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Beretta M1 Garand Rifle - Indonesion, VERY RARE!
Guns International #: 101188114 Seller's Inventory #: 89
Category: Military Rifles - M1 Garand - Beretta Rifles
Seller's Information
When emailing or calling sellers direct, please mention that you saw their listing on GunsInternational.com
Seller: MoGuns
Member Since: 5/17/17
State: Missouri
Country: United States
Seller: Private Seller
Return Policy: 3 day inspection and return policy on used guns.
Payment Types Accepted: Personal Check, USPS Money Order, Money Order, Certified Check
Description:
Barrel markings show RSC-1956.
The Indonesian Army Flag is stamped above the serial number, 5540141.
Information below is from the GCA Journal, Summer 2005 issue, Official Publication of the Garand Collectors Association.
(See picture for more information about this article.) THIS ARTICLE IS NOT ABOUT THE SPECIFIC GUN OFFERED.
THIS IS THE ONLY EXAMPLE WE CAN FIND OF A SIMILAR GUN.
Beretta Contract Rifles
In the 1950's the old line Italian gunmaker Pietro Beretta went into the Garand business.
After acquiring Winchester's blueprints and tooling, Beretta begain to turn out M1's for the Italian Army,
and shortly thereafter for anybody who would buy them.
Although development of selective fire, box-magazine infantry rifles was underway around the world,
the Garand was still a state of the art weapon, superior to anything then being fielded.
Two of the early contract customers were Indonesia and North Yemen.
The Indonesian contract rifle is a mint 100% original example and very interesting. It was purchased for $375 from an ad in Shotgun news in 1976.
The only information the seller could provide was that it was part of the collection of an International Harvester executive.
It is full size and in 30-06.
Efforts to learn more about the contract from Beretta were unsuccessful, thus guesswork is the only alternative.
For example, the serial number is far too high to believe the contract started at 0000001, as there is no possibility that PB made five million guns by the mid-1950's. Note from the attached old style data sheet, however, that the barrel is dated 1955. It is possible that the first two digits of the serial are the year of manufacture and the real serial number is 14950. Scott Duff recalls selling one with a serial in the 5548000 range, suggesting that the contract was as large as 50,000 rifles. A postor on the Culver Shooting Page reported seeing many of them on a recent trip to Indonesa although he reported that the condition was poor.
SOLD