My M1 Garand from CMP finally arrived

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Perplexed

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Good question. I was under the assumption that ALL LEADS were marked on the receiver legs. How would I tell? The barrel is dated 3-52. I do like the lead dipped heels on this 1.0 mil. receiver though!

Edit: I did some more research and it looks like it is a LEAD rebuild. It has the correct parkerizing that is supposedly correct for a LEAD. The barrel is great with a muzzle reading of 0 and a throat reading of 2.

Yep, the very light gray park is indicative - though not with 100% certainty - of a LEAD rebuild. The one I had came in a stock with the LEAD triangle mark, but no inscription on the receiver leg. It was in excellent condition, but I sold it because I'm partial to the early post-war rebuilds. Those often were reparked over the existing finish, so sometimes over the years the finish acquired a hint of plum coloration. I have such a rebuild, and the purplish tint is way cool IMHO.
 

1mathom1

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Any cartouches? I received 2 on Friday and both had interesting stocks. The second was a birch Letterkenny (LEAD), but the rest of the rifle was NOT a LEAD rebuild.

Only cartouches I see are the ubiquitous circle P proof mark and a square containing three stars over the eagle holding arrows. I found a site that says it was used on both SA and WRA stocks. I don't know enough yet to tell which I have for sure but I a guessing it is SA.
 

Perplexed

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Only cartouches I see are the ubiquitous circle P proof mark and a square containing three stars over the eagle holding arrows. I found a site that says it was used on both SA and WRA stocks. I don't know enough yet to tell which I have for sure but I a guessing it is SA.

The square with the eagle and stars is a DAS acceptance stamp, which was used post-war. So your stock would be an SA production since WRA stopped making stocks with the close of WW2. I'm assuming the "P" in the circle proof mark has serifs?
 

1mathom1

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The square with the eagle and stars is a DAS acceptance stamp, which was used post-war. So your stock would be an SA production since WRA stopped making stocks with the close of WW2. I'm assuming the "P" in the circle proof mark has serifs?

That was what I had deduced. Will have to look at the proof mark again.....don't recall if it was serif or sanserif.
 

Perplexed

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That was what I had deduced. Will have to look at the proof mark again.....don't recall if it was serif or sanserif.

If it's sans serif, look in the barrel channel for a four-character code stamped there. If there's one, ka-ching - you probably have a valuable IHC stock :) Otherwise, it'd be likely a HRA stock.
 

1mathom1

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If it's sans serif, look in the barrel channel for a four-character code stamped there. If there's one, ka-ching - you probably have a valuable IHC stock :) Otherwise, it'd be likely a HRA stock.

Definitely serif. No markings inside stock.
Finally got to shoot it over the weekend and had trouble. Apparently a common early rebuild practice was to cut the gas cylinder through the front sight dovetail and weld it it make it serviceable. One of those saw cut tubes was used on my rifle and the missed the fact the back half of the dt was broken. It came off on shot number 10. We found the sight thank goodness. The defective tube is going back to CMP.

 

1mathom1

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The replacement gas cylinder arrived last week and I got the rifle put back together. The replacement cylinder came with a front sight installed and was a much tighter fit than the one that had been cut and welded. Want to get back to the range ASAP but no clue when that will be.
 

Perplexed

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The replacement gas cylinder arrived last week and I got the rifle put back together. The replacement cylinder came with a front sight installed and was a much tighter fit than the one that had been cut and welded. Want to get back to the range ASAP but no clue when that will be.

A tighter fit is good, but I hope you tapped the cylinder fully onto the splines before screwing down the gas lock. With the cylinder fully seated, check for a bit of back-and-forth play in the front hand guard, which is desirable. If the HG is fixed tightly in place, tap the cylinder off just a tad to get that play in the HG, then install the gas lock. Ideally, it'd snug down finger-tight, but it's better to be a bit loose than to bear down on the lock to get it to line up. Otherwise, you might jam the cylinder back against the HG and remove the loose fit.
 

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