I am going through our 8 M1 Garands in preparation for a 21 gun salute on Memorial Day. They are brand new to us from the CMP via the VFW loaner program. Our old ones did not have BFAs and the gas plugged was welded, making them single shot rifles. I swapped them out over the course of last year's covid shut down. Anyway I am just getting back into them, greasing the dry metal, function checking and putting on a green shoulder strap. The 4th rifle I worked on would not go back together as easily as the others, and the old ones I use to work on. Something was hitting in the last millimeter before I was able to get the Op Rod connected to the bolt in its rear positioning. Anyway I tried over and over again until I found a welded bead on the op rod, under the barrel area. It was tough getting it to finally seat correctly and the bolt and op rod were working in unison.
Please forgive my ignorance, but I have never seen this bump before. Is this normal? Why would someone purposely put a weld in that exact place? Here are few pictures....
Please forgive my ignorance, but I have never seen this bump before. Is this normal? Why would someone purposely put a weld in that exact place? Here are few pictures....
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