Seeking advice from Garand afficionados...

doose

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OK... So I scored a October 1942 Garand at the weekend gun show for $400... after inspection, I need a rear handguard. The front handguard seems to be a stained hardwood, where the stock is walnut, so I am considering getting a new (actually WW2 era) hand guard set...

The barrel is worn slap out it seems... a bullet in the muzzle goes in to the case with room to wiggle still, so I am not sure if it would even register on a gauge... a buddy of mine suggests shooting it and see how it does, which I will, but I am leaning to replacing the barrel with either a 1943 barrel that I found that registers a 1 muzzle and less than 3 throat... (there may be a bit of corrosion in the chamber, but it may clean up)

opinions... should I replace the worn barrel or leave as is? would it help the value of the rifle to replace it with a low wear period correct barrel? The stock itself is in dang good shape. It has the circled p cartouche on the pistol grip, but that is the only cartouche I can find.

What would you think the value of this rifle is? what would the value be with a period correct low wear barrel, and a period correct nice handguard set that matches the stock?

Thanks in advance.

edit: I forogot to mention, the rifle is a springfield. barrel replacement would be a springfield barrel.
 
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take the bullet out of the case. The case is often up over the ogive and the full diameter portion never gets in to the muzzle. Highly doubt your muzzle is so worn that a bullet will just slide all the way in.

And....if it shoots good at 100 and 200 (on the coffee cup and on the pie plate) and the bullets don't enter the target sideways.....you probably won't need to replace the barrel anyway....unless ya just want to.
 
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take the bullet out of the case. The case is often up over the ogive and the full diameter portion never gets in to the muzzle. Highly doubt your muzzle is so worn that a bullet will just slide all the way in.

And....if it shoots good at 100 and 200 (on the coffee cup and on the pie plate) and the bullets don't enter the target sideways.....you probably won't need to replace the barrel anyway....unless ya just want to.

I did not mention that with a bore light, rifling looks VERY worn also... but I do plan to shoot a few groups with it before I go to the trouble of a rebarrel.
 
Shoot it and see what it does first.

You are not promise that a new barrel fro 1943 that has been already chambered will work with your reciever. So the best bet is to send it to CMP or other Garand gunsmith and have them put a new barrel on it and finish the 0.010 chamber. New barrels for Garand come chambered 0.010 short-ish.

What you are referring to as the rear hand guard is actually the top handguard. You can't know when the stock was made per say like your can the reciever. Don't get caught up in the "correct" vs not. You will spend more money and time finding parts than just buying one from CMP which is around 2,500-3,500 I think.
 
I did not mention that with a bore light, rifling looks VERY worn also... but I do plan to shoot a few groups with it before I go to the trouble of a rebarrel.

average rifling depth in modern rifles is only .002 to .004 anyway, so even new, it looks shallow. go shoot it. If it shoots....Done.
 
Shoot it. For it to add value everything else in the rifle has to match also which as previously stated will be expensive most likely.
 
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