Weld on barreled receiver

[GUTS]

I was going through the Honor Guard rifles for one of the local Legion Clubs and when I pulled the upper handguard off of one of the Post War SA Garands I saw this. The barrel appears to be correct for the receiver and the throat measures 2.5 and the muzzle .5 so why the welding? These rifles came from the Army TACOM years ago and none of the fellas at the Legion Club ever welded it so when, why, and where was it done?

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[Bill Hollinger]

Drill rifle

[GUTS]

I thought a drill rifle was welded inside the chamber so the barrel was plugged, but I have never seen one. What does that little bit of weld do to render the rifle unoperable, or was that even the goal?

[boatbod]

My guess:- the barrel wasn't tight when indexed, so rather than fix it properly Bubba tack welded it with his trusty tombstone. Ugly job he made of it too.

[Bob Seijas]

That was part of the old method to make them semi-auto only: drill out the lock screw, then weld the lock and barrel so it could not be restored. I have seen perfect original rifles with that weld.

[GUTS]

Thanks Bob. Since these rifles are still owned by the ARMY and have never been in "bubba's" hands I figured it was done at an arsenal before they were shipped to the Legion Club. Bob, the Garand is semi only, are you thinking of the M14? Out of the eight rifles I did the cleaning on, five had the same weld.

[Bob Seijas]

Yeah, my bad -- I meant single shot manual, NOT semi

[Neal Myers]

Yes, but.......

The VFW M1 rifles I was asked to fix worked fine in semi-auto (after cleaning), even with the weld. (Some had weld on the blank firing adaptor,too.) And, many of the 1903/1903A3 drill rifles that CMP sold had welds (barrel-to-receiver, & mag cutoff).

Many years ago drill rifles were selected from rifles that had become "unserviceable", & would be dangerous to fire with live ammo. The armory couldn't very well plug the chamber, or the rifle couldn't be used for blanks. The spot welds are a red flag to any armorer, "Don't try to restore this rifle."

In more recent years, perfectly good rifles have been converted to drill rifles because 1) they were obsolete, & 2) there were requests for drill rifles. We can only guess why the spot welding continued; maybe it was to discourage parts swapping.

The 1903A4 reproductions currently being sold by Gibbs are on drill rifle receivers. They claim that there was no damage from the heat of welding, & we have no reported problems with these rifles.

[DaveN]

Yes what Neal said. I was asked to help a friend sell his departed dads Garand and when I looked it over it was welded at barrel and receiver union and the gas Plug as well. It took some asking around but I got the same answer. Blank fireing ceremonial rifle as this one was mostly correct for a 400000 SA with a Winchester cartouched stock and most likely did 21 gun salutes more than being tossed in the air.
I was new to collecting and wish I had paid the $400 for what I perceived to be a unserviceable drill rifle or at best a reinactors M1. Live and learn.

[Joe W]

Yes, but.......

The VFW M1 rifles I was asked to fix worked fine in semi-auto (after cleaning), even with the weld. (Some had weld on the blank firing adaptor,too.) And, many of the 1903/1903A3 drill rifles that CMP sold had welds (barrel-to-receiver, & mag cutoff).

Many years ago drill rifles were selected from rifles that had become "unserviceable", & would be dangerous to fire with live ammo. The armory couldn't very well plug the chamber, or the rifle couldn't be used for blanks. The spot welds are a red flag to any armorer, "Don't try to restore this rifle."

In more recent years, perfectly good rifles have been converted to drill rifles because 1) they were obsolete, & 2) there were requests for drill rifles. We can only guess why the spot welding continued; maybe it was to discourage parts swapping.

The 1903A4 reproductions currently being sold by Gibbs are on drill rifle receivers. They claim that there was no damage from the heat of welding, & we have no reported problems with these rifles.

I purchased a "Ceremonial less wood" from CMP in 2008. It was a WW2 receiver with a HRA 3 52 barrel. MW of 1 and TE of 2.5. Very small tac weld. Without wishing to start a discussion on shooting these rifles, as the subject has been beaten to death in the past, I will say it was one of my best shooters.
By the way, the older Ceremonial rifles did not have "blank firing adaptors" as they were not intended to fire semi automatic. The valve in the gas cylinder lock screw was removed to prevent semi auto fire and the welds insured the lock screw was not replaced. The barrel to receiver weld insured that the barrel and gas system was not removed as a unit and the rifle "restored" to semi auto.