This rifle was obtained by a friend several years back and I eventually ended up with it!
Here she is......a March 1942 Springfield M1 Garand.
The Bonus is that this rifle was a Lend Lease...
They were removed from US service and this is the good part....these are snap shots in time, because a rifle that stayed in US service would have been inspected and rebuilt a number of times over their service life.....a US Armourer would have a rifle in front of them and turn to page 3 of the service bulletin book and it would tell them to relief cut the op rod, or replace the rear sight with "this part/drawing number", the barrel gauges below tolerance..... replace etc.
This rifle appears to be as it was made with the exception of the stock set.....there is the only thing about the Lend Lease rifles....after the war a lot of the Brits who obtained them and in some cases even firearms companies who had them, sporterized the stocks.....sanded the heck out of them with particular vigor when it came to the wrist area.....The Brits liked the feel of the No4 and No1 rifles and they had pretty slim wrist areas...a certain "feel",...the Garand was a big departure from that as the factory Garand stock would have felt really "chunky" to us and the Brit's.
So...It had a stock with it that was likely the original but it was whittled right down to be very slim.....An SA GHS marked stock would be correct for this rifle, and they are available but this rifle is so clean and original, anything but a really sweet stock set would look shabby....the right one would need to come along.
So....what to do in the meantime...over the years I have had several stock sets made by Dean Dillabaugh of DGR in the US.
Dean passed away last year, bless him, but the shop is still in operation following his dream of making the best replacement wood for Garand's possible.
This replacement stock set was obtained with my help back then from DGR for this rifle in a WW2 contour, with original style GI finish with the optional slightly reddish cast rather than the dark brown stain.
From the front of this rifle with it's narrow base gas system, front sight with seal still intact, uncut op rod, Awesome bright and tight original SA-3-42 barrel, correct heat treat bolt, trigger group, all the way back to the -17 receiver is like it left the plant.
The other beautiful bonus of the Lend Lease system is that most of these rifles were not shot!.....They typically had a band of red paint up near the top of the rifle with 30/06 stencilled in Black, letting everyone in the Commonwealth system know that we don't have ammo for this!
Works for me......no reason to have replaced a barrel if it was not used!!
There is a fair bit of dried grease on her like my A4 has....typical...almost shellac like in some areas and crevices, but when you see that original Flush Nut sight still on the rifle...it's a good thing! No pitting, no rust, just awesome.
If the right stock came along, that would be cool, but for now....no complaints!
Here she is......a March 1942 Springfield M1 Garand.
The Bonus is that this rifle was a Lend Lease...
They were removed from US service and this is the good part....these are snap shots in time, because a rifle that stayed in US service would have been inspected and rebuilt a number of times over their service life.....a US Armourer would have a rifle in front of them and turn to page 3 of the service bulletin book and it would tell them to relief cut the op rod, or replace the rear sight with "this part/drawing number", the barrel gauges below tolerance..... replace etc.
This rifle appears to be as it was made with the exception of the stock set.....there is the only thing about the Lend Lease rifles....after the war a lot of the Brits who obtained them and in some cases even firearms companies who had them, sporterized the stocks.....sanded the heck out of them with particular vigor when it came to the wrist area.....The Brits liked the feel of the No4 and No1 rifles and they had pretty slim wrist areas...a certain "feel",...the Garand was a big departure from that as the factory Garand stock would have felt really "chunky" to us and the Brit's.
So...It had a stock with it that was likely the original but it was whittled right down to be very slim.....An SA GHS marked stock would be correct for this rifle, and they are available but this rifle is so clean and original, anything but a really sweet stock set would look shabby....the right one would need to come along.
So....what to do in the meantime...over the years I have had several stock sets made by Dean Dillabaugh of DGR in the US.
Dean passed away last year, bless him, but the shop is still in operation following his dream of making the best replacement wood for Garand's possible.
This replacement stock set was obtained with my help back then from DGR for this rifle in a WW2 contour, with original style GI finish with the optional slightly reddish cast rather than the dark brown stain.
From the front of this rifle with it's narrow base gas system, front sight with seal still intact, uncut op rod, Awesome bright and tight original SA-3-42 barrel, correct heat treat bolt, trigger group, all the way back to the -17 receiver is like it left the plant.
The other beautiful bonus of the Lend Lease system is that most of these rifles were not shot!.....They typically had a band of red paint up near the top of the rifle with 30/06 stencilled in Black, letting everyone in the Commonwealth system know that we don't have ammo for this!
Works for me......no reason to have replaced a barrel if it was not used!!
There is a fair bit of dried grease on her like my A4 has....typical...almost shellac like in some areas and crevices, but when you see that original Flush Nut sight still on the rifle...it's a good thing! No pitting, no rust, just awesome.
If the right stock came along, that would be cool, but for now....no complaints!
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