 on it, and I am sure it could be mine for much less. What are decent shooters going for in your world?

I see CMP service grades are $650 to your door.

Andrew, When I first went into Marine reserve in HS, my issued Garand was
S/N 1935097 made SA Sept 1943.
I took a discharge from the reserve and went into regulars 1 Jul '53 my issued Garand just came back from Korea, was blood covered and rough. S/N 2073252, this gun was also made at SA in Oct. 1943. Well traveled. Both would have been called rough shooter grade.
However I qualified high expert with both. Once at Cherry Point, NC and the other MCRD San Diego. First 247x250 then 249x250.

Basically if in functions and fires it will probably shoot better than you can FWIW dept.

The gun you mention made SA about Feburary 1945...
There is no other reason to own a garand. History.....

The condition of CMP guns are usually far above comparably priced guns already in the civilian market. Many CMP guns left the CMP at $450-500 and miraculously increased in value to $1000+. This continues to be true with prices proportionally increasing. Later, issue, replacement and original stocks were "meatier". Shuff's can remedy anything that's wrong with that gun.

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Sincerely,

Hobie

It is in a part of town that, shall we say, doesn't cater to many Garand enthusiasts. Lorcins and Hi-points do much better in sales. The shop manager says he has had it for quite a while. I figger that at $500-550 I will be doing OK.

Offer 450 cash OUT THE DOOR!

You can always go up but balk at 500

If the bore is good, and the receiver is not some re-weld junk, then there is not much else a gun guy can't fix himself. Go for it.

JLF

If the stock looks newish and has no cartouche it is probably a Boyd's stock. They are rather large compared to a WWII era stock. If it has a P stamped on the front or bottom of the pistol grip it is probably a post Korean War replacement. Is the wood walnut or something like birch or beech?

Most Garands shoot great. The sights are probably the most useable combat iron sights I have ever used. I take a Garand to the Whittington Center every year, and shooting steel with one is a blast once you know your sight settings you can hit stuff with boring regularity. Last year we were at the steel silhouette range and resting my front hand on the bench I went 7 for 8 on the various steel starting with the 500 meter rams based on my sight settings from the previous year with a different rifle. Hitting the life sized buffalo at 1123 yards is even easy once you get a dope on the wind.

You want to check the muzzle wear and the throat erosion. In that order of importance. The only one I have that doesn't shoot that well is a rack grade that swallows a muzzle guage. You can do a quick test with a standard round of M2 ball by seeing how far the bullet will go down the muzzle. If it goes all the way to the brass case the muzzle is pretty worn.

Parts are easy to replace and assuming everything checks out ok they are VERY reliable. Remember to use grease not oil, and to use powder in the 4895 burning rate range to keep from bending an op rod. If you load 150 gr bullets to 2600-2800 FPS with a faster powder like that it will run for many thousands of rounds.

The CMP is a first rate organization. I have purchased rifles from them for over 10 years and have always got something better than advertised. A couple of times I had a small part out of spec or in the case of my last rifle the operating spring broke. The have always replaced the part no questions asked.

The service grade is a great buy as was the Field grade rifles. I would skip the rack grade unless you are planning on doing some work to it down the road or not planning on shooting it past a couple of hundred yards. It is really worth jumping through the few hoops to get a rifle from them.

Unfortunately ammo isn't as cheap as it use to be. Let me know if you have any other questions I would be glad to help. You have me worked up wanting to order another rifle from them...

The receiver on this one is a solid black finish. I'm not sure where to look to spot a re-weld. Like I said, know enough to know I don't know enough. Barrel is black, but gas tube is grey.

I want to own one, but not a POS welded up time bomb. Patience and perseverance will win the day.

Jared you are spot on as far as those battle sights go, once zeroed at a range they are monotonously regular. Mark your settings and you are all set. That's why most rifle logs provide a place for sight settings. Tho ammo getting pricey, GI brass is still relatively plentiful at many ranges. Just remember its still a Garand not a LR precision instrument. M. O. Man not PD's

if you can get it around $500 then you can get your money back at any gun show plus some with not much problem. Last time north I saw nothing under 800 - pre-Sandy Hook.

I don't really like to shoot mine at paper. The groups are not really inspiring compared to a modern rifle, but on steel at various ranges it is hard to miss.

The butchers cut them at the easiest spot, right through the center of the ammo well, nothing but rails on both sides. The welders weren't exactly artists, nor were the finishers. I've never seen one I couldn't spot as a reweld. Grinder marks, gaps and pinholes in the weld. They aren't difficult to spot.

JLF

I'll agree, thats why I said M.O.Man

with good ammo they can do well at some stages of the highpower course. They will move you around a lot in the rapid fire stages, they aren't precise enough for prone slowfire, but they can do real well in the standing stage.

till your eyes are over 50 years old! Try and see that front sight on those 500 meter rams then!!! ;)

I had my original DCM Garand accurized by a retired Navy armorer. When he gave it back to me he included a 5 shot group fired at 100 yards that you could cover with a quarter... My second Garand I accurized and it will put 5 shots into a group at 100 yards that is just a hair over one inch...

Garands can be more than accurate enough for all stages of match shooting, including slow fire prone. Heck, for 50 years or so Garands dominated service rifle matches... They can be much more accurate than people give them credit for....

I just close my eyes when I shoot.

I've seen the accurized rifles and I've seen what they could do in the hands of the old-timers. But they require a lot of maintenance when used for a lot of match shooting.

It has a relatively long sight radius. Eyes that don't focus close as well can do better with the Garand than some other rifles. The worst would be a normal 16" AR.

I'm a bit nearsighted, the sight radius of the Garand is perfect for my eyes, with no correction.