Bruce D Pease
Member
Don’t remember Garand at woolworths. Do remember enfields (my 3, mk4 , and “jungle carbines”) as well as Italian carcanos at wt Grant. All under $30.
M1 Garand: WHY is it so expensive?
- Thread starter Heir Kommt Die Sonne
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Bruce D Pease
Member
My Garand field grade cost 750. It had new wood, it’s a 1943 Springfield Armory, with a “new 1954barrel. It was reparkerized. Muzzle checks out as zero wear and throat as zero to one. Dead on accurate. Birch wood Casey tru oil on stock . M2 ball in the chamber. Good to go. Nicer than either one I carried for 6 years. Well worth every penny. CMP is tops, and worth going through the hoops to by from them.
MTMilitiaman
Member
The M1 Garand is not a cheap rifle, and never has been. It requires a deferentially heat treated receiver. The recess for the left locking lug is extremely complicated and requires a special machine. Then there is the long operating rod and the complicated feed mechanism for the el bloc clip. It all adds up to cost of manufacture. The rifle is popular, with a known history, and a nostalgic fan base that increases interest in the rifle. Increasing demand for a product that is difficult, time consuming, and expensive to manufacture is always going to drive up cost.
wiscoaster
Member
In comparison to the rest of the market, a CMP M1 is relatively cheap. Cheap vs. expensive are always relative terms. The question is what it's compared to. I don't know its history, but right now the market average a CMP M1 would be compared to is higher. Cost of production? Not material to the comparison because they're no longer being made.
Im sure I over paid. My LGS bases their used prices on gunbroker. I paid $1600 a WRA verison from in a new stock. I've seen on GB and ARMSLIST thats the going rate for a Winchester model. It did come with the CMP certificate and coupon for free range time, just not CMP case. I do want now to go with it some version of a collector grade. But its my first Garand and I know the prices will only go up.
Nature Boy
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Adjusted for inflation, that's ~$800 today (1990/2020)
Nature Boy
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Adjusted for inflation, that's ~$670 today (1970/2020)
Garandimal
member
And what do you bet the CMP raises their Service Grade rifle price to that after the 1st of the year.
GR
wiscoaster
Member
I'd say that's a pretty good bet. Not sure why they haven't done so already. What's your best guess? $950? Higher?
Garandimal
member
(NRA) American Rifleman Magazine - February 1963
Very Good - $79.95
"Like New" - $89.95
(~ $750 in Today's Dollars)
Mail Order...Very Good - $79.95
"Like New" - $89.95
(~ $750 in Today's Dollars)
GR
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Garandimal
member
$775 to $800, tops.
They generally follow the inflationary curve w/ their rifles.
... and then gouge Collectors with their 1911's.
GR
CapnMac
Member
The company doing business as Inland is using AO castings for most of their parts. This is alleges of the dba Rockola--but I have not seen any of those to be able to comment. The dba Inlands have some strange things made as castings--like the front sight.
Fulton is machining theirs, pretty much to 1943 specification. Which, today, is both slow and expensive. And the prices reflect that. Demand for such things is right up there with any other custom-built firearm--long on hand raising, low on cash offering. Fulton makes arguably the best M-14 similcrum out there, too. And the price reflects it, too. When demand is perhaps 100 per year, it's hard to tool up of economy of scale machining.
Not surprising for having been in front-line service from 1936 to 1962 (and Reserve/Guard service well into the 70s).
I want to remember seeing that, SGs were returning to "in stock" and were to be listed at $850 each.
Garandimal
member
They are in stock now... at the old $750 delivered price.
The new year will probably bring a change, as that price is getting pretty stale.
(although, they may just keep it low, as is - so they can sell as many as possible, in case the Election goes bad, ...before they're outlawed)
GR
lysanderxiii
Member
Having been in and out of many a Woolsworth during the 1970, it wasn't until the the rewriting of the import laws that made M1 reappear in the stores, and that was in the mid 1980s.
lysanderxiii
Member
That is also before the 1968 GCA which is what restricted the re-importation of Military Assistance M1s, until the 1980s. After the 1968 GCA the price of M1s went up as you could no longer get them.
Elkins45
Member
I hadn’t been to the CMP website in a while and this thread prompted me to give it a peek. They have a “rack grade special” listed that is a new barrel and stock with a pitted receiver for $650. If I didn’t have so many home repairs on the horizon I would definitely consider picking one of those up.
lysanderxiii
Member
ignore
Interestingly, it would take 72 hours to get the 89.95 Garand in 1963 at minimum wage and one week's pay to get it for someone making the average income for back then. Today it would take 100 hours to get the CMP Special at today's minimum wage and about 4 days based on average men's salary (I'm guessing more men buy these, sue me) so its really stayed about the same cost based on earning income. I'm driving down next week to Ala. to get one myself.
tark
Member
Hammer carried a Remington model 8, supposedly in 25 Remington. That model was never made in 30-06. I assume you mean his BAR. The original 1918 BARs did have a semi auto setting so, technically, I suppose it would qualify under the OPs rules. That is a little known fact. Most people assume that BARs were all full-auto only, with two rates of fire, low and high. It is also not widely known that the WW II models had receivers made from "Armasteel" which is pearlitic malleable cast iron, not actual steel at all. It cannot be welded, but it can be brazed.Frank Hamer might disagree.
I would agree with you as well though.
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lysanderxiii
Member
I think they were one of the first, if not the first "precision" cast receivers for a modern high power cartridge.
BLACKHAWKNJ
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When I started collecting /shooting in 1967 I recall M-1s were few and far between, IIRC it was still an issued weapon in the Reserves and National Guard, hence collectors/shooters had to settle for rewelds, etc.
OP
OP
Heir Kommt Die Sonne
Member
So basically they had to settle for refurbished M-1s that had already been damaged?
And to add, the idea of people owning M-1s as far back as the 60s is a interesting thing to think about.
sugerwater
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Bought mine from the CMP many years ago for $600. Original barrel and most parts matched. No eclectic pencil markings on the receiver.
Sold that rifle for a very handsome profit a few years ago.
Sold that rifle for a very handsome profit a few years ago.
BLACKHAWKNJ
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In answer to the question "Why don't you find M-1s in factory/arsenal/original condition, there is the picture of an Ordnance man in the South Pacific seated at his table doing his paperwork surrounded by stacks and stacks of Garands. His job was to get them back into service as soon as possible.
I have 2, both Springfields, one from September, 1941, the other, May, 1942.
I have 2, both Springfields, one from September, 1941, the other, May, 1942.
kBob
Member
The Director of Civilian Marksmanship (then actually a part of the US Army) began selling National Match M-1 Garands to qualified individuals in 1955.
One had to be an NRA member, affiliated with the DCM, and competed in sanctioned high power matches.
By the Mid 1960's non match grade rifles were available through the DCM.
Since the DCM had a limit of one rifle sale per life few made it to the "civilian" market.
With the Post Office-ization of the office into the CMP the life time limit went away and some people bought multiple rifles and sold them at profit at gunshows or in their shops. While this was "good" for the CMP it has reduced the numbers of M1 available from the organization.
At one point DCM even sold M1911a1 pistols to NRA members as well as M1903 series Springfields.
There was a law suit against the DCM/USA for requiring NRA membership that technically (though not practically) did away with that requirement. I think this was about 1964. Afterwards a person belonging to a DCM affiliated club meeting all other requirements could purchase a once in a lifetime M1 Garand.
I tried hard to get my Dad to qualify for a DCM Garand ( I was under 21 so not qualified, most folks forget 21 was the age of majority in most states until 1972) in the mid 1960's but was unsuccessful.
-kBob
One had to be an NRA member, affiliated with the DCM, and competed in sanctioned high power matches.
By the Mid 1960's non match grade rifles were available through the DCM.
Since the DCM had a limit of one rifle sale per life few made it to the "civilian" market.
With the Post Office-ization of the office into the CMP the life time limit went away and some people bought multiple rifles and sold them at profit at gunshows or in their shops. While this was "good" for the CMP it has reduced the numbers of M1 available from the organization.
At one point DCM even sold M1911a1 pistols to NRA members as well as M1903 series Springfields.
There was a law suit against the DCM/USA for requiring NRA membership that technically (though not practically) did away with that requirement. I think this was about 1964. Afterwards a person belonging to a DCM affiliated club meeting all other requirements could purchase a once in a lifetime M1 Garand.
I tried hard to get my Dad to qualify for a DCM Garand ( I was under 21 so not qualified, most folks forget 21 was the age of majority in most states until 1972) in the mid 1960's but was unsuccessful.
-kBob
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