Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Question for Garand guys

I've searched until my eyes blurred out with very limited results, maybe someone here can help me. For my 60th birthday and our 39th anniversary my wonderful wife bought me a rifle that I did not know even existed. An unfired (other than factory testing) M1 Garand, it was built by Springfield on a Breda receiver. She bought it from a good friend of mine who's had it in his safe for 20 plus years and has never fired it. I called him to thank him and pick his brain a bit. He said it was built in '93 or '94, there were only 400 of them built by Springfield on virgin Breda forged receivers. I'm not a Garand expert but it seems to be very well put together, the barrel, bolt and rear sight all have SA stamps and the barrel/bore and bolt face is literally brand new condition. Anyone have a source of information on these rifles and roughly what it's worth ? I won't say right now what she paid for it but he sent it to me with a bayonet and 500rds of Greek 30-06 ammo. Also said he'd kick my @$$ everyday if I ever sold it without offering it back to him first. Any information or advice appreciated.

Probably at least $2000.The better CMP Garands go for $1350+

I would contact the CMP, ( Civilian Marksmanship Program) and/or the GCA, ( Garand Collectors Association). They have lots of good information. Should be able to help or point you in the right direction. You have a real treasure there.

Built in 93-94 by Springfield who?

The US Springfield Armory closed in 1968.

Current Springfield https://www.springfield-armory.com/

Call them and ask.

Pretty much every part on it except the receiver is marked "SA" , you tell me. I sent an Email to them yesterday but haven't received a reply yet.
If I don't get a reply by this afternoon, Yes I will try to call them again, I hate being put on hold.

Just found two of these on Gunbroker, seems they're at least somewhat collectible. Now trying to decide whether to shoot it or not.

Like this one?

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1031386753

Sounds like a commercial made or assembled gun. Can you show pics of the SA marked parts? Could be the government arsenal made surplus parts or commercial parts made by what's now called Springfield Armory (2 completely different things). If I remember right Breda ended up with the Winchester machinery after WW II and made rifles for Italy and export. Considered NATO standard and just as good as US made parts. Definitely looks like a commercial made stock.
CMP isn't going to know anything about this gun. Wouldn't have passed through them.

Exactly like that one, she paid $2,500 for mine with 500rds of ammunition. There is another one just like it, asking price is $4,500. I know asking price means nothing but I'm thinking $2,500 with $500 worth of ammunition is a fair price.

It appears you've got it figured out.

Shoot it!

Not really, no. It seems these were all made in 2000-2001 so that '93-'94 date is probably wrong. It seems really funny to me that there is so little information about them.




Oh I will, for sure I'll let my son shoot it. One of the reasons I've always wanted one is because my Dad trained with a Garand in 1957 at Ft. Chaffee, and he always spoke highly of the weapon. Guess my wife finally got tired of my tight wad @$$ talking about it and got one for me.

As I suggested, call Springfield.

Brokenarrow,

I had one of these rifles until I recently sold it to my gunsmith.

Mine was purchased in December 2001 for $995.00 with some of my Christmas bonus.

It was built and sold by Springfield Armory (Geneseo, Ill.), on the heel of the receiver it's marked with a Danish Crown, below that is FKF and Serial number BMR 2720. The receiver is marked BREDA. It had a new Springfield Armory barrel (not GI), new slightly oversized wood, the bolt was a SA (GI) and the trigger group contained GI parts marked SA, IHC and PB (Beretta). The rifle came with a web sling and 3 en-block clips in a bag.
The fit and finish was excellent, and it shot quite well with Danish, Greek and LC ball ammunition.

This rifle was not eligible for John C. Garand Matches per the CMP.

You have a nice rifle, and it will bring you a lifetime of fun. It needs to be shot and enjoyed.


StarchedCover

Thanks for the information, SC. Mine is as you described with sn BMR 679. It will be shot and enjoyed, safe queens just take up space and eventually get traded off or sold at my place. As far as monetary value, that doesn't matter, this one won't be sold in my lifetime.

I do not know if this is relevant to the rifle in question.

A few years ago, Springfield Armory, as in Springfield M1A bought a warehouse full of spare Garand parts in an Italian basement. They assembled many new Garands, with all new parts and sold them in USA. Some were in '06 and some in 308. This must have been in the early to mid '90s.

I spotted one in Sportsman's Warehouse at that time for about $800, IIRC. But it was 308, so I passed on it.

One might guess the BM in the serial number would be for Baretta Machine in Italy.

Just log on to the CMP forums and you can ask all of the questions you would like. I wondered where Springfield got their receivers to build the M1's. I know it's been 20 some years ago they were selling them. The Breda receivers are highly regarded. It looks like the rest are GI new old stock parts. The thing about Garands is they multiply. I had 6 at one time and traded them for AR's. Now the AR's aren't worth much and the Garands are going up in price.

I should kick myself.

kwg

What you have appears to be a parts gun assembled by Springfield Armory Inc. (not the government Springfield Armory) built on a Breda receiver. Italian built Breda imports will come in with Italian and Danish parts and are the sequel to the story when garands were sent overseas (when the Italians built their own rifles and even redesigned the Garand into the BM59). The Italian and Danish rifles carry that historical cachet. The Breda's you're seeing on Auction sites reflect that.

You have a shooter. I'm not sure how to value it, but I'm inclined to say it's a "sum of the parts" rifle. Enjoy it as you already appear to be! 500 rounds of ammo is not insignificant! Nothing like the "ping!" of a empty clip being ejected.

Would you say the same about this one ?

[img]https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1035986891[/img]

That auction rifle is similar to yours. Assembled by SA Inc. But with Italian parts instead of SA parts. Not sure what you're angling toward...a value? The Italians are outside of my wheelhouse and I shared the little I know. You might tap Scott Duff for a better assessment.

The main thing in my book is that you're going to enjoy it for years to come.

There are two of them on Gunbroker right now exactly like mine, out of 400 made. Their description on this one is misleading, the only Italian part on it is the receiver, Every part on mine (other than the receiver) is marked SA. The barrel is brand new unfired non USGI from SA. As I said before I'm not worried about the value, just wanting to find out exactly what I've got. For some reason information is scarce, but little by little I'm gaining on it, and Yes I will try to call Springfield again today. My son finally found a few discussions online that clears it up a bit though. I'm not trying to start a pissing match or make it out to be something it's not, I've been a member here since 2010 and I like to think this place is a good source of knowledge on such things. This is an old post from another forum that my son sent me.

Never heard of Garands with TRW parts.

This is just my opinion...
I believe information is scarce because there's not much of a market for commercial Springfield Armory M1's as compared to Garands with military provenance such as from the CMP. Militaria collecting is a crazy thing. My collector friends will go crazy for a beat up garand with a serial number indicating WWII production and turn their nose up at a NIB Springfield Armory Inc Garand. It's about the history and the heritage.

I took a closer look at the Gunbroker SA Inc Italian you linked to. The seller has several Garands from Springfield Inc. NIB and "Special Editions". He's asking what I think is crazy money apparently based on perceived scarcity. His Breda's starting bid is $4500 which is getting in to the range of true collectibles like a documented National Match or an M1D. I suspect it will be there for a long time.

Funny!...the Garand and the M14 had some parts commonality (ie sight and trigger parts). Maybe the poster was speaking to SA Inc grabbing whatever USGI parts they could find to build their Garand (including parts originally made for the M14).

As a shooter, I'd use whatever USGI parts I had and rock on. My collector friends would tear apart a trigger group to ensure their Garands were manufacturer and period correct. Never mind that the mixmaster group was tuned and sweet! Correctness trumped all for them.

[quote=Craigster

Never heard of Garands with TRW parts.[/quote]

Me neither, On mine the trigger group, barrel, sights, op rod all have SA stamps. I did finally talk to a man at Springfield this morning, he gave me the date of manufacture (Oct. 2001) and the actual Springfield part number of my rifle. According to him a limited number of these were built and sold by them using virgin NOS Breda forged receivers and "mostly Springfield parts" and it is covered by the Springfield lifetime warranty. I asked how many were made, he said that he knew a few sources claimed 400 but he had no actual records on hand to confirm that. He also said, You have a very good rifle, shoot it and enjoy it.

I sure wish the one I saw at Sportsman's had been an '06.

Topmark Trading!

SD

An interesting article in Shooting Times written by our hero Mike V.

It does show these were available more recently than I had (mis)remembered.

https://www.shootingtimes.com/editorial/longgun_reviews_st_0302_springfield/100437


Follow the link for the rest of the article. It is of interest to this discussion.

[quote=Idaho_Shooter]An interesting article in Shooting Times written by our hero Mike V.

It does show these were available more recently than I had (mis)remembered.

https://www.shootingtimes.com/editorial/longgun_reviews_st_0302_springfield/100437

[quote]

Thanks for sharing, I hadn't seen this article. As we can see from some of the comments here the grumpy old military collectors will turn up their nose at these rifles. I like old school stuff as much as anyone but I'm a shooter not a collector. So as a shooter, a new production M1 Garand 30-06 rifle built to original specs with a lifetime warranty, What's not to like? Besides that my wife bought it for me for our anniversary, (she also got me a new Springfield M1A for Christmas) You won't hear me complaining about it.

It's my understanding that TRW made bolts for M14's. They are basically the same bolts as used by the M1 Garands. It's been a while but I thought that the CMP was using TRW bolts in some of their rebuilds and rack grades.

But, for the most part, the TRW parts were going on M14's.

kwg

Sorry...the M1 bolt is substantially different than the M14 bolt. The M1 bolt is longer, and the M14 bolt has a roller for a couple of differences. I know you know, but for the folks following along; TRW was one of the manufacturers of M14's and parts, but they were not one of the Garand Manufacturers.

where would you hear something like that?