AFPG M1 Garand or Type 2 NM?

Guys/Gals,

This is my first real post in this so if I did it wrong or put in the wrong sub-forum etc...don't make fun of me too much. I copied this from the cmp forums as I was to lazy to retype everything! Sorry.

Let me start off with a little background story. I was cruising backpage.com through the gun section and saw an add for a 1903 for $599 (not a bad price for a gun store) so I humored myself and opened it and read it. Low and behold the add said took in several vintage military rifles have several Garand's available. Well what the heck-call them up spoke to the nice guy on the phone he said he had one really nice one with a 7 million serial number (new man) and a 474XXX one. I asked the prices on them the 7mil is $1000 (gulp) and the 474xxx is $750 (well that's not BAD). He proceeded to tell me that rifle has a NM marked barrel and front sight-hmmm might be worth a look. I told him to put it aside for me and I am on my way.

I get there and take a look at it. Looks nice-horrible heavy polyurethane on it but has a circle P and a 3 star Eagle and DAS. I get to look further at it. NM front sight, NM Gas Cylinder, Single slot gas screw, high hump gas lock, NM marked barrel, NM marked rear sight aperture. Dang this is starting to look like a potential NM gun for real! Ehhh don't get to excited any bubba (including me) can cobble together some parts to give the illusion of an NM M1. I asked the man nicely if we could remove the trigger group. Sure no problem he said.

Dang was that puppy tight as a tick on a hounds back! After he pulled it out I noticed something odd. The store clerk said oh yeah some guy decided to put all this crap in here and ruin the stock. Turned out to be a pretty professional looking bedding job done all the way for the receiver and trigger housing.

Now keep in mind here I am starting to shake because I have a pretty strong feeling now that this is the real McCoy. This isn't some cobbled together bubba job. The story was the man lived in CA passed away and his Uncle inherited all these guns and they were selling them as part of the estate sale.

Well I figured what the hell. The worse thing I do is take a gamble lose and get stuck with a really good cobbled together M1 with a low serial number and a well matching stock combo.

I offered him $725 and he took it paid the man and walked out the door. Well upon taking it home and disassembling everything I am almost confident this is an USAF Premium Grade NM rifle. If you see in the pictures the receiver has been drilled out under the wind age knob at the 6'oclock position and has the ball and spring detent and the wind age knob has been cut for the 8 positions! However I did not see any AF PG stamp above the NM on the barrel. I also have screws in all the front hand guard ferrules which I have "read" is indicative of the USAFPG M1. Even the gas cylinder has the 45 degree cut on it and all the hand guards are epoxied to the ferrules. It appears that the rear hand guard was trimmed so it doesn't contact the receiver.


I also "read" on the ole inter-web that the USAFPG rifles were originally a heavy polyurethane? Truth? Myth?

Let me know what you guys think! What would be a rough value on this beauty?

Well to the pictures! Enjoy.

Local Gun Store Find-Did I Score? - CMP Forums

or

USAFNM2 Slideshow by goldenstang66 | Photobucket

Thanks for all the help and knowledge!
Marc

Well it's a match-conditioned rifle, but the question is whodunnit? Could have been a service team, perhaps Air Force (not all got marked AFPG), but also could have been done by any of the retired team armorers who specialize in building them for customers. I'm guessing it was a 1959 NM that was upgraded to 1962 standards, it has all the tricks used by many service shops. That has always been the problem with match guns like this... you just can't tell who built it and there is rarely any documentation. Nevertheless, you got it at a good price. See if you can get any history from the family through the dealer, it's worth the effort.

Happy To see you here Marc. Rick B

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Originally Posted by Rick B

Happy To see you here Marc. Rick B

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Glad to be here too...figured I would have some more responses... I sent the CMP a record search and I have a friend at Lackland who's going the CATM guys this comming week to see if they have it in their records.

Hoping I hear back from the owners...I called the store and asked if they could forward my info to them...but no luck so far on that avenue...

You need pics. It does sound like an AFPG gun, except they are usually marked AFPG. along with all of the usual upgrades. That being said, match grade Garands are well worth $750 bucks if they are still in fine shooting condition. The "swiss cross" on the barrel means it is a DCM NM rifle if I am not mistaken.

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Originally Posted by bob seijas

Well it's a match-conditioned rifle, but the question is whodunnit? Could have been a service team, perhaps Air Force (not all got marked AFPG), but also could have been done by any of the retired team armorers who specialize in building them for customers. I'm guessing it was a 1959 NM that was upgraded to 1962 standards, it has all the tricks used by many service shops. That has always been the problem with match guns like this... you just can't tell who built it and there is rarely any documentation. Nevertheless, you got it at a good price. See if you can get any history from the family through the dealer, it's worth the effort.

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FWIW, I agree with Bob. Nice rifle. Great price. But no documentation (at this time), so no verification or validation--just assumptions for now. Having owned a couple of AFPG match rifles, and having seen several others, I can also say that the polishing done on your rifle does not match the polishing I have seen on marked AFPG rifles. Lastly, that bedding job looks like nothing I have ever seen before--IMHO, it was NOT done by a military shop--definitely not done by SA. So, I think ya done good, but not great.

The swiss cross on the barrel means that you have a NM barrel, but not necessarily a NM rifle.

Let's hope your search for paperwork produces good results.

Thanks for all the responses! I just have come to realize that my hopes of her being an actual AFPG rifle is gone. I am hoping now that she is at least a type 2 NM. There are people that apparently build these to such a "clone" level it is almost impossible to tell! If it is a clone it is sure a fantastic example of the great craftsmen that are out there!

Just patiently waiting on the serial number search-one week down and up to two more left! :runaway: