That enfield in the picture in the rack, is cocked, you can tell from the butt of the reciever.
The main issue in the garand is the pressure curve, which 4895 or 4064, are in the range it likes to operate at without blowing the op rod. That relief cut on the rod was put in mostly because of firing rifle gernades. You can buy the after market pressure values which helps, but keep in mind these were designed to push a 150grain bullet at approx 2750fps. With a powder as described above.
I have more than one garand, some with national match sights, and also in .308. While the military standard acceptability group at 100 yards is rather generous given standards today, they can fire quite acceptable groups. And i know of a number of elk/deer taken in my area with them. For that matter i have had now deceased friends telling me of shooting european deer for food in WWII and that was with full metal jacket ammo.
The enfield could or could not be a good shooter subject to barrel wear.
A friend of mine in bavaria who is/was a sniper in the german army shoots a lot of high power in competition. Interesting enough, he says they prefer the model of 1917, or the enfield, to the K98 mauser feeling they shoot better.
I would be curious too to know whats in that garand, part wise.
a few years ago i bought a springfield that had way to high a serial number, and had other markings on the butt of the reciever that springfield didn't do. It had ALL pre war parts in it. Finally from a guy who's collection was used for a lot of the reference books on garands, after wanting to buy it, told me it was a prewar springfield that ended up in italy. We did ship the winchester equipment to beretta after the war, and they were used in the italian army at one time. And it was beretta supplying parts to the danes who used them after the war. That rifle could have a LOT of valuable parts in it, so be sure to chase it down at some point.
