Win Garand Receiver Weld Question w/pics

[Bob Seijas]

Griff is right, they were all not worn out, it was the intention of the anti-gunners to destroy
M1s rather than sell them. It was only stopped by a concerted political effort on the part of a few heroic collectors and the NRA.

The "Reweld" (the collector term used for 50 years, Rick, LOL) was invented by Bob Penny and copied by many others after Bob made so much money doing it. Those first ones were really good and hard to spot -- I got hooked with one, too.

Although I have never heard of one that failed and injured a shooter, I question the cumulative effect of firing one over a long period of time. I would not personally shoot a welded gun, as they are all quite old by now.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Rick Cummelin]

Although I have never heard of one that failed and injured a shooter, I question the cumulative effect of firing one over a long period of time. I would not personally shoot a welded gun, as they are all quite old by now.

While I have also never heard of a failure where a shooter was injured, I agree that I would NEVER knowingly shoot a welded receiver again. Pages 79-84 of Jerry Kuhnhausen's most excellent "The U.S. .30 Caliber Service Rifles" are several photos of welded receivers that have failed by cracking at the weld(s). Jerry also feels that the silver-soldered barrels are much more dangerous to a shooter than the welded receiver. Plus, as Bob mentioned, heat-treated steel that has been welded does not get better with age--it's not a fine wine. In fact, a friend of mine who is a precision welder for Ball Aerospace (works on satellites and other space junk) has told me on several occasions that he believes welded receivers on any semi-auto rifle, that haven't been re-heat-treated, are equivalent to a grenade with the pin pulled, except we don't know how long the fuse is. Possibly a good analogy.

IMHO, shooting a welded receiver, especially with one of the silver-soldered barrels is engaging in some sort of weird Russian Roulette. Granted, you may never have a problem, but then again, it could fail tomorrow. Remember the movie "The Deer Hunter"?

Anyway, I'm still hoping we can somehow convince zrunr that he needs to find something better than a welded receiver if he wants a good shooter. Or, maybe not......