I found this one at a local shop and was not able to do a proper teardown before having to decide to buy or not. All I could really by cycling the action was IHC receiver, bolt, oprod, sight knob and gas screw. I wasn't even able to pull the trigger assembly before buying. Given I could not check more, I think I paid a fair refurb garand price after checking the action was not loose in the stock and that the bore looks like new. No cracks or major wood defects, just lots of handling and carry evidence.
The gun has plenty of handling and carry wear, but clearly was not actually shot much as the bore is like new and there is almost no discernable wear to the receiver feed rails. The bolt, oprod and receiver show signs of having been cycled a LOT, so I suspect this rifle was used for a lot of drill somewhere (training?) where part of the drill was to present the rifle for the action drill, like in a basic training setting.
The stock has a faded red "39" painted on one side of the stock in the arabic style and the shopkeep advised the person who brought it in said they had had it for over 30 years. I'm thinking maybe ex-Saudi military aid?
Now that I've had time to do a detail strip of every part, I'm leaning toward this being an as-manufactured non-refurb IHC, but would like yours guys' opinion as that is indeed a rare thing to find.
I didn't take pics of everything, I forgot to take a pic of the bolt and the 4-digit code inside the stock barrel channel, but both are present.
March 54 LMR barrel, which is correct for a 5 millions IHC:
Hard to see here, but this is a faint eagle surmounted by stars ordnance mark in a rectangular box with rounded edges. It's not been sanded, the stock just ha a lot of handling wear like it was oiled a lot in a barracks. Also has the circle-P proof on the front of the grip.
Happy to post pics of other areas needed to determine is it's original or a rebuild. Thanks.
PS: No electro-stencilling on receiver with american depot marks. Clean as a whistle.
The gun has plenty of handling and carry wear, but clearly was not actually shot much as the bore is like new and there is almost no discernable wear to the receiver feed rails. The bolt, oprod and receiver show signs of having been cycled a LOT, so I suspect this rifle was used for a lot of drill somewhere (training?) where part of the drill was to present the rifle for the action drill, like in a basic training setting.
The stock has a faded red "39" painted on one side of the stock in the arabic style and the shopkeep advised the person who brought it in said they had had it for over 30 years. I'm thinking maybe ex-Saudi military aid?
Now that I've had time to do a detail strip of every part, I'm leaning toward this being an as-manufactured non-refurb IHC, but would like yours guys' opinion as that is indeed a rare thing to find.
I didn't take pics of everything, I forgot to take a pic of the bolt and the 4-digit code inside the stock barrel channel, but both are present.
March 54 LMR barrel, which is correct for a 5 millions IHC:
Hard to see here, but this is a faint eagle surmounted by stars ordnance mark in a rectangular box with rounded edges. It's not been sanded, the stock just ha a lot of handling wear like it was oiled a lot in a barracks. Also has the circle-P proof on the front of the grip.
Happy to post pics of other areas needed to determine is it's original or a rebuild. Thanks.
PS: No electro-stencilling on receiver with american depot marks. Clean as a whistle.
.
