CMP has a complete Remington M700 rifle up for auction. My guess is an M40 ordered in either 1968 or 1969 (6.2M serial block), possibly ordered by the Air Force or Navy. Appears to have a 1972 dated barrel which I suspect was a replacement barrel. Has the post-1968 “7.62 NATO” marking on the barrel. Rifle is beyond my pay grade, just an fyi post.
That's not a 1972 dated barrel, the people at the CMP either messed up and got confused on the barrel codes, or they flat out have no idea how to read the barrel codes. The barrel is original, bot a replacement, and it's dated UDS, which is September 1969.
The M40 is 100% original, so it's a great example for anyone who needs a factory original late 7 digit M40 for their collection. However, this one has the most boring history that you could possibly imagine. It's an Army rifle (just like many of the CMP M40's that have been listed), and it mainly just sat around in storage at an armory for most if it's life before being transferred to the CMP in 2010's (that's when a lot of the M40's were shipped to the CMP, just like the USMC XM3's).
As with past CMP 7 digit M40's, this one was probably at an Air Force base at some point, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it was owned by the Air Force. Roberts Air Force Base could have just been a hub for distribution and short term storage. Roberts AFB, Albany and Anniston constantly trade stuff back and forth, so being at an Air Force base doesn't necessarily mean that it was owned by the Air Force. We can prove that with some 1911 pistols that were issued to various units in the Army, but the guns were still sent through Roberts AFB at some point. They're still Army 1911's, not Air Force pistols.
Also, this could have possibly been a rifle that was ordered through the Marine Corps. Again, that doesn't mean that the Corps used the rifle or even wanted it, they just had the contract with Remington for the rifles. I wouldn't doubt it if this M40 was purchased and sent to the Corps, then sent to the Air Force, then transferred to the Army for use. It sounds ridiculous, but this kind of stuff actually happened, and it happened quite a bit! This is probably going to be the history for many of the Remington factory original condition 7 digit M40 that you see pop up at the CMP, including this rifle. For the M40's that have been messed with, those will obviously have much different history than an original rifle like this.
Since it's an untouched Remington factory original M40 rifle (unlike a lot of the other M40's that the CMP has sold), this one should go for some good money. I'd say that $15k and less would be a good price for it, but I personally don't think that it's worth more than that (even though it could potentially sell for over $15k due to it's condition). It's a great example of a later 7 digit M40, and that's about it. The CMP probably has a bunch more M40's, so this could just be the beginning of it. We'll just have to wait and see what else gets listed in the near future, but the CMP has been pretty consistent with getting M40's listed recently.
We're learning a lot about M40 history right now! My friend might have discovered what happened to the hundreds of missing M40's after the Vietnam War, which is weird since the Corps only brought 100 of their 700 M40's to Vietnam. Chandler took inventory in the 1970's (serial number list is published in DFA volume 1) and hundreds of serial numbers are missing, and the Corps purchased 322xxx M40's in 1968 when they already had 700 M40's that were ordered in 1966. These missing M40's have been a mystery for decades, and we think that's finally been solved. We're also finding M40's with units that have never been associated with M40's in prior research. One of the M40 greenie scopes in my collection was actually used by the Navy SEALs! We're discovering modifications that were possibly done to M40's during the Vietnam War, and have never been published before. We've found "M40" type rifles used by the military, they're similar to M40's, but they're not actually M40's. We've found M40 configurations that have never been published or discussed before. And there's even more information that we've gotten permission to research first-hand and publish at some point!
So, M40 research is ongoing, and there's so much that no one ever knew before now! None of this information can be found in reference books or even my previous posts! I'm not sure when my friend and I will come forward with this information and publish it. Maybe we'll sit on it for our books, or maybe we'll discuss things in the forums. It's amazing how much M40 history has been lost or forgotten, we're quite literally rewriting the book on the M40's military history!
Also, if anyone here buys this CMP M40, please contact me and I'll send you the correct Redfield scope base for the rifle (for free)!