[ADClope]

I've been wanting to purchase an M1 Garand for quite a while now. I've been reading and trying to understand what I'm looking at as it is fairly confusing at first.

I am wanting to buy one primarily as a historical piece and would very much prefer it to have had a solid chance at participating in WW2, and secondarily as a shooter. However, I likely wouldn't get out to shoot it more than a handful of times a year.

I understand that based off of serial numbers alone you cannot trace any history with the M1. That all you can get is a manufacture date. I also understand that nearly all of them that saw any service during the war came back and went through the re-armoring process and that most stocks and some barrels were replaced.

It seems that the likelihood of finding one that was probably used in the war and has its original stock/barrel is quite slim, and if you do, will be priced accordingly, which is out of my price range (wanting to stay under $2000). Does this sound about right?

So I guess my other questions are what month/year should be my cutoff if I'm wanting to find one that had a chance to be involved in the war? I saw an article that there was an M1 found on Okinawa in a grave that was dated 10-44... So, since Okinawa was towards the tail end, I would assume you wouldn't want to go any later than that date?

It seems that my best bet would be to find a receiver dated before fall/44 and deal with a possible re-barrel and new stock.

Just wanted to bounce these questions off of some of you more knowledgeable folks.

Thanks!