Fair price on an ugly shooter Garand

[Mark75H]

A friend of mine is at the downsizing stage in life and is ready to sell me his less than perfect but good shooting Garand. I believe it is a run of the mill IH, nothing special. I haven't seen it yet, but he warned me that it has some rough file work on it some places. All I am concerned about is function.

What is a fair price these days?

 

[TheOriginalMexicanBob]

One would be hard pressed to find any functional Garand for less than $1k these days. It goes up from there significantly depending on manufacturer, condition and correctness for its time period.

 

[Batt816]

CMP has rack grades for $700 & $850. It says they are rough but functional.

 

[Mark75H]

This gun is in the "it goes down from there" cosmetic condition and is plain white bread.

 

[Doco Overboard]

A friend of mine is at the downsizing stage in life and is ready to sell me his less than perfect but good shooting Garand. I believe it is a run of the mill IH, nothing special. I haven't seen it yet, but he warned me that it has some rough file work on it some places. All I am concerned about is function.

What is a fair price these days?

What kind of file work I'm wondering?

 

[Mightydog]

Matching numbers? Where’d your friend get it from? CMP? I’d say $750 and up.

 

[Jimbob2.0]

What looks ugly may not be , especially if it is in original wood with all of the cartoches. Did I see you say IH? If you mean International Harvester that is a premium. It would have to be very ugly with a poor muzzle and throat gauge to be less than $1k these days. If a half decent IH I would say $1200+ even if rough

 

[Mark75H]

If I understood him correctly, it was from the very first batch of CMP Garands.

 

[BurkeM]

M1 Garand - Civilian Marksmanship Program

M1 Garand rifles sold by CMP are authentic U.S. Government rifles that have been thoroughly inspected, with a variety of available grades.

thecmp.org

 

[Threeband]

I think I paid $1050 for a Field Grade IHC with an LMR barrel back in 2013 or 14. That was from the CMP. IHCs were selling at a premium. LMR barrel is a premium.

The IHCs and Winchesters tend to be rougher than Springfields and HRAs.

 

[Augie]

It really depends on the "File work", depending on what and where it has been filed it could be almost worthless. Without file work a functioning IHC would be at least a grand.

 

[Doco Overboard]

Ops a regular on the forum.
Maybe he’ll provide clarity for the file work soon.
Could just be poor machine finishing/etc and that was sellers descriptor.
I’m interested in seeing the remnants of the file now myself.
A Garand receiver would be pretty hard on one at the very least I’m thinking.
They made about 6 million rifles, not all of them are going to be a gem or from the model shop.

 

[Augie]

Ops a regular on the forum.
Maybe he’ll provide clarity for the file work soon.
Could just be poor machine finishing/etc and that was sellers descriptor.
I’m interested in seeing the remnants of the file now myself.
A Garand receiver would be pretty hard on one at the very least I’m thinking.
They made about 6 million rifles, not all of them are going to be a gem or from the model shop.

Yup, Winchesters for one were known for really rough machining. Without seeing pictures of the file work it's tough to put any accurate value on the rifle.