Has anyone seen this before? - Barrel to receiver weld.

[Joe W]

It was a "ceremonial" rifle loaned by the US Army to veterans organizations for ceremonial purposes. The purpose of the welds was to render the rifle incapable of semi auto fire. The valve of the gas cylinder lock screw was drilled out or otherwise removed so that the gas would escape through the lock screw and not drive the op-rod to the rear. To make it difficult to restore to semi auto the gas cylinder lock and screw were welded together and the barrel welded to the receiver so that you could not remove barrel and gas cylinder as a unit, replace and use as Semi auto. I believe, at some point it was decided this was a dumb idea and the practice ended. Alot of these rifles are found with only the barrel to receiver weld.
I purchased a "ceremonial" less wood from CMP about a year ago. All it had was the small tack weld on the barrel to receiver, front end was fine. The barrel was a like new, unfired H&R replacement barrel. It has turned into one of the best shooting M1s that I have. I don't even give that small weld a thought. Others may belive otherwise but I don't believe it will ever cause a problem.
You can find an article on the "Rifle, Ceremonial. Cal. 30 M1" in Vol. 7 Number 1 (Winter 1992) of the GCA Journal. You can find another interesting article in the Fall 1996 issue, page 23, regarding the " Ceremonial" rifle".
Anyone with a real interest in the M1 Rifle should consider joining the GCA. Answers to most of your questions can be found within the pages of one of the GCA Journals. I am sure those that are members would agree that the GCA is the best bang for your buck when it comes to information regarding the M1 Garand.

Information

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[krag99]

There has been a little blow up with the vfw in texas they were sent a letter from the army that wanted an inventory of all stores LOANED( rifles ,tanks, cannons) and warning of possible repercussions if they were not located and accounted for I will look for the link and post it.

[kilroy]

Here is the link. They are demanding an inventory of weapons that may have been in their inventory one hundred years ago.

Government Demands Inventory of All VFW Weapons

[irishsteve]

The cure is a 100 buck barreled receiver from CMP.You met one of lifes bad guys for sure.I would post his name on every forum as a buyer beware.If you know how to set up web sites you could take a few pictures,and make a one page information page showing your luck with this dealer.If you use a name thats close to his buisness name it comes up in a web search right next to his ! Dirty pool? He started it.

[Griff Murphey]

Actually, the classic volleys fired over our U.S. military graves are fired by a 7 man firing party in three volleys. So the number "21" is actually correct as far as the number of rounds U.S. military (and veterans organization) firing parties expend in tribute to deceased service members. I think that may be the point of confusion with the classic salute fired for royalty. In cases where reenactors or veterans organizations provide the firing party and they are "short", they make do with smaller firing parties; but still only fire three volleys. I have never seen any number other than seven shooters in any official U.S. military firing party.

[AKA Hugh Uno]

would the Army send out rifles with a NON-VISIBLE tack weld on the barrel/receiver point but NO OTHER MODS but still fully capable of FIRING regular ammo? Not bloody likely.

At a minimum, the Army would have stamped something like "USE BLANK CARTRIDGES ONLY-UNSAFE TO SHOOT" on the things somewhere to avoid liability concerns (and the Federal Tort Claims Act WOULD certainly allow a suit were there any injuries).

I suspect the real reason they did this is to discourage "LOST" rifles. In other words, the tack weld makes the rifle fairly un-desirable for three reasons. One, people THINK it is somehow defective/dangerous for regular ammo and two, it renders the rifle worth zipola (i.e. parts value) for re-sale.

Most folks aren't capable of changing out barrels, so the discourage take down argument makes not much sense. Three, the tack weld pretty much implies it's a VFW Gun "US Property," so, again, less likely to wander off and less likely to be purchased by gunshops, etc.

[doncb]

21 Gun salute,does anyone know where the 21 originated. I have gheard its for the year 1776 but lots of people say no. THANKS don b in fl.

[Ben Hartley]

21 Gun salute,does anyone know where the 21 originated. I have gheard its for the year 1776 but lots of people say no. THANKS don b in fl.

Don...

Try here:

http://www.history.army.mil/faq/salute.htm

HTH

Ben Hartley

[MEHavey]

What earthy purpose could such a tack/spot weld have served?

[Calif-Steve]

Tack welding discourages theft. Slows down parting out the rifle.