New grade of Garand?

[Bodyman]

Collector string (warning) - start the new year out with a new term.

Has it finally happened? Have we finally come to a point where we can have a NEW grade of Garand? With all the reproduction parts being sold now, can we finally ... or should we start ... calling our handiwork a Garand that was "restored with original parts"? Will it become a 'higher' grade of restoration down the road here? Maybe guys are already doing it (and they have been with cars for a long time), but it seems to be a newer term with regard to Garands.

Reread thru that, and I just don't know if I want to start this or not ... (grin).

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[Charlie59]

How about "Unfired since third re-build"? The key to any new grade designation is to get "unfired" into the description.

[Kirk]

The Historical Originality and Preservation Act of 2011 (passed by Congress & signed into law last week) took effect today and prohibits parts swapping on historically significant firearms. The only exceptions allowed are for repairs & these have to be done by a FFL holder (gun smith) so it can be entered into the registry.

[DaveN]

What in the H E ..double toothpicks are you talking about? Congress is know telling me I can't change the post WWII hammer out of my 42 garand and put a correct WWII hammer in it to make it more correct. How would they even know and are you just pulling our leg.
Though I wouldn't put it past our gov. We had a saying in England " If they could find a way to tax sex they would."

[finloq]

We had a saying in England " If they could find a way to tax sex they would."

They have. Ever bought a box of condoms?

[Rick Cummelin]

Has it finally happened? Have we finally come to a point where we can have a NEW grade of Garand? With all the reproduction parts being sold now, can we finally ... or should we start ... calling our handiwork a Garand that was "restored with original parts"? Will it become a 'higher' grade of restoration down the road here? Maybe guys are already doing it (and they have been with cars for a long time), but it seems to be a newer term with regard to Garands.

Wasn't this inevitable and totally predictable? Seems like it to me. Once the "greedy folks" figured out that the Chinese could make repro parts super-cheap, it was only a matter of time until this junk crept into the market big time. So now it's here and in huge quantities, and judging from that site you linked, most of the repro stuff still isn't marked, which IMHO, makes it OK for use in a shooter or to replace broken parts if the rifle owner doesn't care. Where this will become a real sticky issue is when other "greedy people" attempt to pass off the Chinese junk as some sort of original parts. Yeah, I know, it has ALREADY started!

Of course, it also means that we who value originality will, by necessity, have to do a more thorough job of looking at a prospective rifle before we buy (same as has happened with cars). Or, simply give up on this hobby because it's no longer about collecting, but about making money (same as has happened with cars). All this sucks of course.

[Kirk]

What in the H E ..double toothpicks are you talking about? Congress is know telling me I can't change the post WWII hammer out of my 42 garand and put a correct WWII hammer in it to make it more correct. How would they even know and are you just pulling our leg."

Sorry, couldn't resist! The 112th Congress repealed the law today, a test case for Obamacare.

[mack]

I have used Standard Parts replacement screws and occasionally springs, but never really considered the fact that i have "de-graded" my rifle with foreign parts or cheap Chinese copies. I have found their parts to be of the best quality and, in shooter grade rifles, that is more important to me than whether something is original.

For original parts, I have been searching sources in Italy and Greece for several years. I have been successful in my searches since many of these fine rifles spent their later years in that part of the world and parts for them are fairly plentiful even yet. Most are post war parts however but I used to find and buy rewrapped gas cylinders, for instance, that were almost perfect for very reasonable prices.

Perhaps in the future there will develop collecting specialists that will inspect and verify your now-valuable antique Garand as "all original" or "rebuilt with Chinese parts." The toughest grade will be the ones "rebuilt with USGI original parts." For that designation we will need "experts" on whom we can rely. Perhaps a certification could be offered through some organization, qualifying individuals to tell us what is "good" and what is "bad."

[Midmichigun]

@Mack, and with any certification process, the wording would go like,"When examined on XXX date, it was found the rifle contained all or XX% authentic parts. However, due to the value of the parts present, we can't certifity they are still present in the rifle you just purchased." LOL!!!!

[rider]

"Unmolested CMP M1" sounds good but even some of those have commercial parts now.