This is my first rambling post to this great site and thought I would start with showing you the Garandicon I have.
I always wanted a nice looking wartime manufactured Garand and so I ended up buying this from a guy in 2001 who had purchased it throught the CMPicon. As I recall, I paid $660 for it.
the serial number I believe puts it at October-ish 1942. I suspect it may have been reparked sometime in its' early life however the exposed areas of the finish appear to be thinning now. It also has an October 1942 dated barrel and what I've been told are some other period parts. Although probably not "Oct'42 correct", I added a set of wartime lockbar sights that I purchased from a reliable vendor at the Ohio Gun Collector Show sometime back.
I don't shoot it a lot (up to several dozen rounds per year) and there were some years where I didn't shoot it at all. I've had a love-hate relationship with it ever since I bought it as the first 8 years I had it, I was unable to run through a complete 8 rounds consecutively successfully. Either it would prematurely eject the enbloc and remaining rounds or the bolt wouldn't pick up the next round after firing or some other problem I've successfully squirreled away in my brain and no longer remember. I think there were several problems that existed.
I would experiment, try different things, replace a few inexpensive parts and finally solved the final problem! The lockup! I inserted two pieces of those garbage bag ties under the flats of the trigger group that locks against the wood and suddenly I'm in business! That old rifle now bangs away enbloc after enbloc without a hitch!
Anyway, here's some pics. Not the most beautiful rifle for sure but I appreciate it all the more having spent so much time trying to figure it out. The wood is not the prettiest but it looks like it has a long history. Lots of dimpling on the right side where GI's on the firing line in years past must have tapped the points of their rounds to ensure they were properly seated. I've also showed a photo of the cartouche (S.A. EMcF) with the impression of the large partial crossed cannons immediately to the right.
Do you think the cartouche is period original?
Thanks for reading my first post!
Kim
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