Garand 're-weld'

[D P Six]

A currently running thread (AR Sales M1A) made me wonder about the history of my first M1 Garand. I bought the rifle around 1967. It became my centerfire plinker which I put over 1000 rds thru never having a malfunction. It was 30 years later that I discovered that my beloved M1 was a dreaded re-weld', the rear of the receiver a 1944 Springfield, the front half a 1953 H&R. Does anyone know how many companies put together these guns, how many were made and did any ever blow up? I have since replaced the receiver with a 'one piece' WW2 SA receiver from the CMP. When you know what to look for, re-welds' stand out like a sore thumb but the make an interesting paperweight.

[John Crusher]

IIRC there were outfits in Calif. and back East that did them and there were a couple that cracked next to the weld (I actually almost bought a BM59 that was a Santa Fe that was cracked). National Ordnance and maybe Federal Ordnance did them too (I think) ?? I heard that there were also some that went Kaboom but never saw any pics that I remember.

[tdb59]

Do not know of any blow ups. Some had op-rod binding, or "off the track" issues due to the rails not being straight.
A lot of those re-welds also had 1903a3 two-groove barrels that had been machined and sleeved into original barrel stubs. they usually shot ok with 173 grain bullets, maybe not so good with 150s.


HTH

[enbloc8]

One of the bigger concerns with the rewelds is not merely that they were rewelded, but the reasons the rifled were demilled and scrapped in the first place. Many demills (especially early ones) were for cause, such as being burned in a fire or deemed incorrectibly out of spec.

[Timber Wolf]

Originally Posted by enbloc8

One of the bigger concerns with the rewelds is not merely that they were rewelded, but the reasons the rifled were demilled and scrapped in the first place. Many demills (especially early ones) were for cause, such as being burned in a fire or deemed incorrectibly out of spec.

Buzz killer!

[Orlando8]

Not actually a reweld but a welded receiver.
Many Garands ,Carbines, M14 etc were demilled not becuase of being out of spec but the govt. was sending them to "Capt Crunch" to destroy them as they were surplus inventory and not needed .
As already stated 'if" properly welded the problem wasnt "blowning up" but many didnt function properly
If yours doesnt have any issues I would fire away

















'

[enbloc8]

Originally Posted by Orlando8

Not actually a reweld but a welded receiver.
Many Garands ,Carbines, M14 etc were demilled not becuase of being out of spec but the govt. was sending them to "Capt Crunch" to destroy them as they were surplus inventory and not needed .
As already stated 'if" properly welded the problem wasnt "blowning up" but many didnt function properly
If yours doesnt have any issues I would fire away

Later on, definitely they were scrapping "surplus" arms...but when much of the "reweld" game was on in the 1950s and early 60s the Garand was still standard issue (as well as being export material for the MAP program). At that point a lot of the Garands being demilled would have been destroyed "for cause".

Another thing to be aware of with rewelds: I understand some rewelded receivers have been assembled so that the firing pin safety bridge at the back of the receiver no longer does its job of keeping the firing pin from traveling forward until the bolt is in battery. So, there's an added concern of slam-fires to worry about.

[kar66]

I had one that I shot a lot back in the 70s. I shot it mostly with just commercial ammo too. We didn't know any better then. It had the welded barrel too. It shot real good, but I was a lot younger then too.
A year or so ago I read that a lot of those were done by a company that had bought all the Japanese M1s. The only way they could be imported at the time pre-85 was by demilling them. They had to cut the receiver and the barrels. As soon as they were in-country they welded them back togeather using A3 barrels. That was easy to tell because they couldn't get rid of the A3 front sight groove. Just pull off your front sight you will be able to find the site groove. Anyway that was like a different time in a different world.

[History Nut]

I have had "Winfield/Springchester" welded receiver since 1967. I have put thousands of rounds through it without problems. I have no problem continuing to shoot it. Mine also had the two-groove barrel. It also had a non-GI gas cylinder lock nut. I had no idea about all these "defects" at the time. I just shot it for fun. It always worked and worked well.

Years later, I met a man named Bob Penny. He had been involved in the building process for these rifles. The way he described the constructing of these receivers from two cut pieces seemed to me to fall under "remanufacturing" rather than "welding". He also described the process for making the barrels out of M1 stubs and new 2-groove 03A3 barrels. All in all, his description gave me new confidence in this particular rifle.

One has to remember that Garands were not commonly available on the civilian market at that time. Bob and his cohorts were meeting a market need the best way they could. I think they did a good job.

Regarding the fear/myth of "blow ups", since the M1 locks on the front of the receiver there is no strength issue. As long as the rifle headspaces OK it should be safe. It is valid to consider binding due to misalignment but Bob's work avoided that by careful work. It would be a concern if the original receiver front had been in a fire. Bob covered this by after assembly, putting the receiver through new heat treatment so everything was uniform.

My first M1 is both a reliable, safe shooter and had tremendous sentimental value to me. I do have other Garands that are all "proper" so I have no lack of shooting material. These are fantastic rifles and pieces of history.

[kar66]

My welded rec. may be shooting again sometime soon. A old gunsmith friend of mine has been wanting to build himself a M1. Like the one he had in basic training. He is semi retired with more time than money. But he has wanted to build a M1 for years. I pulled the barrel off my rec. and told him he could have it. He had his own barrel that I installed for him. He knows that it is a welded rec.. The last I heard he was getting along slow with it.
I think that Bob Penny was part of the group that salvaged the Japanese M1s. These younger guys don't know what it was like in the pre-85 days. There just wasn't any M1s at any of the gunshows then. If one did show up it would be sold dealer to dealer before the show opened. Those were not the good old days if you were interested in military weapons.