Any M1 Garand experts here?

k0ua · Jul 15, 2015

Threepoint said:
Wonder what year that ad is from. I see they wanted $15.95 for British Enfield .303s. Highway robbery. My dad bought two for me in 1963 from Hechingers Bldg Supply for $9.95 each. I sporterised one and kept the other in orig. condition.

I will give ya $20 for the original one. That is OVER double your money... how 'bout that!

Just PM me your address and the $20 is on the way.

k0ua · Jul 15, 2015

You know what is kinda funny, is now we think of those old WW1 and WW2 rifles as precious examples of our past history, but back in the 60's they were just old surplus rifles, and we all wanted to chop them down and "sportierize" them about as fast as we could get our hands on them. My father and I "sporterized" a whole lot of old bolt action rifles from many different country's. Most were around $10 to maybe $20 at most. Maybe we done our part to drive up the prices of the remaining unmolested rifles.:laughing: We sure destroyed the collector value of a lot of rifles. 93 Mausers, 98 Mausers, 1917 enfields, British .303's of MK3 and MK4 .. Sprigfields, Carcano's You name it we destroyed it.

rtimgray · Jul 16, 2015

k0ua said:
You know what is kinda funny, is now we think of those old WW1 and WW2 rifles as precious examples of our past history, but back in the 60's they were just old surplus rifles, and we all wanted to chop them down and "sportierize" them about as fast as we could get our hands on them. My father and I "sporterized" a whole lot of old bolt action rifles from many different country's. Most were around $10 to maybe $20 at most. Maybe we done our part to drive up the prices of the remaining unmolested rifles.:laughing: We sure destroyed the collector value of a lot of rifles. 93 Mausers, 98 Mausers, 1917 enfields, British .303's of MK3 and MK4 .. Sprigfields, Carcano's You name it we destroyed it.

I think this is remarkable too. It's just a supply/demand kind of thing I guess.

I'm too young to have been involved in that kind of stuff, but I've read articles/seen pictures of place like hardware stores, dry goods stores, etc., having crates and barrels full of surplus rifles with signs hanging on them saying "Your pick - $15 each" or similar.

I kick myself for my ignorance even 10-15 years ago when I would go in some of our local sporting goods stores and they had racks of surplus rifles that were all $100 or less, some in the $40 and $50 range - Turkish and Yugo mausers, carcanos, etc. I vividly remember when a store in town was selling SKS rifles for $69 apiece or 3 for $200. And I remember thinking to myself "Gosh, who would want to buy junk like that....."

Ah, youth. It's wasted on the young.

Good luck and take care.

Soundguy · Jul 16, 2015

k0ua said:
You know what is kinda funny, is now we think of those old WW1 and WW2 rifles as precious examples of our past history, but back in the 60's they were just old surplus rifles, and we all wanted to chop them down and "sportierize" them about as fast as we could get our hands on them. My father and I "sporterized" a whole lot of old bolt action rifles from many different country's. Most were around $10 to maybe $20 at most. Maybe we done our part to drive up the prices of the remaining unmolested rifles.:laughing: We sure destroyed the collector value of a lot of rifles. 93 Mausers, 98 Mausers, 1917 enfields, British .303's of MK3 and MK4 .. Sprigfields, Carcano's You name it we destroyed it.

remember when arisaka's were sold in barrels at hardware stores..... you had a hard time GIVING them away...

Soundguy · Jul 16, 2015

rtimgray said:
I think this is remarkable too. It's just a supply/demand kind of thing I guess.

I'm too young to have been involved in that kind of stuff, but I've read articles/seen pictures of place like hardware stores, dry goods stores, etc., having crates and barrels full of surplus rifles with signs hanging on them saying "Your pick - $15 each" or similar.

I kick myself for my ignorance even 10-15 years ago when I would go in some of our local sporting goods stores and they had racks of surplus rifles that were all $100 or less, some in the $40 and $50 range - Turkish and Yugo mausers, carcanos, etc. I vividly remember when a store in town was selling SKS rifles for $69 apiece or 3 for $200. And I remember thinking to myself "Gosh, who would want to buy junk like that....."

Ah, youth. It's wasted on the young.

Good luck and take care.

i missed your post before posting but yeah.

I also remember when turkish rifles were 39$ or even 29 $ with cracked stocks, or if you bought 5 or 10 of them.

wish i had known what i know now, and had more $ then. a 5000$ investment into 'good' 39-49$ could be worth 3-5 X that now.

Threepoint · Jul 16, 2015

This may change in the future, though. Twenty or thirty years ago, we were saying the same thing about antique furniture, e.g., "Wish I'd saved Great Grandma's Victorian table and chairs, they'd really bring a good price today". But now young people don't want antiques when furnishing their homes. I've heard several antique dealers say the bottom has all but dropped out of the antique furniture market, except for museum-quality pieces!

k0ua · Jul 16, 2015

Soundguy said:
remember when arisaka's were sold in barrels at hardware stores..... you had a hard time GIVING them away...

I had one when I was about 13. by 15 or 16, I could not shoot it any more. The dang stock was too short as I got bigger. I would hit myself in the nose with my right hand on the wrist of the stock. Mine still had the Chrysanthemum on the the top of the receiver. I heard most of them were ground off before they left the land of the rising sun. They were a pretty decent rifle. We had to reload Norma brass for it, It was hard to find factory ammo. But no problem for my Dad and I. I started reloading .38 special when I was about 6. Under dads watchful eye of course. He would not let me do the powder dump or the seating operation, then but I sure decapped a lot of hulls and sized them at that tender age.

Soundguy · Jul 18, 2015

Yup, milsurps, when they were cheap, sure were alot if bang for the buck

Garandman · Jul 18, 2015

My best friend has the best cheap Milsurp: a legit "Vet bring back" his father had in the Pacific in WWII. It is a '43 manufacture and doesn't have any of the late war mods. First rifle I ever fired. He still has it, but I've picked up a few Carbines for that reason. My kids love them.