Announcement: M1 Garand Serial Number List Moving to http://usriflecal30m1.com/

Hey Kids,

Sorry for all the hub-bub last weekend about the Garand Serial Number list being posted on the Internet. Here’s what happened……

Chris Kemp has been working on a new M1 Garand web site. This appears to be similar to the old “Garand Data.com” web site of old. Here’s the difference, Chris owns the servers….he does the I.T. thing for a living, so he knows a thing or two about what hackers do. I have asked him about how he intends to protect the data….and short of a foreign country doing a Chase-Manhattan Bank or Wells-Fargo type attack, the data should be safe. Not entirely un-hackable, but as good of a security setup as can be reasonably expected.

Chris invited me to check out his web site. There was a “test list” of serial numbers to demonstrate how the web site would look. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what was posted. Erroneously, the whole S/N list was posted. And my 1st reaction when seeing this was to……wig-out and go ape $**t. That is why I asked him to take down the data and after that Chris and I talked a bit on the phone as to what to do.

One thing that has bugged me and certainly irked several hundred (if not thousands) of Garand aficionados is that the whole manual cut-and-paste setup of the Excel spreadsheet. While it is certainly “hacker proof”, it is also awkward to enter data, subject to semi-monthly releases and is not a “living” real-time document (i.e. I put my data in, now where is it?). I release it when there’s enough change and that’s arbitrary…it depends on my free time and when I think it’s good enough. This has also irked several million Garand owners over the years (or at least I think so). This combined with my hectic work schedule, 2 kids and a wife that still find me interesting and want to occupy my “free time” with things like “helping with homework,”, “painting the porch”, “going grocery shopping”, “changing the oil”, etc…. (you know, all the useless stuff men get saddled with…) the Garand S/N List has started to become neglected on my end.

So this incident has given us an opportunity to 1.) alleviate me from one of my hobbies that I enjoy (so my wife and employer can beat more work out of me ;) ) and 2.) allow the greater Garand community to “upgrade” the Garand Serial Number List into a format that is convenient like “Garand Data.com” was but in a more secure environment.

One thing I have asked and Chris to do and he has agreed to provide is regarding people who have sent me their serial numbers “in confidence” via email or Private Message. To this end, all user data from the old list will provide the “seed data” to get the site started. This “seed data” WILL NOT CONTAIN ANY INDIVIDUAL CONTACT INFORMATION, ONLY S/N PLACEHOLDERS WITH FIREARM DATA TO LET YOU KNOW THE FIREARM EXISTS. The data will simply be inserted as a “place holder” until the current owner comes forward to update the 1st data set in the list. All “seed data” entries will be listed as “PRIVATE OWNER” only, without email addresses or CMP/CSP usernames. It will be up to those individuals to update this data and “claim” their serial number so that the list will function as it once did. This will also clean-up some of the old data from “Garand Data.com”, as it’s gotta be a decade old by now. I will leave the details of how this will work up to Chris.

So to this end….AS OF NOVEMEBER 1, 2012 CHRIS KEMP WILL BE THE SOLE MAINTAINER OF THE GARAND SERIAL NUMBER LIST AND IT WILL APPEAR ON HIS WEB SITE http://usriflecal30m1.com/. While I have immensely enjoyed this little hobby of mine I think the ease of use that Chris’ web site will provide can only benefit the greater Garand community will outweigh any potential drawbacks the new setup will offer. The final release of the Excel spreadsheet will be Rev 16 – as-is. After November 1, 2012 I will take it down off the existing web site and Chris will be solely responsible for maintaining the web site with the data on it.

I would at this time like to thank Dick & Gloria Culver + Jeff L (moderator) for letting me “hog their bandwidth” in order to maintain the serial number list. Dick and Gloria have never asked for dime one in this little hobby of mine, so if you can spare a dime…or a nickel…or even something bigger to keep CSP up and running, please do so.

Well….that’s that…..if you have any concerns or questions, Chris and I will answer them in this thread.

Mike Doerner

There have been several serial number lists on several different sites over the years and I kinda "gave up" trying to keep up with them. I had some of mine listed, but then sold some and aquired others. I would'nt mind updating if there was "one place" to do that instead of several like years past. I also recall not being able to delete ones I sold. I think that should be an available option.

I will say to you that any changes you want made are an email or PM away. If you sell a rifle and want the record removed, altered or changed, simply let me know. This list will continue to grow, as garanddata.com and Mike envisioned. This transition is ideal, it is agreed upon by both parties and allows for maximum flexibility. All involved are simply interested in the Garand collector community and all efforts support that. If you have any questions, as Mike stated, feel free to contact me. Best way is through the site or CMP forums, but this venue will be monitored as well. Be sure to thank Mike for all his work, as I may remind you, it was all voluntary, as well as the commitment of this forum host, as Mike as mentioned.

Happy Collecting

Chris

Thanks to both Mike and Chris for resolving this in a positive and forward looking vision.

+1 for reaching a consensus solution that will benefit the whole Garand community

And after the heated debate that took place on the CMP forum I was worried could have unwanted consequences for all of us.

Great job to the both of you for the adult actions you took by communicating with each other

Things change and people move on. A very classy hand-off. Thankfully, someone has come along that is interested in this sub area of collecting just as Mike is easing out. There's a heck of a lot of important imformation in these lists. Thanks.

I remember a site that had where you could type in our SN and it would sometimes draw on historical records like where it was or what it's purpose was etc.....anyone remember that?

The owner died I believe and it was sold and is now a pay to play site each search cost a fee. I have the books from Springfield Research. The site was great you could search if you got a hit you could request a letter for 25 bucks.