For anyone interested or anyone that might have information, here are some pictures of my M1

Full over all view here:



Serial Number and from different look ups, I have gotten made in December of 45 or the year 1943 so I'm not sure which is correct


No stamps I can see on the stock. There are some worn white painted numbers. I'm guessing they are rack numbers. You can see what looks like a V7 above that looks like a number 49 that is barely visible but not in this picture:


Here are a bunch of numbers from around the rifle if anyone can shed some light on this story, that would be great.

Serial number indicates December 1944 manufacture date, according to my Scott Duff reference book. You have an uncut Winchester operating rod and I think it is the correct revision op rod for the serial number. It appears to have a Springfield hammer. When you pull back the op rod handle back, are there any numbers/letters just below the rear handguard on the barrel just before where you see the barrel start to step down in diameter? If not, then you might also have a Winchester barrel, as I believe they are marked on top of the barrel and can't be seen unless the rear handguard is removed. If it turns out to be the original Winchester barrel, that would be a tremendous bonus. Most WWII Garands used much at all, had original barrels replaced somewhere along the way, due to the corrosive ammo used then.

I can't see the rear sights well enough to say if it has a WWII lock bar rear sight or a later, more advanced rear sight.

It looks like it has a WWII era milled trigger guard but no idea if Springfield or Winchester.

Original inspection cartouches on the stock would be on the left side, below the rear part of the receiver. Quite likely it is a replacement stock, which is very common.

Does it shoot well?

On the replacement stock. Recent reimports from the Phillipines had to scrap all the wood due to termites. They're being distributed by the CMP with replacement wood.
No idea if that's one or not.

the look up I found puts it Jan 1944 2543412 was the last SN# of January 44

2420191 was supposed to be the last of Dec 1943

but very close


as to the Philippine m1s they had to treat all the wood for termites but the rifles entered the US wood on, there is an interesting video of the Philippine M1s on the CMP web site

they brought back 86K at a cost of 5.2 million with the termite treatment, asbestos abatement, new shipping cartons and a US flag ship that could only carry the rifles no other cargo those were all the whoops to jump through to bring back our guns . it comes to about 60 dollars a rifle. some are in very rough shape some very nice.

I bought this rifle from a buddy of mine. He has owned it for decades and never fired it. I have not fired it yet, I just got it this morning. I have some ammo but I'm not going to use it because I do not know if it is corrosive. I'll have to order some in the near future. To my knowledge, it is not a CMP rifle. It has been in private hands for a very long time. I'll look again for numbers on the barrel.

The only numbers on the barrel I can see are in this picture. A number 7 and some sort of proof mark but I can't really make out what it is. I will probably have to take off the wood to really find out. I don't have a tool to take out the gas cap so I'll have to wait for that and then get the wood off of the barrel to look for numbers.

It is best to use ammo specifially designated for the M1 Garand, since the oprod is designed to function within a certain specified pressure curve when ammo is fired.

WHATEVER you do, if you disassemble the rifle for deep cleaning, DON'T try to straighten the op rod. There are supposed to be specifific bends in the op rod. It should look "bent", just bent in the right places and the right amounts.

Yup, I was looking into the ammo and I need to get some M2 Ball ammo. The M-1's shoot a somewhat light grain bullet 147gr with lower pressures. Common when you are dealing with most relics. I can get new M-2 Ball ammo for the M-1 for around .50+ a round. I'll pick up a few hundred rounds to have on hand. This will never be some daily shooter. It will be something to take to the range every so often to shoot and enjoy the history.

The serial numbers you show are for Springfield Garands and match what I have in my reference book.

Winchester serial numbers ended at 2523942 for November 1944 and ended at 2533142 for December 1944. Serial number around 2536xxx was the last number Winchester used, before dropping down to 1601000 and continuing to 1605600, all in January 1945.

Again, I'm just going by the Scott Duff book "The M1 Garand: World War II".

Serial numbers were issued in blocks for both Springfield Armory and Winchester and the assigned blocks did not overlap. But Springfield did overrun a bunch of Winchester's assigned serial number range of 2305850 to 2655849 and duplicates have been found by collectors.

You might call the CMP to see if you can order books, manuals, etc, without having to meet all the requirements needed to order rifles. They have a very handy manual they printed up that helps show disassembly. There are a couple parts that could be installed wrong and it wouldn't funtion properly. I suggest not taking it apart very far, if you haven't done it before or have someone to help get it back together right.

The booklet CMP sends out with rifles they sell is:

https://estore.thecmp.org/Catalog/Item/700

you are correct I had looked at Winchester then then gone back a page and started looking at Springfield numbers

Thanks. I may order one of those manuals I love manuals. I watched a couple youtube videos on disassembly and reassembly. Not really to big of a deal. It comes apart pretty easily. I have harder problems getting my vintage Cetme apart and back together.

Yea, I was going to mention there are probably youtube videos on it also. Youtube wasn't around when I got my first M1 Garand.