My Italian Army M1 Garand rifles

[Bizio]

Dear Collectors,

here are my two Italian Army M1 Garand rifles, both in 7.62 NATO caliber.
They both came out of Terni Arsenal in different years.

The first one is model T1 dated 1964.
The barrel is brand new made in the '60s by Italian Terni Arsenal in caliber 7.62 NATO to replace the original American barrel in caliber 30-06

When the Arsenal realized it was quite expensive to make new barrels, in the early '70s they created the model T2, using all existing original American barrels 30-06 by shortening the chanber of about 12 mm ( 1/2") so to load 7.62 NATO ammos.
This model is shorter than original M1 Garand, its op rod and also its hand guards are shorter.

Here is the model T1





































---------- Post added at 07:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:53 PM ----------

Here is the model T2 dated 1975

Information

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[Patrick Chadwick]

Thanks for an excellent series of photos! I have never seen so much on the Italian Garand, and vote that this sequence be added to the Garand "stickies".

[Bizio]

You' re very welcome, Patrick Chadwick.

The Italian Army used also M1 Garand completely made in Italy by Breda Meccanica (you can read BMB over the front sight of my T1) and by Beretta.
Anyway, since I consider the M1 Garand a true American rifle, rather than getting Italian made copies, I preferred to get for my collection two original M1 rifles coming from USA made by Springfield Armory and modified by Terni Arsenal later on.

[browningautorifle]

Classic examples of these particular rifle, a bit of everything in the way of parts. Some made and left as was, some modified for use and some made by Italy...excellent examples.

[bearrowland]

Bizio, those are gorgeous rifles!! Thanks for the pictures!

[HILLBILLY-06]

Very Nice Bizio, those are very nice...

[Bizio]

You're all most welcome.

A picture of a part of the receiver bearing serial number of my T1 model has been published on Armi Magazine, one of the most famous Italian guns magazines.



The article extracted from the magazine, unfortunatly in Italian language, "Un mito italiano" (An Italian myth) can be downloaded here :
M1 in Italia.zip download - 2shared

[tom gray]

Bizio
Those are 2 very gorgeous rifles They are excellent examples of the fine work done by the Italian arsenals & why they were chosen to overhaul & repair for all of Europe. I would be
thrilled to have one like them in my collection. I will keep looking. Enjoy them!
Tom

[Bizio]

Thank you, Tom.

They are both stored in the same safe box in good company with my two American 30-06 M1 Garand rifles, dated June 1944 and November 1954.

[Bizio]

Here they are