Garand bolt question

[FCPDAVE]

Who would have electro penciled the serial no. on the bolt in my Garand? The Greeks? The rifle came from CMP and is a 1943 Sprng. with crossed cannons and SA GAW. The circle P is on the hand grip and the rifle has no other stamps or apparent rebuild. I had ordered an 03 A3 from CMP way back and when I didn't get anything I called. They ended up saying they'd send a nice Garand. I'm starting to thin out my collection and I'm wondering how this marking will affect the value. A quick look on Gun Broker showed no penciled bolts but a number of Garands with no picture of the top of the bolt. HMMM.

Thanks - I'm sure this has been asked before.

[Milwroad]

Common on Danish return rifles. If the number is 0434 let me know!

[bd1]

Does it have a VAR barrel? Danes are desirable b/c they tend to shoot good and were well cared for.

[case42so]

During the 1960's & 70's the National Guard, Army Reserve, ROTC and others engraved the serial number on bolts. Due to theft of weapons the bolts were removed and stored in a separate area.

[RCS]

Could you give some examples as to which units and states that the National Guard engraved the serial number on bolts ?

Standard procedure was to remove the firing pins from M1 rifles, bolts from carbines and the magazine catch from the M1911A1, by the mid to late 60's this was discontinued

[Devil Dog]

I have seen quite a few Danish return rifles with the last four serial numbers electro penciled on the bolts. NONE matched the rifles.

[Major Tom]

My Danish garand had the numbers on both the bolt and stock. When DGR reparked it, I asked to have the numbrs removed from the bolt which he did. DGR also ft a nice Wenig stock too.

[jd:^)]

Could you give some examples as to which units and states that the National Guard engraved the serial number on bolts ?

Standard procedure was to remove the firing pins from M1 rifles, bolts from carbines and the magazine catch from the M1911A1, by the mid to late 60's this was discontinued

I would like to know more about this practice too. I have two units suspected of spending time in NG units somewhere. Both came to me as USGI units from the CMP:

1. HRA with "214" in white paint on the rear handguard, and "214" electro-penciled on the bolt. 214 doesn't match any segment of the serial number.

2. WRA WIN-13 with the serial number electro-penciled on the bolt.

Since both were ID'd as GI issue by the CMP, I didn't think they had any Danish heritage......

[FCPDAVE]

Thanks for all the info. The rifle I described was sent from the CMP as a Service Grade in 2002. The complete serial no. is electro penciled on the bolt and there are no other markings except as I described above. The bbl. is dated 5/44 and the park is all very dark gray. Serial # is 710XXX.
I also have a Danish Issue M1 with the VAR bbl. I was surprised when it arrived from the CMP because the metal was so nice and the stock was so bad. It had the serial no. stamped in the bbl. channel and just past the pistol grip which was inletted for an ID plug (missing). The stock was a real beater with thin metal plates inserted from the bottom on either side of the mag. well. Firewood soon I suppose. It's now has a Boyds stock, bedding, light gray park and accurizing. It also has a Danish sling and bayonet (wood grain scabbard). Shoots better than my eyes can see.