Neal Goddard built M1a

[xarmor]

A few pics:


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[xarmor]

These are the docs and correspondence that came with the rifle.

[da gimp]

X,............ by chance did the late owner keep track of the round count through that barrel? A heck of a lot of serious match shooters keep track of every round fired through a rifle.. both in practice & in matches.......... along with temp, wind, humidity, skies and at which rifle range it was fired............along with his primers, powder charge in weight, type of powder, his bullet selection, his trimmed length of his cases before he loaded them & his OAL for each bullet selection with each type of case........ i.e. Lake City cases, with a Sierra 150 gr .... or a Federal commercial case with same on bullets, if his round count is 2000 to 3000 fired...... I'd say that the rifle's bore has some wear.......... but that you could avoid re-barreling the rifle for a year...... if it has had 6000 rounds plus fired thru it, the value would be less..................

hoping it helps you sir.

[gulliver62]

Very nice example of the earlier builders. I have seen very few where the builder professionally added the rear lug to the receiver. Not sure if your barrel is an NM or not. If it does not have the chrome lining, I believe it is NM. It should have NM marked on it somewhere also. Looks like a really nice pick-up.

[da gimp]

to the best of my knowledge....... the sole thing denoting the NM status of an original USGI M14 barrel is the federal stock number at the rear of the barrel... I do not have the numbers handy for that right now............. It clearly appears to be the work of a 1st class smith......good luck & if I was you..... I'd sure look for his match book for that rifle & either way....... I'd have the throat erosion measured with a Stone Axe gauge or another 1st class gauge.......that can tell you if there's any life left in the barrel.

[xarmor]

Not sure if your barrel is an NM or not.

The barrel is stamped NM on the top of the barrel between the hand guard and the flash hider.

The previous owner recently passed away. His longtime friend (my neighbor) is currently selling all of his firearms for his widow. My neighbor bought the sister rifle to this one but sold it back in the late 1980's. He told me that the orig owner did not shoot in matches and he believes the rifle was put up around 1984 and has probably not been fired since. The book that came with the rifle shows a little over 200 rounds but I cannot confirm that he logged all of his shots. My neighbor does not think it was likely.

The rifle came with several magazines, One magazine was still loaded with 168gr Lake City Match with an 82 headstamp. I am going to take it to the range this weekend and see how it compares to my other M1a.

Thank you all so much for the input, I would really like to know as much about this rifle as I can, my neighbor has been a lot of help but its great to hear from the experts!!

xarmor

[da gimp]

glad to see you got her.. a fair price for a Type II NM Garand in exc. plus cond., with a near new NM barrel is well north of $2K........ perhaps $2700.00 , cherish her hand, and treat her gently. Make sure your kids know what she is sir.................By the way. it's been a while since I saw one of these for sale. so that price for a near mint NM might just be low.......... I hope you were fair to her & yourself too, good karma is returned upon those who treat others decently.