I need help researching an M1

[Jandre Smith]

Hi I am from South Africa and a friend recently bought a Garand from someone, they don't know much about where it came from and has asked me to do some research, not having access to any archives and things like that I have taken to the internet. So far I have determined it was produced at Winchester Repeating Arms in March 1944 (First URL) I would like it if someone with more knowledge on the subject could look at the pictures I have taken (Second URL) and perhaps tell me more about the stamps and numbers on the stock etc.
thank you in advance.

URL 1: http://usriflecal30m1.com/Production...px?action=home
URL 2: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4hpd34o95...Tb950YUba?dl=0

[RCS]

I have some information about your Winchester M1 Rifle.

The serial number 2416368 was stamped on your receiver on March 4, 1944.

The rear sight knobs and bolt are not original to your rifle

Both the A A (Augusta Arsenal) and A N (Anniston) are early rebuild stamps on your stock

[Jandre Smith]

I have some information about your Winchester M1 Rifle.

The serial number 2416368 was stamped on your receiver on March 4, 1944.

The rear sight knobs and bolt are not original to your rifle

Both the A A (Augusta Arsenal) and A N (Anniston) are early rebuild stamps on your stock

Thank you very much, I have found out that the buttplate is the post war trapdoor one, so the stock was definitely replaced sometime

[TJT]

WWII butt plates have the trap door. Only VERY early M1's don't have the trap door. The trap door is NOT an indicator for WWII or post war manufacture.
Jon

[Jandre Smith]

I geuss I got my sources wrong then, never know online, I'll dig a little deeper and get more pictures of the stock and the internals of the gun, that should shine some more light

[TJT]

My guess is that it is what is known in collector parlance as a "mixmaster". That is, it has been through at least one arsenal rebuild ( probably several) and retains very few, if any of its original parts. Just for the sake of conversation, the bolt is from an HRA M1 rifle--absolutely post WWII as HRA didn't produce M1 rifles until the '50's. The rear sight knobs are also post WWII.
Jon

[RCS]

In South Africa, are there many semi auto rifles available, how are the gun laws concerning ownership ? we would be interested to know?

[Jandre Smith]

Semi Automatics require no special license or paperwork, however you do need a licence for every firearm you own in addition to your firearm competency license, there are different licenses for different reasons of ownership, on a normal civilian license you can only register 4 firearms but on a collector's license you can register many more, that's at leat the gist of it, I'm no legal expert, but I could provide you with a pdf of the Firearms Control Act of 2000. Semi Automatics are rather common, especially amongst farmers and Game Rangers to combat poaching and crop theft, I've had to do with Ak's , AR15's, L.M4's (Civilian version of a locally produced Galil variant for military use) but bolt actions are by far more common

[Jandre Smith]

I do need to mention that they are very badly enforced, especially in more rural areas, the police here are so lazy and corrupt that firearm laws are essentially null and void in the rural areas, cities are obviously a bit stricter on their enforcement of firearm laws, as they should be

[FlyJS41]

The zinc based parkerizing would lead me to believe your friend's rifle is a 1960s, US arsenal rebuild. Based upon the AN stamp on the stock and the silver tones of the metal, I'd say it's an Anniston Arsenal rebuild. I'm not convinced the "AA" stamp denotes Augusta Arsenal. It's an unusual place for it to be struck and I've never seen one configured with a number like that.
Where did you friend acquire the piece?

P.S. The rack number 171, appears to be in an Arabic font. If your rifle could talk, I'm sure it would have a fascinating story.

[Jandre Smith]

Do you think it might have been a foreign aid gun and whatever country got it used a stamp similar to the of Augusta Arsenal? Or is that too long of a shot?

[FlyJS41]

It's quite possible that you have an old Military Assistance Program rifle. Whether it left the MAP legally, we'll probably never know. In the 1960's and '70's, MAP gave M1s to Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco. It's a reasonable assumption that some of those migrated down south.

[Jandre Smith]

That would be interesting to investigate further, I really want to get my hands on the riffle accompanying this one, they might have similarities