Cosmoline wrapped M1 Garand

kokanee king

kokanee king

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Sooooo not to sound like Rick from Pawn Stars but a buddy of mine has an M1 Garand that he bought wayyyyyyyyy back in the early 60's that is still wrapped in cosmoline paper. Now I dont have pics as of yet but im hoping that I can hook up with him this coming Monday and take some pics. He did say its a Springfield Armory. What do you suppose this rifle would be worth?
 
that would be an amazing time capsule if it indeed is a NOS garand! Please post photos. I imagine you could get quite a bit for it... not sure how much though.
 
As soon as I meet the guy this coming Monday, I will get as many pics as I can. He did say he's had it since the early 60's and that it did come from a bunker in Florida. His rifle along with a thousand others were stored in some bunker for the Bay of Pigs conflict. When that came and went the US Government unloaded all of them. I was told that one of his friends got a permit to bring 10 of them back to Canada way back then. Im not sure where the others are but your right, if this is in fact still wrapped in cosmoline paper then its probably worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.
As soon as I get pics of it then YES I will be posting them :)
 
As I posted on FB here are my thoughts: look at new in wrap Irish-Contract' Enfield's - they go for a 40-50% premium over perfect but unwrapped versions. Now there are few perfect Garands but I'd say $2K for an exceptional one so add 50% and that gets you to $3K
 
Purple or WW2GURU probably would be the best two to ask.

My question on tha Garand is what is it? Is it an original "Right out of the Factory" Garand? An arsenal overhauled and re-wrapped? What age/serial number range is it? GAS TRAP? An all correct early 40's? An all correct mid 40's? I am sure that I missed a few there, but all these can play into its value.

That said, i think Gobc's comment of $2400 is a good ball park.

A friend of mine a few years back had a number of MAS-36 and a few MAS-49 that were still in the wrap... hell, they didn't even have a chance to be dropped once! He also has a '42 Longbranch as well as a 50' Longbranch, and if I recall correctly, a '56 Longbranch all in the wrap.
 
Once I have pics then I can go from there. Serial number would be a good start to gauge the age. Matching serial #'s throughout would determine whether its factory new. As far as I know it comes with everything that would come with one to go from factory to battle, so whatever that means who knows ;) haha
 
And don't unwrap the whole thing, throw the wrap out and use a wire brush to scrub the grease off!! Keep in mind much of the value is that it is still wrapped so the experts can probably tell you exactly where to look and for what details.
 
kokanee king said:
Once I have pics then I can go from there. Serial number would be a good start to gauge the age. Matching serial #'s throughout would determine whether its factory new. As far as I know it comes with everything that would come with one to go from factory to battle, so whatever that means who knows ;) haha
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Garands DON'T have matching serial numbers through-out. The Parts on a Garand use Drawing numbers, or Parts numbers. So, to give you and idea, I grabbed my HRA M1, with a serial number of 47###48, the barrel has a drawing number of D6535448 HRA, the bolt is 6528287 HRA, the trigger housing is 6528290 HRA, the hammer is HRA 5546008, and so on. So, if you reach in to a bucket of hammers, You might get a handful that are a mix of Springfield, Winchester, H&R, International Harvester, Beretta, and Breda and they hall have 5546008 as the parts number on it.

The best you can hope to find (with out opening a book) is all the parts that are marks say, "SA" - Springfield Armory. If you find that they are, then getting a book on Garands might be worth while, the book can tell/show you the different variations of the parts through out the production of the Garands life. From there, if the stock has an inspectors stamp, you can determine if the stock is correct to your serial number range.

It is a common mistake that I hear, people talking about matching parts in a Garand, or parts being serial number matched and I think this is where a huge problem is. People cry about how pricey they are, but then whine about them not being matching. So, I have a regular comment that I make about this, "So, you aren't willing to look at this Garand because all the parts don't match? Well, I guess I won't try and sell you my restored 1957 Corvette for $8000 just because the parts aren't all original!"
 
Lots a factors here, my guess is if it is nos in wrap Springfield garand, chances are it would be a 5.7-6 million garand, built in 55-57. Be a nice addition to any collection. My suggestions would be to cut the paper at the serial number and cut to get a date of the barrel, if they coincide with each leave the rest alone as for some people it's worth more left wrapped. As far as I know reworked garands were not stored in wrap and chances of a wartime garand being in the wrap are non existent. A 6 million garand in the wrap would be a prize and would fetch double the 2400 price tag south of the border.
 
I'm going to be the pessimist. The Bay of Pigs invasion was 1961, four years after production of the Garand ceased. The US military was at this time rebuilding the millions of Garands that had been dragged through WWII and Korea, with the intention of keeping them as war stores to back up the M14s now being issued, and to give away as military support to southeast asia and latin America nations. Many of the Garands were on their second rebuild. I think it by far most likely that any rifle designated and held for the Bay of Pigs event was a US arsenal rebuild, and while it may well be a very nice rifle it is unlikely to be worth anything like what people pay for the factory-original examples that survive.
 
mcpherson284 said:
Garands DON'T have matching serial numbers through-out. The Parts on a Garand use Drawing numbers, or Parts numbers. So, to give you and idea, I grabbed my HRA M1, with a serial number of 47###48, the barrel has a drawing number of D6535448 HRA, the bolt is 6528287 HRA, the trigger housing is 6528290 HRA, the hammer is HRA 5546008, and so on. So, if you reach in to a bucket of hammers, You might get a handful that are a mix of Springfield, Winchester, H&R, International Harvester, Beretta, and Breda and they hall have 5546008 as the parts number on it.

The best you can hope to find (with out opening a book) is all the parts that are marks say, "SA" - Springfield Armory. If you find that they are, then getting a book on Garands might be worth while, the book can tell/show you the different variations of the parts through out the production of the Garands life. From there, if the stock has an inspectors stamp, you can determine if the stock is correct to your serial number range.

It is a common mistake that I hear, people talking about matching parts in a Garand, or parts being serial number matched and I think this is where a huge problem is. People cry about how pricey they are, but then whine about them not being matching. So, I have a regular comment that I make about this, "So, you aren't willing to look at this Garand because all the parts don't match? Well, I guess I won't try and sell you my restored 1957 Corvette for $8000 just because the parts aren't all original!"
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I never knew that and it makes sense. It would be to difficult to mass produce a firearm if your running around the factory looking for matching serial number parts
 
live4therut said:
Lots a factors here, my guess is if it is nos in wrap Springfield garand, chances are it would be a 5.7-6 million garand, built in 55-57. Be a nice addition to any collection. My suggestions would be to cut the paper at the serial number and cut to get a date of the barrel, if they coincide with each leave the rest alone as for some people it's worth more left wrapped. As far as I know reworked garands were not stored in wrap and chances of a wartime garand being in the wrap are non existent. A 6 million garand in the wrap would be a prize and would fetch double the 2400 price tag south of the border.
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Good to know and I will do that. Thx for the info
 
BattleRife said:
I'm going to be the pessimist. The Bay of Pigs invasion was 1961, four years after production of the Garand ceased. The US military was at this time rebuilding the millions of Garands that had been dragged through WWII and Korea, with the intention of keeping them as war stores to back up the M14s now being issued, and to give away as military support to southeast asia and latin America nations. Many of the Garands were on their second rebuild. I think it by far most likely that any rifle designated and held for the Bay of Pigs event was a US arsenal rebuild, and while it may well be a very nice rifle it is unlikely to be worth anything like what people pay for the factory-original examples that survive.
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Nothing wrong with looking at it from another point of view and all will be revealed once ive seen it.
 
kokanee king said:
I never knew that and it makes sense. It would be to difficult to mass produce a firearm if your running around the factory looking for matching serial number parts
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This is a very common mistake, even I made it at one point and it was explained to me. The Germans were insane about marking their guns, as the small parts had the last 2 or 3 numbers on the gun's serial number. I almost think a WW2 Garand that has a mixture of Winchester and Springfield parts, and the parts are a mixture of type one and type two parts with a few dings on the stock, is more interesting than a New in the Wrap un-issued Garand. The used Granad has a better that 50% chance of having served and has true historical collector value.
 
The only newly made Garands that had any parts numbered to the receiver were the Italian Beretta and Breda rifles produced on Danish contracts. On these the bolts were numbered with the last 4 digits of the s/n. Stocks were also similarly numbered on the left side above beside the buttplate. After that the Danes usually added the last 4 digits of the s/n to the stock in front of the rear sling swivel and also added the s/n to the bolt when bolts were replaced in the overhaul process. The Danes carried these marking conventions over to their Springfield and Winchester made rifles at time of overhaul. You will often find the targetting sticker inside the barrel channel of the stock on Danish rifles. The s/n was also shown on the sticker

Garands in US service never had parts numbered to the receiver, except for custom fitted stocks on some of the national match rifles. Many parts bear the drawing numbers which were revised with various numbers over time. These same parts often showed a manufacturers code, e.g. HRA. You can correlate the drawing numbers to the receiver to determine if parts are "correct" to the receiver at time of manufacture. The Scott Duff books are helpful in doing this.
 
Like mcpherson284(the 'vette have somebody die in it and not be found until Spring? snicker.) says, there's no such thing as S/N matching parts on an M1 Rifle. If the part makers match, the rifle will have a premium over non-maker matching rifles, but it's highly unlikely to be one of those. Weapons techs did not and do not care who made the parts they used. Most, if not all, "matching" rifles were made that way by somebody with too much time and money. The S/N would still give you the manufactiring date of the receiver, but not a lot else.
There's absolutely no way it'd ever be a Gas Trap. The gas trap design didn't work and was replaced long before the Rifle was put into production. The U.S. government didn't unload M1 Rifles via anywhere but the CMP(DCM in the early '60s under the Dept of the Army) either. M1 Rifles were still being used by the National Guard then too. So don't believe the Bay of Pigs story your buddy was told. Or the 'permit to export 10' story.
M1's do not have the same values they do Stateside. Any M1 still in the wrap, assuming Bubba didn't wrap it(very hard to prove one way or the other), would be worth far more there than here. A wrapped M1 Rifle would still have a higher value than one that is not, but your buddy isn't going to retire on it. And he cannot get it back to the States.
You need to get more info anyway.
 
If one is attempting to do a Garand restoration with parts that are "correct" to the date that a receiver was made your best bet is to find an original post-war Springfield Armory receiver/ barrel combination as parts with the correct drawing numbers are more available for this vintage of rifle. An original receiver/barrel combination is always the best starting point for a restoration project. After that some of the biggest challenges are to locate a stock with the correct cartouches, an unmodified operating rod, the early pattern gas cylinder screw, correct lockbar rear sight components, and an early style gas cylinder with sealed front sight screw. Wartime WRA rifles are a real bear to restore as original barrels are next to impossible to locate as are unmodified WRA gas cylinders and operating rods. I've seen every kind/make of Garand barrel over the yrs, except for an original WW2 era WRA barrel in serviceable condition. If you have an early gastrap era receiver that is exactly what you have. Early parts to do a correct gastrap restoration are next to impossible to find, altho I've owned a smattering of them over time.

Folks need to remember that virtually all of these rifles went thru some level of depot/arsenal/base/unit rebuild or repair at which time many parts were swapped with no regard to vintage of maker. Some of the most fast moving parts were barrels, stocks, handguards, op rod springs and safeties. In addition to US parts, spare parts were also produced in Italy, W. Germany, Korea, and Denmark to name a few that are known.There were mandatory technical orders to exchange many parts for updated components incl rear sights, gas cyl screws, modified op rods, modified trigger housings, etc. These rifles remained in US service right thru the Vietnam war era where they were still in use by reserves, incl the infamous Kent State University shootings. M1D sniper rifles were in common use in Vietnam pre-1970.

It's kind of fun to sift thru parts to try to match the "correct" ones up to a particular receiver, but mostly it's a costly exercise in frustration which may please only the most anal collectors.
 
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