I've seen them on Gunbroker from $1,000 - $10,000

What are specific things to look for to establish value? I have a couple of these I'm looking at plus an M-1 Carbine. I've heard matching numbers, Manufacturer, etc

Any "experts" on here? Thought I would check here before hitting the google machine

Garands, four different manufacturers: Springfield (not armory), International Harvester, H&R and Winchester all 30-06. GI’s would strip rifles for cleaning and throw parts from different rifles into cleaning solution and reassemble rifles with no concern towards parts. Therefore trigger groups, op rods, gas cylinders, bolts would be all mixed up and all these parts were coded by their manufacturer. A very large percentage would have gone thru rebuild facilities where barrels would be changed, stocks sanded removing original inspectors cartouche stamps, etc. After WW2 many were given to other countries such as Denmark, Greece, etc. The CMP brought a lot of these Garands back to the US for sale here. Theses rifles were not import marked but could contain parts mfg in those countries. A safe bet would be to check the Civilian Marksmanship program for criteria to purchase from them. Their rifles would be considered as shooters and offered in different grades depending on condition. If you are looking for a collector there is a lot to study up on.

The CMP is absolutely the best way to get a Garand for the collection without paying the extra $500 or more that private sellers ask. The only downside is that it takes a while. My order took 3 months to even get an email confirming its receipt.

I’m not an expert, but I have studied and collected M1 Garand rifles and M1 Carbines for about 8 years. I have 15 +/- books on them. I have 13-14 Garands sand I’m not sure how manyCarbines. When I get one I study it: every part, etc. I believe I know more about these than most people, but I am still far from an expert on them.

1. Everything Rifle.30Cal and HicksHunter stated is spot on.

2. There is no such thing as “numbers matching” with respect to the Garand and M1Carbine. Parts were not serialized to a specific rifle. If you picked one off of the end of the assembly line there is not one part that would share the serial number, or even last 4 digits of the serial number, as the receiver. Anyone selling a “numbers matching” Garand or Carbine at best doesn’t know what he is talking about and is merely repeating what the guy he bought it from told him. At worst he is a charlatan.

3. You can buy a “correct” Carbine or Garand. This means it has parts consistent with the month and year of manufacture. Doesn’t make it a better shooter, but some collectors enjoy the challenge of putting together a “correct” Carbine or Garand. A “correct” rifle or carbine almost always has been “corrected” at expense a time of the collector who did it in the enjoyment of his hobby. A “correct” rifle or carbine may sell to people who know what they are looking at, for a premium, but if you don’t have the expertise to verify each part is”correct”, then you are paying for a sales pitch.

4. If someone claims to have an “all original” carbine or Garand and
a) if he doesn’t have proof (almost to the point of a John Garand signed document!), then he is lying;
b) if he isn’t charging $10,000 +/-, then he is lying.

5. Best $750 M1 Garand You Can Buy - Go to the CMP website. Order a Service Grade. $750. You have to do some paperwork, join a firearms related lab (Garand Collectors Association is $25), send in paperwork and your check / CC, wait 3-4 months, and dance a jig when the brown UPS truck delivers your rifle to you.

6. M1 Carbines cost more currently, and are not available at the CMP any more. Advice: Buy only USGI manufacture (not commercial clones such as Santa Fe Arsenal, Universal, Golden State, etc). The exception is “Plainfield” which is almost always good to go since they used all USGI parts, .... until they had to start using commercial parts. For a decent “shooter grade” USGI carbine, you are looking at $1,200 and up. And it seems you have to really look to find the $1,200 ones any more. It is a heck of a fun gun to shoot though. You can probably pick up a non-USGI carbine for $400-$600, .... but I wouldn’t.

JGW

JGW pretty much nailed it. I'll add if you really want a correct collector M1 Garand from time to time they'll come up on CMP's auction site. Expect to pay a premium price! If you want a "Like New" M1 Garand you can buy a CMP special, it'll have, new barrel, new stock and possibly some new parts, the rest of the parts will be refinished GI parts. They look really nice but the stock is not finished. You can choose to finish with Linseed oil or tung oil. Both are easy to apply and have beautiful finishes. They also have CMP Special "rack Grade" M1 Garand that'll have new stocks and barrels with a pitted refinished receiver and the rest of the parts will have the original finish. They'll be good shooters.

If you want to get into Garands, you owe it to your self to get a few books by Scott Duff and learn up on them. Prices depend upon manufacturer, condition, how correct it is, etc. The most money goes to guns with their original barrels especially so for WW2 Garands. I've owned a few, quite a few over the years. Many were "correct" but as JGW noted only a couple were what I considered to be all original. Winchester Garands are the more desirable from the WW2 period (not counting Gas Trap guns which are all but unobtainium). Post war guns the creme of the crop are the International Harvesters of which there are a number of variants. I always strove to get guns with the original barrels but there is absolutely nothing wrong with a WW2 gun that has gone thru a Korean War era rebuild. There is/was a pretty nice one on the gun board now.

Earl

you guys are great. thanks very much for your knowledge. i'm going to look at one tomorrow and will get pictures and all the info i can. i may buy it if yall think its a good one. all i know is it was shot in "Garand" matches maybe 10 years ago. it was worked on by a guy who has now passed

I paid 1200.00 for mine. It’s a CMP rebuild I believe as it came in one of their hard cases and the stock looks new.

I sighted it in at 200 and later that week in the pasture shot my steel coyote target at 410 yards with it all 3 shots hitting in a 4 inch group right on the coyotes neck / shoulder.
It was worth all I paid for it just for those 3 shots in front of my friends.

Thanks to all posters in this thread. Very educational!

Stepson's Winchester M-1 Garand did very well with a hand load. Battle sights and somehow I managed a 1" group at 100 yards.

I feel like I need an International Harvester Garand.

Nice, I'll post pictures this afternoon

Just beware some Garands have been welded. Dad had two, one he fixed up with side mount scope and hunted with. These can come apart when fired. Dad was very fortunate. Gunsmith I used at the time knew of this and help me destroy both. The welds are in action area and if you know how to pull the action out quickly you can see the welds.

Are the welds just poor quality? What are they there for?

where is the best place to sell one? Forums?

A lot of M1s have been “demilled” .... the receivers literally cut in half. Same with 1903s, etc. people / companies have purchased piles of these as scrap metal in government auctions and welded the halves back together. If done carefully and skillfully, you can end up with a safe firearm. But the market value is considerably less than a non-reweld. The only reason I would buy a reweld would be if it is super cheap ($150?) and then to disassemble to use the parts or sell them, and then use the reweld receiver as a paper weight. That doesn’t mean someone’s reweld rifle is “bad”or dangerous, it’s just that a reweld is a crap shoot.

JGW

CMP, here on THF, GB, Texasguntrader, let your gunsmith know you have one (people will often ask their gunsmith).

JGW

Amen to this. I just received one from them a few weeks ago - an H&R that was made between 1954-1956 and doesn't appear to have ever been used. Lots of storage and rack wear, but the muzzle and throat are perfect.

One other note about M1 Garands and carbines is that some manufacturers only made receivers, and the rest of the parts were mixed from other manufacturers. Other manufacturers might use all their own parts, or mix & match. I have a Quality Hardware M1 carbine, and they used Winchester barrels and National Postal Meter parts on many of their carbines. So a 'factory correct' rifle may have parts from several different companies.

"One other note about M1 Garands and carbines is that some manufacturers only made receivers, and the rest of the parts were mixed from other manufacturers. Other manufacturers might use all their own parts, or mix & match. I have a Quality Hardware M1 carbine, and they used Winchester barrels and National Postal Meter parts on many of their carbines. So a 'factory correct' rifle may have parts from several different companies."


Absolutely true. Additionally, the prime contractors (manufacturers of the receivers, i.e., Inland, Quality Hardware, Rockola, IBM, etc., etc.) did not usually manufacture all of their own parts (I don't recall if any of the prime contractors manufactured 100% of their parts in house, but if anyone did I would expect it to be Inland). Numerous subcontractors provided parts to the prime contractors. And prime contractors would "share" parts with other prime contractors as needed. Also, prime contractors would contract with other prime contractors for parts.

Carbine collecting, once you get past:

(1) one model from each of the 10 prime contractors;
(2) one model from each major "variant" (and there can be lots of debate over what that even means, but to me it is one "as original" with type one barrel band, one "as original" with type 2 barrel band, and one "as original" with type 3 barrel band);
(3) at least one high wood stock; and
(4) an M1A1 (paratrooper model);

is extremely complicated, detailed, etc. "Correcting" a Carbine I think is much more complex than "correcting" a Garand (though both can be done of course). Even just acquiring the above "short list" is a major (and expensive) accomplishment.

JGW

Thank you for the explanation.

got the rifle, its going to be expensive. in a hurry i;ll put in classifieds with pictures an history tonight or tomorrow

Oh lord.... if it has a history then watch out.

Depends on if he knew what he was buying

Buzz by all means list it here but I can attest that when I sold off my collection the classifieds here probably didn't account for many of my sales. You won't get top dollar here for a Garand. The best place to sell garands is the for sale forumn on the CMP's website.

Earl

I’m looking forward to hearing about it and seeing pics.

JGW

To get top dollar you are going to have to post detailed pics of drawing numbers so people can tell if the trigger housing, hammer, trigger guard, operating rod, bolt, barrel, etc. are correct for the gun. I can already tell you at best the stock has been sanded from your photos no circle P or Inspectors stamp will be evident. The barrel will be marked on the right side and visible in the op rod channel when you pull the bolt to the rear and lock the action open. People will also want to see the sides of the receiver to see if there are any arsenal rework indications there as any that were on the stock, are now gone. People will also want to see the op rod to see if it has been cut during a return to the arsenal or is uncut. I do warn you, if it's not correct your price is quite high but that's just one former collectors opinion. Having a lockbar rear site is nice, but it's no guarantee of originality or correctness. When the guns were returned either for field repairs or to an arsenal for repair, any hodge podge of parts and periods could be assembled onto a gun before returning to service. For a WW2 gun to be desirable, it has to have a barrel that dates within a month or so earlier of the serial number in general. Remember I mentioned getting Duff's books and learning about them? They are indispensable. People will also want to know what the chamber and bore gauge readings are..your barrel could be shot out if original (or even replaced for that matter). So those readings indicate how much life an old warrior still has - not to mention potential accuracy. If you don't have gauges, you can always try a bullet test. Take a M1 30-06 round and place the bullet end in the bore. If it goes all the way down and swallows it, that's not good.

Thank you Earl. I alway value your opinions. You are a wealth of knowledge on here. I have dove into the internet and am reading about just the things you are mentioning here. Learning a lot!!

My price is from what I see on gunbroker only.

Looking forward to learning more about these pieces of History.