Best Guess - Number of Garands ?

[leecorky]

[B]We all know that approximately 6 million military Garands were manufactured. But how many still exist in a complete assembled manner ? Has anyone ever conducted a study to try to determine this ?

If no formal study is available, what would be your best guess (how many or a percentage) ? Just curious, thanks in advance.

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[Bob Womack]

If I get it right do I get the free Garand?

[0311Shooter]

I don't think it's possible to even guess close. There are unverified stories of Garands (as well as other equipment) being thrown overboard, piled up and burned, and buried over the years. Plus think about how many may have went down in the ocean during assaults at D-Day, and the Japanese Islands. Plus, when boats, tanks, planes, were blown up, no one ever thinks about the weapons destroyed there. A mere rifle, with so many everywhere, was just not important then. If it malfunctioned, toss it and grab another.

So many variables, so many possibilities. All we can do is cherish the ones we have, caress it, and place it in our bed between us and the wife.

[mikebaker1129]

Love the one your with !

[DRB]

MY belief is that 60% have been destroyed. I feel about a million may be in the USA the rest in other places. My number may be off by 50% but the CMP/DCM admits to selling over 200K and that was before the last huge batch of Greeks that was over 100K. At least a couple hundred thousand or so have been imported from outside sources over the years. That is how I arrive at a WAG of 1 million in the US.

[Hank Stone]

clinton was destroying M1s by the truckload till he was stopped,if I remember correctly clinton didn't have the legal power to do so,but damage done.

[leecorky]

Thanks, guys for your answers. I don't remember offering to give a "free Garand" away for the most accurate answer. But, it was a novel idea. I believe that DRB provided the best guess. But my own opinion is that there are only about 1.5 million left in existance. Again as others responded, we will never know.

By the way, I just picked up a 5.7M SA Garand that is all correct, looks original, is in pristine condition and has a ME of .5. It was a closet queen purchased from the DCM some years ago.