Let's do some thinking!

[Bill Hollinger]

What is the rarest M1 Garand? Not the rarest single M1 Garand but what series of M1s is really rare and what kind of price do you think they could fetch? I think the gas trap is a really rare series but I'm sure there are others out there. Like IHCs with certain markings or S/As with such and such machine marks or whatever. Put your expert heads together and come up with some cool M1s.

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[RCS]

Everyone has their own opinion, but I like the mid 1940 gas port rifles, next to that would be the 1941 Winchesters

[Mark in Rochester]

IIRC there wer 6 or 8 rifles made for the line material company and the heal stamp was LMR - need to check the journal

[Mark in Rochester]

From the Journal Volume 6 Number 2 page 10

By Bob Seijas

One of nine project (summary)

Components Procured out of chanels to construct nine special M1 Rifles, three for key people at Line material company, IHC and H&R - receivers were unserialed and marked with logos of H&R and LM and the legend 1 of 9

[M1Riflenut]

HRA 6mil. Other than Tony G who has one?

[Ramboueille]

HRA 6mil. Other than Tony G who has one?

One here. Quite a few have been destroyed, gone forever.

[JAS]

There were also the SA 5.0M rifles. Serial number 5,000,000 is in the Springfield Armory museum. But SA was also assigned 5,000,001 to 5,000,499 serial numbers. There could be up to 499 rifles out there in this very rare range.

[mparsons]

I like the arrowhead IHC. Wish I had one.

[Bodyman]

There is some of the experimental stuff, like I got to see a legit experimental box magazine Winchester (flat mint and gorgeous). There is also an early experimental coating called 'pentrate', but there might only be one of those left though ...

It is hard to collect stuff like that, though. But then some of the experimental stuff is rare but a bit more available, like the teflon coated Garands? I got to see one for sale here at a very high end gunshow years ago (and of course they wanted a very high end price ...). Then when I got to go down to Quantico I saw a whole rack of about a dozen of these funny greenish looking Garands - sure enough; teflon coated. Very neat and they even feel a little slippery. USMC tested the coating somewhere in the 50's, IIRC. I don't know how many were ever made but some of them managed to find their way out into the world.

There are also the ones that you just don't really think of. I think it might have been Dick Culver who spoke of a rack of HRA M1D's (or was it Bob Seccombe) while he was in the service. I have seen plenty of SA's and WRA's and know of one IHC that was sent out of the CMP, but I have never seen a papered HRA. That would be a neat rack of rifles - all 4 makers in M1D's.

[Rick Cummelin]

HRA 6mil. Other than Tony G who has one?

AGREE! Bill didn't state whether he was refering to PRODUCTION rifles, or to the infinite variety of experimental and one-offs that may be floating around out there.

IMHO, the HRA 6 million rifles are the rarest production pieces, as only about 400 were ever produced. As such, they are much rarer than gas traps, M1Cs, etc.

I currently have one, but it is under contract to be sold to a good friend.

BTW- when I mentioned "infinite variety", I was refering to the fact that if an experimental version of something doesn't exist today, there's at least the possibility that one will mysteriously appear tomorrow. Never underestimate clever people.