RTI M1 Garand

[Greasemonkey]

So, I got brave and bought an enbloc from RTI.. cause why not.. you can never have enough enblocs when you own a Garand. 





Oh.. oh.... right..  your probably looking to see a rifle... umkay then..  I got this free M1 Garand with the enbloc.. and actually, it is pretty decent. Definitely needed some stock cleaning, thats pretty much all I've done, cleaned up the wood and run a bore snake thru the barrel, everything else you see... is as delivered. So.... this is your basic RTI import Garand..  I'm far from an expert on these, but it seems pretty decent for a shooter or just one to play with. No idea of the condition of others, other people have gotten. I figured I'd share what I got from them, so YMMV..





Before the bore snake, some debris in there,  according to a friends gauges, the MW was 1.5, TW came in just under 2.5, so the barrel is decent, some groove haze, but over all nice. It was advertised as 1.75 bore wear. Maybe a slight difference in gauges, gauge brand, measuring methods??


After the bore snake


Standard  M2 ball round bullet test


No stock stamps could be found.. just remnants of rack numbers on this example. The stock in my opinion is the worst thing about it.



Metal wise.. it's good, no pitting on the receiver, it was rebarreled with a '58 barrel. and most all parts are SA stamped still.











Go ahead and cringe..  too me, who cares.. it still functions just like my Garand without an import stamp.. and I'm pretty sure this one is in better shape than the other I have.

[Phosphorus32]

In shockingly good shape for an RTI. Probably a lot of life left in that bore after you shoot it and clean it to loosen up more of that fouling. The bore measurement certainly is good.

Korean War era production SA receiver. Refurbished before being sold, or provided via the Military Assistance Program (MAP), to Ethiopia. If it was through the MAP, RTI shouldn’t have been able to purchase them, since MAP small arms remain US government property. MAP returns were the majority of CMP Garands sold over the last couple of decades. I don’t think RTI found a lot of Garands and being mixed in with every other type of milsurp in Ethiopia, they were probably overlooked. Akin to how RTI overlooked those Russians amidst their Chinese Type 56s from Albania.

[Bacarnal]

"T" marked barrel.  If I'm not mistaken, means, "Targeted", i.e. match grade barrel.  With the good TE &ME, should be an excellent shooter.  Nice.

[Cz315]

Outstanding! This could have easily been a service grade from the CMP. Original finish, it appears. Is that a no hole safety?

[Cz315]

Also is it a 7/53 barrel? That would be correct for the receiver. The bolt heat lot is also correct

[Direct Connection]

That stock could almost pass as Romanian. Delicious looking gun. My first gun I bought as I worked the summer of my sophomore year. 30-06 Ruger M77 tang safety. Still not as pretty as that trooper but you always get the pretty ones.

[Greasemonkey]

Thanks     hopefully the ATF doesnt come after them like the Russian SKSs..  and they don't seem to have a shortage of Garands or Carbines,  more than I could say for the SAFNs, no more of them have been listed. Is it possible Ethiopia bought them out right instead of requesting assistance... wouldn't buying them out right, negate the MAP, since they became property of Ethiopia?? 

And after relooking at the barrel with my.. uhm... glasses on, it is a '53... not a '58. Getting old and going blind really sucks..   And the safety does have a hole in the lever, it's a stamped style trigger, not machined.  Didn't know anything about the T barrel stamp.. interesting.   

I have some ugly Betty's DC..  they need lovin too

[running-man]

They are already in the wild GM regardless of whether they should have been imported or not.  You are totally good to go. 

The fact that the importation license for the whole Ethiopian cache was approved means that ATF, the State Dept., and the attorney General all signed off on it; likely during the late Trump years.  No way in hell that would have been signed off on post 2020 with this administration. 

The up to 800,000 South Korean M1 Garands and Carbines intended for import from 2009 onward were explicitly blocked from import by the State Department with the reasoning that they could “be exploited by individuals seeking firearms for illicit purposes.”  Basically a BS answer, but since the law states the importer *has* to have State Dept. sign off, it was essentially DOA.  They thought they got at least 86,000 of the Garands into the country in 2011 (*everything* was pretty much ready to go) but that was also vetoed with an explicit Obama executive order that now gave the Attorney General (effectively the president himself) a say in the matter.

It's a sordid tale that doesn't make any sense, but since when has that stopped the government from doing something stupid? 

For a decent short read of the highlights of this tale, see:
https://www.thetrace.org/2015/07/m1-rifle-antique-south-korea-import/

and for a much longer read of the ins and out of the various laws and how the train wreck came to be, see:
https://www.nslj.org/wp-content/uploads/3_NatlSecLJ_159-195_Burgess.pdf

[Phosphorus32]

I never meant to even hint that the ATF would go after individual owners, even if they were MAP loaned Garands, not purchased outright by Ethiopia. It is quite possible that Ethiopia made some purchases of Garands directly from the US, or indirectly from a secondary party that was selling them at fire sale prices. The 60s were the days of Sam Cummings (and others) who did a lot of buying and selling in the international arms market.

The ATF only visited RTI with regard to the Russians amongst their Chinese SKSs, and as far as I know never any civilian purchasers of those Russian SKSs. Apparently RTI had good lawyers, or did a convincing play dumb act, since they still have an importer and dealer license.

The South Korean M1 Carbines imported long ago by Blue Sky (aka, the squasher of barrels), and others, and M1 Garands discussed by RM are a good example of small arms purchased outright. Hence, their availability for purchase and import by US importers, if the Garands ever get approved. I share RM’s low probability of success assessment as Presidents of both major parties have consistently dragged their feet or been openly against those purchases.