Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles 5 Digit Garand

That's only the second 5 digit M-1 I've ever seen. The first one was the one I bought in the early 1990's at a Woolworth's store. They were getting rid of their sporting goods departments and marking everything down weekly. Every week you waited the price got lower, or else someone else bought it before you did. Finally got low enough for me to pick up a Garand, forgot the price but I still have some of the paperwork here somewhere. It was one of those "Blue Sky" imports from Korea and it was beat to hell. Op rod spring broke, barrel shot out, pitted chamber that was so bad the empty case wouldn't come out on its own. Had the chamber honed oversize so it would cycle and replaced the op rod & spring although I later realized another op-rod may not have been needed. Didn't know much about M-1's back then and still have that op rod that it came with here. Looks like an early uncut op rod. If anyone is interested in something like that they could PM me. I'm downsizing in retirement. Never shot it much and traded it off in 1997 to a gun shop owner. He had a new M-1 barrel and was looking for something like mine to rebarrel. Said it would be his winter project. So in 1997 he gave me $150. cash plus a nice post WW2 Yugoslavian rebuild of a German K98 that I still have and shoots good. Back then it was a good deal for me considering the condition of that M-1. It was the lowest number Garand I have ever seen.... Ser. # 11250. I always wondered how desirable a low numbered receiver like that would be nowadays?

That's a great story! And Woolworths!

The value of a 5 digit receiver depends on condition and how low it is, just like any other gun (as you know). I'm selling this one and I'm at $1100 with no takers still but someone has offered me $1000. It's a bit stained and pitted. If it was in super shape I'm sure it would have already sold. Despite it's flaws I love it and I never intended to part with it until I acquired serial #61XX. The 5 digit is also a great shooter and I was able to qualify for the 200 yard range with it at Talladega, something I wasn't able to do with my "modern sporting rifle" (to use the scaredy cat politically correct term!)

I'd love to see your op rod but I'm too new to be able to use messages. No idea when that changes.

adanac : Been meaning to reply but I kept forgetting about it. Welcome to old age, right? I never could post pictures on this site, although I post photos on other sites with no problem. There's several pix of that op rod here on the computer that I could send in an E-Mail if you still wish to see it. Just contact me at: gallardicefrontier.com and I could put them in my reply. I'm downsizing and I need to thin this place out. Thanks..... Glenn

Thank you!

The rifle is sold.

Nothing special about 5 digits unless they don't have the 7th round mod. Especially pitted ones.

Cool find! My oldest Garand has a 6 digit SA receiver. Unfortunately, it’s not all original. It’s a mix master that I bought from Fulton Armory 20 yrs ago.

I saw one sneak by on Gunbroker a few years ago. Like yours, it too was under 50K. As I understand it, the gas trap Garands terminated at serial number 50,000. However, it is highly likely the one in this post has seen several rebuilds.