M1 owners

[Quilly]

what is a better garand to have for a collection. winchester, H&R, or harvester? i heard that the comapny out of indiana had problems with the recievers but there barrels where top notch being made in alabama.
i have seem to getinto the collection of M1's but i have only seen alot of the S.A.'s with the stamped trigger assembly and trigger gaurd. not the nice milled ones.

any idea's?

[Briman]

In terms of numbers, IHC made the fewest, HRA made the second fewest. Winchesters tend to be a bit collectable because they were only made during WWII, and because of the winchester name.
HRA's and high serial number Springfields are the best made in terms of fit and finish, but all the M1's were made to government specs.

My next M1 will be a Danish return with the Danish made VAR barrel, which from all accounts are supposed to be very accurate. I have an HRA with a 1960's SA barrel on it, and am very pleased with the accuracy, and would be suprised if a damish rifle shot better, but I'll find out.


Quilly, you need to become CMP eligible. I can't stress enough how much you will benifit from it if you want to buy a few more garands, or even and 03 springfield (or 3).
Their requirements are very lax now.

You need to belong to a shooting club- a $25 membership to the Garand collectors of America fulfills this http://www.garandcollector.org/

You need to fufill a proof of marksmanship activity which can be many things:
-a foid or CCW license if applicable to your state
-pay a few bucks and make a trip to a shooting range and have the range officer verify that you shot at least 50 rounds just download a copy of the form letter from the cmp site and have him/her sign off on it.
-Go to a gun shop that has a shooting range and rents handguns- for about $25 you should be able to rent range time, a handgun, and buy enough ammo for the requirement- I know it sounds like hard work but someone has to do it Then have the shop owner sign off that you fired at least 50 rounds.
-shoot in a formal match at a range- call around, at alot of ranges, you don't need to be a member to shoot in their competitions.
-Go trapshooting for an afternoon, save or get copies of your score sheets, and have someone at the range sign off on them, have them sign your form letter from the cmp site.

Quilly, for less than a $50 investment- and half of that being shooting, which you do anyway, you can buy "service grade" rifles from CMP that are going to have their functions and barrel wear checked before they are shipped to you at prices starting around $450. If you are going to buy another M1 I can't possibly steer you to a better way of getting one.