As I mentioned in the last post, I picked up a nice 6 digit Springfield at the sales event at the CMP Eastern Games.

I picked it from two six digits that I pulled off the table due to it’s nice barrel numbers on it’s 60s barrel, and a RIA stamped stock. Luckily a friend of mine who was “only going to buy a Garand if I find something nice” was just beside me at the table and was able to give the other six digit a good home.

I suspected it was a RIA rebuild based on the stock, however, after finishing my paper work and taking it down I learned it was a springfield rebuild (SA-64), which is still great, I really like 60s rebuilds. I have another Springfield rebuild, a Winchester Field grade, which has served me well as my match rifle over the past couple years.

This rifle has an interesting assortment of parts: a milled trigger guard in a Springfield tigger group, the RIA stock I first noticed, a late IHC bolt and Front sight, and a 60s era springfield op rod.

Since IHCs were post war and struggled a bit fulfilling their contract I am speculating Springfield armory was transferred some IHCs surplus parts after the contract expired. While I have no research to back this up that makes sense to me why so many IHC parts ended up in this rebuild.

Something particularly special to me about this rifle is that it falls in the serial range for Garands built in December 1941, the same month as Pearl Harbor, and the US declaring war on the Japanese and Germany. Based on some rough math this rifle was assembled in it’s original configuration just a week or so after Pearl Harbor. While no one will ever know what, if any, service this rifle saw, it was assembled during a very emotional time for a lot of people.

Now to what really matters, the range report.

Frankly I didn’t buy this rifle to be a shooter, which is a little out of character for me. As mentioned above I was looking for a six digit and I liked that it was a 60s rebuild. I took it out to the range get a rough zero and do a function test and I was pleasantly surprised. The CMP tag says ME = 1+ TE =2 which are pretty solid numbers. My gauge says it’s just under 2 which coincides with CMPs description.

After some haphazard chasing a single round to get a zero, it grouped very nicely with surplus HXP ammo.

The trigger guard could use a peen job to tighten up the lugs and the stock needs some linseed oil, but this rifle turned out to be an “out of the box games match rifle” which was a very pleasant surprise. After Camp Perry I will take her to a local match and see what she can do.