With war on the horizon, production of the M1 Garand rifle at the Springfield Armory ramped up slowly but steadily:
In September 1937 the armory made ten rifles a day; two years later, one hundred per day; and by January 1941, six hundred a day. With the Army growing rapidly at that point, the government began placing large orders with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The civilian firm would produce over a half million Garands during the war, while Springfield, at its peak, turned out four thousand a day. All of the M1s produced by the end of World War II—over four million—came from Springfield and Winchester. The efficiency of mass production resulted in the cost dropping from over $200 per rifle in the beginning to just $26 per copy by 1945.
I’ve 4 uncles and a father-in-law who swore by their Garands.
Actually, many more M1 carbines than M1 rifles were produced and distributed. That’s because the carbines were distributed to officers, artillery, armor and support troops, and together they were a substantial majority of the troops.
A wartime price isn’t the same as a peacetime one.