I recently picked-up a M1 that the rear reciver legs look like they have been welded to be built up so the trigger group will clamp down tight. Is this a normal practice by govt armorys?

Bamajohn

I have never seen this done on an unaltered M1. Is your M1 a "standard" model or a military match rifle? Military armorers make modifications to standard rifles to improve functionality and accuracy, perhaps you have one of these.

Never heard of any military ordance work as you describe. Sounds like a home cure for a loose fitting trigger guard assembly to me.

Hello,
I shoot on a regular basis a NM M1 Garand in 308 and have owned and worked on several over the years and from what you describe, it is not a "government arsenal" project. As some mentioned, there is a process where you can "lug" the receivers for improved bedding but that is not what you are describing. There have been a fair number of Garand receivers welded back together to make a working receiver, but would not want to use one of those myself. There are those that do, but not for me. You can buy a barreled action, no stock or stock metal, from Civilian Marksmanship Program folks in Camp Perry for something under 300 bucks. Not a great barrel, finish rough, but you have all the makings of a fine shooter there with a bit of work and a bit of money. New Douglas Barrel, either 308 or 06 installed and refinished for something in the area of 250 bucks, add 100 for Boyds stock, few more dollars for stock metal--bingo! a fine shooting M1 Garand that will probably hold 2 minute of angle groups out to the 800 yard mark and beyond or add a few more bucks, glas bed the action, handguards, and shrink that down to under two minutes to even 1 minute. Excellent match rifle, tough as nails, last a long time for under 1000 bucks. Suggest you find a knowledgable 'smith or Garand shooter w/ experience in your area and check the rifle out before shooting. Better to take that extra step on the side of safety. Remember that is a "bomb" going off in that chamber about 4-5" from your head. Just a suggestion.
dsiteman
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The welded areas ar just the tips of the "legs" where the trigger guard slide in and clamps down. The rest of the rifle is in great shape. 7/63 barrel, like new stock,and almost all milled parts. The reciver dosen't look like is been rewelded but I'll try to find someone to magnaflux it.

I have heard of an accurizing proceedure where metal is added to the bottom of the receiver lugs in order to effect tighter trigger to action lockup and improve stock bearing. This is a match proceedure performed on both M-1 Garands, and M-1As. I do not have any other details to add, as I have only seen one add try to sell this gunsmithing more than 10 years ago. Now the AR-15 system rifles rule the high power roost, so there are probably fewer gunsmiths doing this work than before.

Sound like you have a nicely accurized rifle that someone may have started out building a full house match rifle with, but then stopped short.

I bet it will shoot very well.