2 Attachment(s)
Has anyone seen this before? - Barrel to receiver weld.
I recently purchased this garand on Gunbroker from blaze2000 (aka Walsh Gun & Tackle in Caseville, Michigan). Unfortunately the seller did not disclose the weld that you see in the photo. I did not remove the rear guard during the 3-day inspection so shame on me. The rifle is mine, weld and all!
I'm looking for help and input.
Has anyone seen a small weld like this on a garand and do you know why it is done?
The rifle appears to be in very good condition otherwise with a clean sharp bore. I do not have a bore scope, so I can't inspect it from the inside.
Your help is appreciated.
Thank you.
Darrell (aka drharm)
Yes, same thing with me EXCEPT
the seller had no idea and ended up giving me a very fair discount on the rifle. I parted it out. worked out fine for both of us. I think it was a WRA to boot with a WRA barrel! These are VFW blank firing rifles and are probably perfectly safe to shoot, just not very desirable.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...tandard-21.jpg
the area affected by the tack weld area
isn't very significant or deep. The M1 is massively over-engineered and if everything else checked out, I wouldn't worry about shooting one. IN fact, you could make a legitimate argument that since the tiny area in question would be softer (after it slow cooled), it would be less brittle and actually LESS apt to cause any problems. Exactly Why the DCM did this to begin with escapes me (i.e. a minor tack weld vs. the much harder to reverse drill-rifles).
The Army did the weld; CMP sold some of the rifles
These salute rifles were returned to Anniston Army Depot by VFW posts, and they apparently were surplus to Army needs, because the Army gave them to the CMP, who sold them in the stores. (CMP did not do the welding; the Army did the welding.) I know they were available in the stores, because I bought two of them myself at the South Store.
CMP called these rifles "salute rifles", because, unlike the drill rifles, these salute rifles did not have the breeches welded shut, or the bolt face welded. The salute rifles were fully functional, and were capable of firing blanks, and had been used for such at ceremonies and funerals, hence the "salute" description used by the CMP.
I still do not think a welded barrel is safe. Welding changes the metal composition of the barrel, and does make the barrel more likely to fail. I don't know about you, but my life is worth more than the hundred or so bucks it would take to rebarrel one of these receivers.
"21 gun salute" should be 21 ROUND salute
Actually, the classic volleys fired over our U.S. military graves are fired by a 7 man firing party in three volleys. So the number "21" is actually correct as far as the number of rounds U.S. military (and veterans organization) firing parties expend in tribute to deceased service members. I think that may be the point of confusion with the classic salute fired for royalty. In cases where reenactors or veterans organizations provide the firing party and they are "short", they make do with smaller firing parties; but still only fire three volleys. I have never seen any number other than seven shooters in any official U.S. military firing party.
I'm 100% certain they are safe, think about this
would the Army send out rifles with a NON-VISIBLE tack weld on the barrel/receiver point but NO OTHER MODS but still fully capable of FIRING regular ammo? Not bloody likely.
At a minimum, the Army would have stamped something like "USE BLANK CARTRIDGES ONLY-UNSAFE TO SHOOT" on the things somewhere to avoid liability concerns (and the Federal Tort Claims Act WOULD certainly allow a suit were there any injuries).
I suspect the real reason they did this is to discourage "LOST" rifles. In other words, the tack weld makes the rifle fairly un-desirable for three reasons. One, people THINK it is somehow defective/dangerous for regular ammo and two, it renders the rifle worth zipola (i.e. parts value) for re-sale.
Most folks aren't capable of changing out barrels, so the discourage take down argument makes not much sense. Three, the tack weld pretty much implies it's a VFW Gun "US Property," so, again, less likely to wander off and less likely to be purchased by gunshops, etc.
It still shoots to the right
I came back from the range. The rifle still shoots about 6 inches at 50 yards. I did find before taking it out that the stock was in contact with the barrel. I couldn't even slip a dollar bill between them. I shaved a little wood off the stock. It didn't seem to help. I can't see any noticable bend in the barrel, but according to my math, 5.4 inches right at 50 yards would indicate a push at the barrel of .003 inches. I find myself hoping for a bent barrel. The other problem may be a warped reciever.
Here is a list of the things I have done or had done,
1. pulled the barrel
2. re-installed barrel and corrected the indexing
3. Have swapped out the gas tube three times.
4. Shaved wood that may have been in contact with the stock
5. Barrel recrowning
6. Cut gas lock off of gas tube, filed the weld.
Have I missed anything? Is there something else I should check? What is the likelyhood that the reciever is warped? The op rod doesn't jump track (which would indicate to me a warped reciever. There doesn't seem to be an abnormal wear patterns outside of the park on the left side of the barrel where it was in contact with the stock.
Any advice would be appriciated.
