Collector Grade Garands!

[Charlie59]

You guys might want to check this thread out at CMP, started by a guy who was at the GCA convention: CMP Discussion Forum - Early Report from GCA at CMP Anniston

It is good news for shooters/collectors!

Charlie

Information

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[Bob Womack]

Good news indeed!

[Charlie59]

There are a few hundred unissued NIW SA and HRA Garands that were found in Anniston over the weekend. They will sell for $3500.00 each. There are several good threads in the Garand forum at odcmp.org about this!



Charlie

[Rick Cummelin]

I was there and also saw all these brand new, unissued, unfired rifles in the racks. At the end of the day, we counted about 175 of them total, with most being 5.8 mil Springfields, and the rest being HRAs in the 5.5 and 5.6 mil range.

I actually took 4 of these rifles up to the armorers, and I did NOT even pull back the op rod, as that leaves marks in the new parkerizing.

These are simply drop-dead beautiful rifles, and likely worth every bit of the $3500 asking price. However, once you buy one, what do you do with it? Any thing you do, even oiling the wood or metal (let alone shooting it), will decrease the value to another collector.

Still, some beautiful rifles for sure.

[Charlie59]

Were there any dates anywhere on the wrappings? How did the wood look? It must have been the experience of a lifetime being around all that great stuff!

Charlie

[Bodyman]

Actually more like torn, shredded and mangled plastic bags, but I didn't slow down to examine them. The rifles were flat new, just without the boxes. Orest suspected that they had their boxes until last year, but shipping rules have changed and they had to be sent as we saw them - only loose rifles were allowed on the pallets (darn). I think the final count on these was over 200 and it really was something to see the full racks (50 or 52 per rack). You know, the more I think about them I really wish I had the money to spare. I think these are the rifles that we are going to be talking about in the years to come - they really are pretty incredible.

But then as Rick says; if you buy one what do you do with it? Shoot it? No way. Heck, if you even oil it you are changing them from what they are now and irrevocably so, which is breaking the first rule of conservation - only do what can be undone. I wonder what one would look like if it had a Renaissance Wax job baked on it to preserve it ... I still would never shoot it but it would at least be protected then. I wonder what the loose foil on the trigger group and muzzle was meant to protect. Not much, really as far as I can see ...

They are incredible though.


Image lifted from "Al in Mn" on the CMP forum
CMP Discussion Forum - UNFIRED GARANDS @ Anniston w. PICS

[Rick Cummelin]

Were there any dates anywhere on the wrappings? How did the wood look? It must have been the experience of a lifetime being around all that great stuff!

Charlie

All that was left of the original wrappings was what you can see in the photos: Just small pieces of VCI paper around the front & rear sights.

The wood was as you might expect: very dry. All these "new" rifles were still covered in that crystalized powder used to protect new items prior to being wrapped in VCI paper. Nice to see what unissued wood actually looks like. It was much lighter in color than the other rifles we were sorting: almost an orange color, with lighter shades of yellowish areas. Of course, 50+ years in a bag may have had something to do with the color too.

Yes, it was an amazing experience!

[Charlie59]

Were they mixed in with all the other rifles when you got there, or were they on their own pallets? I can't tell by looking, but are the stocks all walnut?

[twh]

Mixed in with the other rifles on the pallets although the bottomn of the two pallets I worked on had 2 1/2 rows that were new rifles.

[Rick Cummelin]

Were they mixed in with all the other rifles when you got there, or were they on their own pallets? I can't tell by looking, but are the stocks all walnut?

Like TWH said, they were at the bottom of our pallets too. Being at the bottom meant that they would not be dinged by op rod handles on the rifles below them, since there weren't any below them.

Yep, all the stocks on those new rifles are walnut. In fact, most of the rifles we sorted last Saturday had walnut stocks. Maybe 10-15% Greek birch or other types of wood, and those were primarily on arsenal reworked WWII rifles, which made up maybe 20-25% on the rifles we sorted.