Whenever buying a Garand take a very good look at them first. When I was a kid in the 9th ID at Lewis I bought a decent looking one from a pawnshop in Tacoma. One day at a shooting range an older Veteran asked me about it and asked me if he could show me something. We took the trigger group off and removed the action/barrel from the stock. Looking at the receiver from the bottom you could see that it had once been cut and then re-welded. It still functioned perfectly but I was a little disappointed after learning that. I kept it for a few more years and after I left the military I sold it to someone else who didn't know about 'cut' M-1 Garands.
