Question about "T" marked barrel

[GUTS]

This is the rifle I use in our Garand matches, it shoots very well. I just recieved my GCA hardbound books, 1 and 2 and was reading an article that Mr. Seijas wrote about his NM Garand and noticed that my rifle has a "T" and three "P"s stamped on the barrel but no NM up by the gas cylinder. Does that mean my barrel was firing proofed, target proofed and then not built up into a NM rifle? Maybe it was targeted and didn't pass NM specs and was put into regular production? By the way if some of you haven't joined the GCA and bought some books, you should. I am having a ball learning about these rifles and the information in these books is invaluable.

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[Joe W]

Gus, I had bought 5801000 at the GCA Convention in Anniston. It also had three firing proofs, Two P proofs and the punch mark within the loop of one of the P proofs. It also had the targeting T.
I thought along the same lines as you and asked this question of Dave McClain. Dave told me " At this point of post war production barrels were commonly proofed in a universal fixture and again as a completed rifle assembly." He further stated that two or more proof P's can be found on these late rifles.

By the way, that is one nice looking rifle you have. Was it a CMP correct grade or even "collectable" ? beautiful looking wood from what I can see.

[Joe W]

Gus, PM sent

[GUTS]

Thanks Joe. This was my first Garand, I bought it about 5 years ago from a fellow in Florida. I didn't know a single thing about M1 Garands except that I wanted to buy one. This came from an ad on the ArfCom EE. It had a birch replacement stock from Overton that had a nice tiger stripe pattern and the rifle itself looked nice to me. I didn't even know enough to ask what the serial number was. It had been on for a while for $850 with no sale(I didn't know the CMP existed)so I messaged him and said I was interested and asked why such a nice looking rifle had not sold for such a decent price(I really was clueless)and he said he couldn't guage the barrel and most people wanted to know the TE and ME. None of this mattered to me because ignorance truly is bliss so I bought the rifle for $850. It turns out as I have gained knowledge from fellows like you that I bought a stock set off Ebay for $300(it's a beautiful stock set)to make it right again. The rest of the rifle was and is correct except for the NM op rod I put in because I shoot it in our matches. So yes it does look very nice now but I have $1100 in it. Oh, and it turns out the ME is just over 2 and the TE is 3 1/2.

It's the one on top.


The old stock. Actually this is the picture I went off when I bought the rifle.

[Joe W]

Nice looking group of rifles. Is the 2nd down from top the L.L. you recently got ?? You must also have a nice camara as you take some great pictures.

[GUTS]

Yup, the LL is second, next is a collector grade H&R, then the Winchester I bought for Christmas and the bottom one is my M1D. I have a ways to go to catch up with some of you boys but I didn't own a single rifle untill 2005. The camera is a cheap $100 Cannon Sure Shot I bought about 6 years ago.