Greetings all, I am a semi-recovered Garandicon collector and long-time viewer of this forum. Great community with excellent content! Never have posted here before.

Anyway, received my GCAicon journal today – another outstanding issue, kudos to all who help with it. I have a question about the B-17 recovered Garand article:

Per the story, this 7-41 rifle was issued as a survival weapon to a B-17E deployed at Java, and the crew carved on it accordingly. The rifle was recovered from the B-17 when it was destroyed on the ground in Feb 42, and kept by the crew gunner who recovered it.

How did this rifle end up with an annealed receiver? I thought new build and even maintenance or rebuild anneal dates were later than anything this rifle would have had per the story above. Also, was it common to issue new rifles for purposes like this at a time when not even all of the infantry had Garands or gas port Garands yet?
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