Welded Receivers

My cousin (now deceased) was a USMC NCO. He was born in Nov., 1941 and went into the Corps at 17 so, 1959. He, no doubt, trained with the M1 and loved that rifle. As soon as he could, he bought one. I don't recall when, exactly, he got it but I believe it was from K-Mart. It was a Springfield with a welded receiver. Over the years, he shot everything .30/06 in it including hot reloads with slow burning powder like IMR4350 and MR3100. I don't remember him having trouble with it although I think I heard mention of an occasional dismounted op rod. Of course, he knew those rifles inside and out and had a bunch of spare parts.

Out of curiosity, I borrowed it from him in late Spring of 1996 to shoot it on my 100 yd. range across chronograph screens. I started with the regular loads that I used in my bolt guns but backed off when the numbers showed higher than I knew they should. What I remember best about his rifle is that the front sight was very noticeably right of center in order to get the shots to hit the bull. Apparently the two halves of the receiver were not lined up perfectly. The rifle shot quite well. I fired 5-shot groups and according to my notes, I must have used the same 20 TW53 cartridge cases for all 16 groups. The average for all 16 groups was 3.85" with the best load of 52 gr. of RL15 with 150 gr. Sierra spitzer bullets averaging 2.26" for four 5-shot groups. But that load at 2841 fps would not be one I'd use now--I'd cut it to 49 gr. or so.

I guess my point is that even those welded together M1's were more than useful. My cousins name was Michael Lem Gross: He served 20 years in the USMC including 2 tours in Viet Nam plus many years after that in the Army National Guard. He went by the nick-name "Mongo". RIP, Mongo!

Many guys including some here have owned the welded receivers. Lots of talk in past about it and exactly the things you mention. No one thought to build a jig for reassembly, the two parts could show a late steel lot number with a low receiver serial. Some didn't work with crap and others gave no trouble, some in between. The one you speak of probably worked to it's optimum which may be good enough. I would have had a real concentrated effort to index that barrel though, I hate a sight off to the side.

ROSS — Mr. Michael Lem Gross, aged 61, of Coopersville, formerly of Wyoming, passed away of accidental injuries on Thursday, May 8, 2003. Sergeant First Class Gross retired as a 31 year veteran in the Marine Corps and Army National Guard and served two tours of duty in Vietnam. He was a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and an avid participator in the Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Gross is survived by his wife, Sue Ellen; children, Staff Sergeant James Patrick (Lisa) Gross, of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Christiana Leilani and Rodney Lloyd, of Wyoming, Petty Officer Second Class Amy Sue and Chief Petty Officer Scott Porter, of Virginia Beach, Virginia; grandchildren, Morgan Amelia Lloyd, James Patrick Gross, Jr., Parker Douglas Gross, Emily Rachelle Porter, and Gerrod Michael Gross; mother, Adda Gross, of Wyoming; sister, Cynthia (Tom) Caldwell; brother, Vernon (Valeree) Gross; several nieces and nephews.

Thank you, Mark, for posting that!

Back in the 1960's and 1970's, about the only way to get an M-1 was the "once in a lifetime" DCM way. As you can imagine, not many of these hit the market, and when they did they were pushing 2k in those days.
Then the rewelded hit the market, and did some to satisfy the market need. But not enough. The the big wave of M-1's came in, with the Korean Blue Sky rifles. Man what a field day that was for the few years these came in.
Lots of folks like to dog on Blue Sky, but they were great rifles and got a LOT of new shooter into hi-power matches. Then, DMC became CMP, and the "one per lifetime" fell to the wayside.

You skipped a couple: the first was the Interarms import of LL guns with British Proofs. They were everywhere in the 1960s. Then came the Police Sales by firms like SEA selling M1s from Honduras and Guatemala. Cops bought them cheap and resold them for a fat profit. I helped several local officers do it until ATF declared that they had to buy them with checks from the town.

Being I am 77 years old I remember all those different M1s. I owned a welded receiver with a welded 2 groove barrel. It worked just fine and fired about any 06 that I put through it. We didn't have the internet to help us back then just Shotgun News.

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Originally Posted by kar66

Shotgun News.

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And we'd go through a hand-me-down copy like it was the only thing on earth...then hand it off.

They were "invented" by an aeronautical engineer named Bob Penny. His early guns were extremely well done, really hard to tell. He made jigs and had excellent welders. Most collectors got hooked at least once, including me. Then Doug Edwards came up with the way to tell by comparing the heat lot with the heel info. For $5 he would provide a certificate that it was not welded with his signature and impressed seal.

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Originally Posted by Bob Seijas

His early guns were extremely well done, really hard to tell.

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So, there was no difference in color after refinish? I HAVE seen that but it's hard to manage.

Yes, didn't know about those. I was still playing with BB guns and homemade napalm in the 60's. Of course M-1 imports would have ended in 1968 with the GCA of 1968, and that provision being lifted in 1986 at the cost of no more giggle switches. Not a good trade IMO. The rifles that you mentioned had to have been sucked up and socked away. From 1972 to 1986, I can count on one hand the number of M-1's I saw for sale at gun stores and the few gun shows I could attend in my teens.

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Originally Posted by Bob Seijas

You skipped a couple: the first was the Interarms import of LL guns with British Proofs. They were everywhere in the 1960s. Then came the Police Sales by firms like SEA selling M1s from Honduras and Guatemala. Cops bought them cheap and resold them for a fat profit. I helped several local officers do it until ATF declared that they had to buy them with checks from the town.

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Originally Posted by limpetmine

count on one hand the number of M-1's I saw for sale at gun stores and the few gun shows

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It was so strange, you couldn't find a decent M1, then all these mint LL guns appeared... and collectors shunned them because of the British proofs. A ratty DCM gun would bring $200 but the LLs sat on tables at $125.

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Originally Posted by Mark in Rochester

ROSS — Mr. Michael Lem Gross, aged 61, of Coopersville, formerly of Wyoming, passed away of accidental injuries on Thursday, May 8, 2003. Sergeant First Class Gross retired as a 31 year veteran in the Marine Corps and Army National Guard

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Looks as though he set a pretty good example given the service members down stream.

I welded up a receiver, well over 40 years ago when i was taking a machine shop course as part of my hobibes.

Using the proper size steel alignment bars in the bolt channel and op rod channel, and put into a stock with the trigger guard snapped into place helped a great deal.
Keeping the firing pin safety slot aligned required careful placement. Needless to say this was before the admonitions in the Kuhnhausen Garand Book, and of course I used parts that had conflicting front receiver mod number and serial number.

Darn thing worked well and gave me lots of practice on a Bridgeport mill.....the came in the blue skys' and flood of guns.
I cut mine up afterwards. Plenty of M14's were also welded up, but not by me.

I think I've seen only one reweld in all the years I was going to shows. Makes me wonder what happened to them.

Many are like zombies and surface periodically at shows or on line. Some, like mine, were turned in when the DCM offered a receiver exchange for worn out receivers. For something like $21 (IIRC) you sent an old receiver and you got back a refurbished, new-condition barreled receiver... what a deal! They said no welds but they took whatever you sent. Billy Pyle told me he bought a pair of demil halves, glued them together with Bondo and spray painted it black. They took it and sent him a 1940 receiver with the original 1940 barrel.

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Originally Posted by Bob Seijas

They took it and sent him a 1940 receiver with the original 1940 barrel.

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Nice catch...

Buddy who owned a gun shop had bought 100 of the Blue Sky Garands. Walked in the shop one Saturday and it looked like a bunch of demented beavers were at work. Everyone was tearing open the boxes looking for their Garand. I got a nice one, excellent barrel, sights and finish. $250 and out the door. Still have it 35 years later. Shoots very well, stock was nothing to write home about. Midway had complete sets of wood for $120 at the time. Swapped it out and saved the old wood. Frank

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Originally Posted by Frank46

Still have it 35 years later.

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Love to see that rifle Frank...