IHC M1 survivor

[MIL-MITCH]

Hello all! i want to get some opinions on an M1 i picked up from an estate sale. It is an IHC from 1953 with everything original as far as i can tell. The LMN barrel is dated 5-53, the op rod, hammer, safety, trigger group housing, gas cylinder plug, bolt, and rear site are all marked IHC. The finish on all the metal is even with little or no wear. The stock, however, has seen better days. it is rough and dark, but seems to be original to the rifle with a 3032 julian date. The front and upper handguards are a nice deep red and quite clean. The butt plate is beat to crap. I am thinking this may have been a stockade or guard house rifle. the wear on the butt stock doesnt remotely match the metal finish. The barrel and bolt face seem to be nearly unfired. This rifle sat for a very long time somewhere. The action was frozen when i bought it from the grease turning to lacquer and i had to soak the bolt in Kroil to free up the firing pin. There is no corrosion anywhere on this rifle except the butt plate. I am not new to MILSURP firearms, but fairly new to Garands. I was amazed at the condition of this rifle. it appears as new inside. opinions?

Information

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[MIL-MITCH]

here are a few mire images

[browningautorifle]

Hard to say what the early job was for this gun. Many of these IHC appear unissued. The lower stock group could simply have been changed with another so you got the crummy one. That happens a great deal. The rest of the grease turns petrified like you found and that isn't odd either. You seem to have sorted it out though and we'll be waiting to find out how it shoots...the sling is and Uncle Mikes or some equal though, not military...

[MIL-MITCH]

is this rifle a shooter grade or collector grade Jim? i would love to put a new stock on it (keeping the old one intact) and put rounds down range with it. Are the Korean war rifles worth preserving? I wondered about the sling. it came in a bag with all the accessories. Cleaning kit, bayonet, scabbard, canvas drag bag and some clips.

[browningautorifle]

If it was me, I'd be shooting it. The number doesn't ring any bells for me and the roll mark seems standard. There are some on here that know better what the collectors in the US want, I'm in Canada and we'd shoot it. I doubt it's actually new so what harm in shooting it a bit? Unless you intend to do JCG matches and go through thousands with it...what harm? The Korean guns and even the early ones if not complete and correct can be shot. We had a major discussion here about using a collectable firearm and it seems to be an exactly split camp...

[Prince Humperdink]

The stock looks pretty good from what I can see,perhaps You could get some fine steel wool and some BLO ond give it a good cleaning?I have seen some very ugly stocks clean up to look very nice!I'd shoot that without worry BTW

[MIL-MITCH]

Thanks Humperdink! i havent thought of steel wool. The stock is fairly free from deep gouges and chips. It looks like years of oil varnish have turned the wood dark. I will get some better pictures soon, all these were taken with my phone (hangs head in shame)

[Bob Seijas]

Is there an import mark anywhere? When the first Police Sales guns came in from South America in tthe late 1980s they looked like that... jungle rot wood but new inside.

[MIL-MITCH]

No import marks anywhere on the rifle.

[Joe W]

You say, " It is an IHC from 1953 with everything original as far as i can tell. The LMN barrel is dated 5-53". Not that it really matters much, but just to give you a bit of information you might find of interest, which had been pointed out by Wayne Bradford. If your rifle was assembled in normal fashion it more likely would have been assembled sometime in early 1954. This is based on the fact that the SRS book lists the dates some rifles in your serial range underwent endurance testing. It shows 4511330 as being endurance tested on 1/8/54 and 4571922 being tested on 9/7/54, placing your rifle someplace in early 1954. Wayne also stated that he believed that, based on the presence of so many first and second quarter 1954 stocks found on rifles in the 4569xxx range, that these rifle were built up in May or June 1954. A number of 1952 marked stocks were also found within this same 1000 serial number block. Wayne explains the "possible explanation" as follows : "stocks sent to the final assembly area were simply pulled out of storage in a haphazard fashion - that is, there was no FIFO (first in- first out) or LIFO ( last in - first out) inventory control method in operation here." Wayne further stated that a former IHC worker stated that rifle components were simply delivered to a worker for assembly in one big box! The stocks arriving ( mid- 54 stocks) were probably utilized concurrently with an open box of mid-1952 stocks.
It is stuff like this that keeps me interested in the M1 Rifle and I suspect I am not alone.