43 Garand value

[rice 123]

A friend has a 43 garand for sale. all of the metal parts are correct and match for color and finish the bore is good. There is no cartouch and I do not know if the stock is correct or not. He want 1500 is that to much if so what should be a fair price for it. If he comes up with a correct catouched stock then what would the rifle be worth. also what should the correct cartoch be for a 43 garand

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[Neal Myers]

We evaluate the correctness of M1 rifles by serial number, not year of manufacture.

But, it doesn't sound good based on your description. All parts matching on color & finish sounds like a rifle that has been reparked. Lack of an original stock limits it to "restored" status, at best. And, we don't have a bore description or measurements.

So, I'm thinking it's a $400 rack grade rifle. Maybe not, but we need a lot more convincing to get up to his asking price.

[rice 123]

I do know when he got it it was mostly original. It has never been reparked. The reciever,Barrel, rear sight and most parts were original to the rifle he replaced the op rod and a few other parts to make it correct

[Bill Hollinger]

Rice, the limited information you gave us makes it impossible to make a sound decision as to it's value. Lots of close-up photos is a very good and probably the best way to assign value. We tend to go for the low figure when information is limited. As Neal stated, $400.00 rack grade rifle until more information is given so a more accurate value can be place.

Get us the serial number, close-up photos, barrel numbers and date, muzzle wear, throat erosion, type of rear sight, all the small parts, etc. and we'll pin it down to the dollar.

[rice 123]

I do not know if I can get pics but I will try to get a detailed list of parts. I do know that it is supposed to have all correct original finsh 43 parts. uncut op rod , early lockbar. forged arched lower barrel band short fork

[reddogge]

An original barrel/receiver combo are very desirable to me in a WW2 rifle and if the barrel is tight even more so. A nice tight stock with correct stamps would be even nicer. That would seal the deal for me although I wouldn't pay that much for it. Then it gets down to the little parts, if they have the proper drawing numbers and configurations. The last piece of the puzzle is you have to use your detective abilities to try and determine if the finish on all parts looks original and if they match the other parts in wear patterns. Very hard to do. After all, a rifle that's been in service that long has to show finish wear and tear.

I'm reluctant to pay top dollar for a rifle someone swapped out a bunch of parts to create a "correct" rifle but that's just me and I'm not a big time Garand collector either. Just an older guy who likes WW2 M1s.