The M1 Garand, 1936-1957

This is a great book for someone who is a new proud owner of an M1 Garand, and wants to research out their rifle, explore and date their rifle part by part. It has a mixture of photos and drawings. The line drawings are fine, they help highlight the characteristics of the different parts as they changed throughout the years. This books is a complete inventory of all the parts over all the years. It includes, repair tools, slings, bayonets, ammo, rifle stock, stock markings, plus of course every single part in your rifle. It also includes history(background comments) surrounding the parts. Bottomline it's a great reference tool.

This book is the first I've bought on the M1 Garand. I purchased it on the recommendation of numerous people I know who are very involved in the hobby of collecting antique service weapons. I am currently using the book to help me get to know a 65 year old M1 that I recently acquired, and find it very informative and well put together. This book is known as one of the standards. Well worth buying.

The book is very helpful when looking through a parts bin to find the right part for the serial number you want. Nothing more, nothing less. It's not a complete reference for every bit of info about the Garand but it's enough not to get ripped off from a "oh yeah, that's the right part" dealer. Very handy indeed.

Given the size of this book, anyone expecting it to be a comprehensive encyclopedia of the Garand over the 22 years it details would be disappointed. However, different researchers uncover different facts, and this book adds substantially to what we know. As the folks directly involved the with the creation of the M1 rifle (God bless them) have become fewer and fewer, we need to gather the last bits of first-hand history ofthis remarkable weapon. This book is an essential to anyone seiously interested -- along with only a handful of others. My approach is to buy them ALL in the belief that every book will tell some part of the story. Scott Duff of course, and Jim Thompson and Julian Hatcher and the beautiful book on the Gas Trap from Collectors Grade Publications. And all the TMs and FMs, and if a current-day armorer at the CMP had something to say about the recent crop of Garands passing through their hands, I'd be anxious to read that as well.You can always find something to criticize in a book: this is called "reviewsmanship" and is exemplified by a statement like "it is inexplicable why the author elected to ignore the important modification to the trigger guard occurring made in 19xx." But, when you get into that, you ignore the value that the book does deliver -- in this case plenty -- just to show off that you know something this book didn't happen to mention. Why bother?This is a fine book, with great material and, like any book, some omissions. Read it.

Beginning as a rank armature interested in collecting a WWII era M1 Garand, I purchased this book to assist me in my quest. With the help of this book, I was able to not only pick out a quality Garand from among the hundreds of pieces of junk out there, but I was able to restore it to "as issued" condition. This is quite simply the premiere resource book on the Garand for anyone looking to collect true collectable military Garands! From the correct rear sight, to the markings on the stock, right on down to which cleaning kit or bayonet was issued with a rifle of a certain series of receiver serial numbers, this book will make you a more savvy investor of the M1 Garand. I've referenced this book so many times that the binding is falling apart! There is even an inventory check-list which allows you to see at a glance, which parts on your rifle are historically "correct", and which needs replacing. Simply put, if you have a Grand and want to restore it to it's original "as issued" condition, or want to educate yourself before heading to the gun show, you could spend months in the library, or just buy this book!