Winchester was only in it for the money. Their hearts weren't in it. They didn't keep up with all the upgrades either.View attachment 297090
This is the Winchester with new furniture I sold here on INGO a while back. Most of the parts were Winchester. You can tell Winchester parts from across the room as they look like they were hewn with an ax. Such a good gun manufacturer and such poor attention to detail. Don't get me wrong they have great tolerances and shoot great but there are so many milling marks on them they look like they were drug across concrete on the inside.
View attachment 297093
This is what I mean, it doesn't affect function but if you compare the visual of this to say an H&R it is like night and day.
You aren't kidding! Both of my rifles have SA receivers, but one has an IHC bolt and the other a Winchester. The IHC bolt is beautiful with clean milling lines and a nice finish. The Winchester bolt looks like it was machined with an angle grinder! Works just fine, though.You can tell Winchester parts from across the room as they look like they were hewn with an ax.
Way back during WWI when the gov was having trouble with the brittle receivers on the '03 they entered into negotiations with Winchester to purchase the right to use their proprietary formula for steel. Winchester offered to help make the Model 1917 for the war effort and the gov contracted for them to make them for $12.25 each to sweeten the deal while the other manufacturers were contracted for $12 each.Winchester was only in it for the money. Their hearts weren't in it. They didn't keep up with all the upgrades either.
Yes, IHC had numerous problems getting off the ground. For a while they had to use receivers made by either H&R or SA with IHC's name on them. This is how they got the different receivers like postage stamp and arrow head, ect. They never did make their own barrels.Just some "gee whiz" IHC Garand trivia. Not all IHC Garands were made here in Indiana. According to Duffs book on the Post WWII Garands. IHC experienced major tooling issues during the Korean war and had trouble fulfilling the orders for rifles. SA had to step in and build Garands for them. They were still IHC marked though. There is a way to delineate between Indiana built and SA built IHC Garands, but I do not recall the details. Just some FYI.
Yeah IHC got sorta hosed on that deal. And a lot of it was outright sabotaged plans sent from SAJust some "gee whiz" IHC Garand trivia. Not all IHC Garands were made here in Indiana. According to Duffs book on the Post WWII Garands. IHC experienced major tooling issues during the Korean war and had trouble fulfilling the orders for rifles. SA had to step in and build Garands for them. They were still IHC marked though. There is a way to delineate between Indiana built and SA built IHC Garands, but I do not recall the details. Just some FYI.
Was Leon the armorer down there? I can't remember for sure, but I got to be on a first name basis with the armorer. I ask because I had to send a WWII era SA rifle back to them twice because of "premature ejection" issues. The first time they sent it back they said it had been fixed, but it turned out they were only using special 2 round clips. It would eject the still partially full 8 round clip after 4 or 5 shots. Eventually they sent me a much nicer Korean War era "Special Grade" rifle with a new stock and a National Match barrel.I've got one of the HRAs that came with a LMR barrel. It was my first trip the the CMP South Store back in '11. They had a two racks of what looked like brand new HRA rifles that were rumored to have had their stocks scavenged before being returned by Greece. The CMP put them in those "Pumpkinwood" stocks. I knew zero about M1s. I picked one and brought it to the counter. Ole Leon looked it over, handed it back to me and said: "That's a nice one; but, I want you to put it back and find one with just a little better TE/ME." So, I went back to racks and studied tags until I found one with ME 1/TE 1. Brought it to the counter. Leon looked at it, smiled and said: "Oooh, LMR barrel. good choice!"
I paid $695 and they shipped it home for free!
I ended up putting that almost perfect HRA metal into a DGR Stock. She's a beauty!
Was Leon the armorer down there? I can't remember for sure, but I got to be on a first name basis with the armorer. I ask because I had to send a WWII era SA rifle back to them twice because of "premature ejection" issues. The first time they sent it back they said it had been fixed, but it turned out they were only using special 2 round clips. It would eject the still partially full 8 round clip after 4 or 5 shots. Eventually they sent me a much nicer Korean War era "Special Grade" rifle with a new stock and a National Match barrel.
This is what the SA was doing.
I want to say they did the first time I sent it back. The second time I sent it back, they said it was a "timing issue" and that's when they replaced the rifle.Did you replace the clip latch spring?
Every Garand I've owned and shot gets a new clip latch spring and recoil spring at a minimum. On one's I shoot alot, I replace every spring. Orion 7 is the go to for new springs.