M1 Garand with Breda Receiver question.

Alfonso

Alfonso

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Okanagan
How good are the Breda receivers? As most M1 Garands have been re-furbished and parts replaced how does the Breda receiver stack compared to its US counterparts? Would this rifle (having everything else SA parts) been put together in Italy for their after war army and then returned back or imported back in the many waves of imports?

Thanks
 
The BREDA M1 I have, shoots better than I can hold it. It's a Danish contract rebuild, with a VAR barrel. All of the rest of the parts, including the stock, which is walnut, are an accumulation of every manufacturer out there.

Garands, in vg-exc condition, will usually shoot better than their owners can shoot them.
 
bredas and berettas are just as good as the U.S. imho only reason they dont get the money is cuz they're not made in the U.S.
 
Breda and Beretta won contracts in 1954 and 55 to build about 8000 Garands each for the Danish Army. They were in addition to an unknown number, but not more than 10,000 or 20,000 USGI rifles loaned to Denmark immediately postwar. The USGI rifles were returned to the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) organization about 15 yrs ago. The non US rifles ended in Canada by default. The rifles were in well inspected and well stored condition, but a complete mismatch of parts from US, Denmark and Italy.

In my opinion, the Italian parts suffer from US collector prejudice and ignorance. The Italians were using USGI machines and jigs, and were being produced by highly qualified long-service firearms' company employees. Not the urgent, war-rushed, half-skilled wartime workers at US plants. Springfield figured out how to make Garands, but Winchester's production was a scandal of rejects and missed deadlines. Springfield understood how to introduce improved drawing numbers, while Winchester barely got through one design evolution. But no American collector wants to hear how screwed up wartime Garand production really was. They instead relish the complexity of the incremental changes, marvelling at US capacity.
 
i beleave the tools/jigs machinery at breda was from the winchester factory ..i read that somewhere back in the day
 
So it begs the question, what would the approximate value be for a Breda receiver, SA bbl and many NOS parts Garand go for these days in Canada: $500 to $800, $800 to $1,100, or more?
 
The 1950's Italian receiver's, parts and barrels were made with a better grade of steel than the ww2 guns. In the 1980's, 1000's of US and Italian Danish M1 Garand's were imported into Canada and turned into parts kits for the US market. The receivers stayed in Canada. Additional thousands of complete guns were also sold in Canada.
 
Current going rate is about 12-1600 depending on nos content and quality of the barrel and build, breda and beretta built 20 000 FKF models for the danes 10 000 breda 10 000 Beretta, I have owned a few of them , keep in mind they are built to GI spec but with Italian firarms experence. Beretta has been building barrels and firearms for 500 years, yet somehow the US feels that if it is not USGI it is substandard! you be the judge!!

G


far
Alfonso said:
So it begs the question, what would the approximate value be for a Breda receiver, SA bbl and many NOS parts Garand go for these days in Canada: $500 to $800, $800 to $1,100, or more?
Click to expand...
 
If you REALLY want to see how accurate your Garand is, use a black 6-inch aiming SQUARE at 10 yards, Put the BACK SIGHT out 2 minutes (2 clicks) RIGHT and use the UPPER RIGHT CORNER of our Front Sight, placing it to just TOUCH the bottom-left corner of your aiming square. If your rifle is in good shape, you should obliterate the BLH corner of the square. Mine does it n half an inch with the right ammo.
 
The Breda rifles which we see are all Danish surplus. The Bredas were made to a high quality line and are as good or better than any of the US made rifles. One good thing about the Danish rifles is that the Danish military maintained excellent technical control of their small arms (also evident on the Danish surplus M1917 Enfields), so the rifles and parts tend to be in a servicable condition as opposed to a lot of the Garands which were surplussed by various foreign militaries. I've owned a lot of the ex-Danish rifles over the past 18 yrs or so years incl Springfields, Winchesters, Bredas and Berettas. Out of all of them I have only had two receivers which showed a miniscule amount of cosmetic pitting. Throat erosion has been good in all barrels with the highest reading encountered being .303+, as compared to a reject limit of .307. Muzzle erosion is variable with muzzles gauging from new to .303 at the high end. A barrel with a muzzle reading .303 can still be acceptably accurate provided that the crown is cleaned up. The Danish made VAR replacement barrels have an excellent reputation for accuracy.

Beyond that you may encounter a few of the most commonly worn or failed parts on the Danish rifles incl op rod springs, firing pins, op rods, rear sight covers, gas plugs, handguards, stocks and safeties. Surprisingly, bullet guides and gas cylinders, which are prone to wear, have all been in servicable condition. Some folks may avoid the Breda or Beretta Garands because they don't have the same wartime appeal as the US made rifles, but they are missing out on some very well made rifles. If you are looking for a rifle to rebuild/re-barrel a Breda receiver is a great place to start.
 
I am nearing the end of a long build/assembly of a Breda Garand and it's being re parked at Vulcan now. I was fortunate enough to purchase one of the few remaining receivers from Lever Arms that wasn't horribly welded for a rear sight bracket. I think I paid $45 bucks for it. They are probably worth 5x that now. The quality of the steel is excellent, not a trace of pitting or surface rust. The build was a lot of fun. Other than war time providence, the only reason they don't quite command the USGI dollars in Canada is that we happen to have a hell of a lot of them in proportion to our gun collecting population. The Americans, while typically ignorant of anything that was't made in the good old US of A are (surprisingly) starting to really pay a premium for Italian Garands:

http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=79017

I tried to win a BMB marked op rod on eBay with an piston head that didn't even meet tolerance and baled out of the auction at $150. So there is an active collecting community down there. Italian ex pats maybe?? Finally, you can build/assemble a Breda, have it reparked and accurized and effectively have a brand new rifle that you can use and enjoy without worrying about whether or not you are hurting the collector value of something that was used in WWII or Korea. I think that has a lot of appeal for some people.
 
All of the Breda's and Beretta's that are in America mostly came from Canadian parts kits and stripped receivers.They came here before the CMP started buying rifles. The BM59 program in italy started off converting US M1 Garand rifles first then they built them. I have BM 59 barrels and op rods that are cut down SA and Winch parts.
 
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