Page 289 - 4094-BOOK2

Roughly 3.8 million M1 rifles were completed for
U.S. Ordnance between August 1937 and September
1945. Serial number "5" was the first of the 80
"Model Shop" rifles to be completed in early 1934.
It was subsequently shipped to the U.S. Aberdeen
Proving Grounds for preliminary tests on
April 10, 1934, and returned to the U.S.
Springfield Armory on April 24, 1934.
As a result, many of the model shop rifles were
discarded and destroyed by U.S Ordnance, making
surviving examples today extremely rare, especially
in T1E2 configuration such as this rifle. Other
surviving examples include serial number “1” in the
U.S. Springfield Armory Museum collection, serial
number “2” in the U.S. Rock Island Arsenal Museum
collection, and serial number “3” in a private
collection, as photographed on pages 105-107 of
“The M1 Garand Rifle” by Bruce Canfield, with serial
number “5” also photographed on pages 99 (along
with the early pattern experimental .30 caliber
en-bloc clip included with the rifle) and 104 of that
publication.
The receiver showcases several early features,
including a rounded lower front edge, angular
receiver “leg” profiles, the early “model shop”
five-line “U.S./SEMIAUTO. RIFLE/CAL. .30 M1/
SPRINGFIELD/ARMORY” receiver heel legend above
the single-digit serial number “5”, and without the
seventh round stoppage fix to the internal front
guide rail. Features a T1E2 profile wingless blade
front sight and “flush nut” adjustable peep rear
sight assembly with early pattern spring cover and
base along with later pattern knobs, an original
and very scarce early pattern “gas trap” gas cylinder
with lighting cuts on the sides and marked “R” on
the bayonet lug, first pattern gas cylinder plug with
small hole in the front, milled and grooved lower
band (modified with two front handguard screw
holes, retaining pin absent) and rear handguard
clip, shorter 22 inch barrel with parkerized chamber
ring and “D28286 C-1-2-B” gas trap drawing number
under the rear handguard, bolt with removed
drawing number and heat lot code, modified slant-
cut profiled operating rod (with faint remnants of
a drawing number on the side) without relief cut
and with weld scars down the bottom of the rod
body, round front clip latch, milled round-body
follower rod with reproduction keystone flat-wire
compensating and operating rod springs, an early
pattern operating rod catch, milled narrow-slot
bullet guide, double beveled milled follower arm, an
early “long tail” patterned follower and steep-angle
slide, along with an early pad-less trigger housing
without a drawing number, unmarked hammer with
early profile hooks and fixture hole, first type trigger
with hole, flat-top safety, and unmarked early profile
milled trigger guard without the rear eyelet. Fitted
with a set of highly figured burl walnut handguards
and a burl walnut stock with early ferrule and
door-less checkered steel butt plate, marked with a
circled serif “P” firing proof on the grip and small “R”
on the underside of the grip.
Also included with the rifle is an early pattern
experimental .30 caliber en-bloc clip with triangular
lightening cuts, a hard copy of Billy Pyle’s “The Gas
Trap Garand” (with a picture of the author and
AK-47 inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov holding the
book inside the cover), a June 1996 issue of the
NRA’s Man At Arms with a centerfold article on the
rifle, a copy of “The U.S. M1 Garand Rifle in Pictures:
WW2 & Korea” signed by the author Robert Bruce
to Pyle, along with two typed letters to Pyle from
Art Tuttle, a U.S. Springfield Armory specialist and
personal friend of John C. Garand who was involved
with M1 rifle development from 1937 to 1946.
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