I am now happy to finally own my very own M1 Garand. I’ve wanted one of these for a while, but since I joined a CMP affiliated club, I decided it was time.
This one was likely produced in 1955. Not a WW II model, but I wanted a good shooter. The history isn’t quite as important to me. The receiver looks to be in good shape. The blueing parkerizing is still very much in tact.
The manual can be rather amusing. Here’s a caution about “M1 Thumb”:
A SYMPATHETIC WARNING ABOUT “M1 THUMB”
The bolt of the M1 rifle can slam shut unexpectedly if the shooter has not strictly followed these instructions. If your thumb or finger is in its path, a painful condition called “M1 Thumb” is a strong possibility. In a half-century of military service with the United States and its foreign allies, the M1 has bitten thousands of recruits in this manner. No one ever died from it, but it did lead to a deplorable expansion of vocabulary in many languages…
… If one day you get careless and acquire an M1 Thumb, think of it not as a digit but a diploma. It shows that you’ve learned not to do it again.
Heh. Now I just need to get some .30-06 and get to the range.