I have this late 6.09 Garand...

[Akulahawk]

It's got a bit different of markings on the chamber area of the barrel...



No other markings on the barrel that I have found. I haven't removed the top handguard, so I don't know if there's anything under there. What do ya think?

Information

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[Mark in Rochester]

are there any markings on the left side of the barrel above the gas cylinder ?

AFPG?

[Akulahawk]

No. There are no markings in that area, the typical area of the NM stamp.

AFPG? What's that?

Edit: I take it back: there is a VERY faint AFPG in that area. However, there is no NM stamp there.

I've got a few pictures of the area, I'll upload them shortly.

[Akulahawk]

Ok, here goes nothing...



This one was the best/most visible. It's right above the bayonet lug on the barrel. It's chambered in .30 cal, not 7.62...

Here's a close up of that area:

[dobek]

Nice Catch on spotting the AFPG characteristics Mark -

AFPG stands for Air Force Premium Grade

Air Force Armorers hand selected barrels for use on their match rifles - - they would normally stamp NM on the barrel and AFPG...

Now there are a few things to look at on the rest of the rifle to see if you have a match rifle or simply a rifle using a spare AFPG barrel.

you already have one indication - the Air Force would polish the barrel under the op rod to allow smooth operation.

Is the stock bedded? is the handgaurd ferrules screwed on? what type of screw head (slotted / phillips)?

now the weird part - the air force would drill a hole on the rear sight lug, put a small ball bearing into the hole with a spring, notch the back side of the adjustment knob creating a 1/2moa sight adjustment out of a 1moa sight knob...... look under the sight knob and see of you can see the little ball bearing shining back at you (or remove the sight and see)

Let us know what you find - - -

Steve

[Akulahawk]

The stock appears to be bedded, the handguard ferrule is screwed on, the screws used are slotted. When looking under the sight knob, you mean remove the windage knob and see if there's the small ball-bearing or can I just remove the cover and look in there? The rear sight base seems to be stamped NM. I bought it from the CMP. Who knows if the rear sight had been replaced since it's initial build...
Here's the rear sight from the windage knob side. I haven't taken it apart to see if the internals are actually modified as described.

[Mark in Rochester]

Looks like you may have a winner there - a very desirable rifle

[Akulahawk]

Thanks! When I originally got it, I thought it might be a NM rifle. I took it to a local JCG Match Director guy who looked it over and he thought it wasn't a NM rifle, rather one built for competition at the unit level. He missed the AFPG mark on the barrel just as I did and I guess that he missed the polishing of chamber area that the AFPG rifles have...

I'm surprised that the CMP let these out. How many AFPG rifles are there? Anyone take a guess? If these are fairly scarce, I'd be very surprised that they let these out for the regular pricing...

From what little I've been able to find about AFPG rifles, they seem to be a sub-group of NM rifles...

[Mark in Rochester]

From what little I've been able to find about AFPG rifles, they seem to be a sub-group of NM rifles...[/QUOTE]

One of our fellow shooters was a full colonel in the Air Force - according to him when he was in the rules stated that all AFPG had to be returned and could not be sold as surplus. If true few are out there.

[Akulahawk]

I've found an AFPG listed on Gunbroker and it's supposed to be a 7.62 version. I've also seen (cached), pictures of the AFPG modification to the rear sight. One person has an AFPG posted on his website, but the picture is so bad you can't tell it from another Garand with a nice stock.

AFPG rifles seem to have gotten out, but not in any great number... at least as far as I can tell.