How to Tell the Date on an M1 Garand

The first step in dating your M1 Garand is to find the serial number. This is stamped into the rifle's receiver, the part housing the operating parts of the rifle. Once you know the serial number, you can refer to a number of sources online, or in books, to determine the date of manufacture. For example, M1s manufactured by the Springfield Armory with serial numbers between 940,251 and 1,008,899 were made in November 1942.

Knowing the serial number alone is not enough to guarantee that all the parts in your M1 rifle were manufactured at the same time as the receiver. According to Joe Poyer and Craig Riesch, authors of "The M1 Garand, 1936 to 1957," when scarce M1s were in demand as collector's items in the 1950s and 1960s, some "enterprising" gunsmiths used receivers that had previously been sold for scrap to assemble new M1s with parts from other rifles. One way to check if all the parts on your M1 were made at the same time as the receiver is to check the "drawing number" that was stamped on most major parts; this number changed over the years as modifications were made to the weapon. A rifle whose parts all have drawing numbers from a period contemporaneous with the serial number is much more likely to be the original deal.