Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Got Garand?

you have to be careful with either garands or the carbines. if left alone in the safe, they tend to breed and produce new ones.

from the pictures, some of you guys have done a good job on the wood.
my first experience with a garand was at about age ll. up deer hunting relative said i needed a little more rifle that my winchester 94. handed me a garand. i had to rest it on a fence post to shoot it. Was in awe, never went away.
that rifle disappeared in his family some where, he was always a little shy about it. i suspect it might have been confiscated at the end of WWII.

I have 3, down from 6. The 3 that I traded are now AR's. One has a WWII serial number, October of 1944. It's been several years since I shot any of mine. I need to get a new much bigger safe and it's going to my son's place and that is where they will live. I'll keep one here at the house just incase we get invaded from space and I can fight off the invaders. (Gus said it's important I do that )

kwg

Hah, you got screwed, mine was $165 for a Harvester.

Here's a pic of the one I have now. The first one was a beater with a pretty much shot out barrel. This one has a new but not GI stock.

I've never handled or shot a Garand. However, I ran across this excerpt from an article about them concerning the en bloc clip. You'll have to tell me if the objections to it are justified.

En bloc clip

The M1 rifle is fed by an "en bloc" clip which holds eight rounds of .30-06 Springfield ammunition. When the last cartridge is fired, the rifle ejects the clip and locks the bolt open.[41] The M1 is then ready to reload. Once the clip is inserted, the bolt snaps forward on its own as soon as thumb pressure is released from the top round of the clip, chambering a round and leaving it ready to fire.[42][43] Although it is not absolutely necessary, the preferred method is to place the back of the right hand against the operating rod handle and press the clip home with the right thumb; this releases the bolt, but the hand restrains the bolt from slamming closed on the operator's thumb (resulting in "M1/Garand thumb"); the hand is then quickly withdrawn, the operating rod moves forward and the bolt closes with sufficient force to go fully to battery. Thus, after the clip has been pressed into position in the magazine, the operating rod handle should be released, allowing the bolt to snap forward under pressure from the operating rod spring. The operating rod handle may be smacked with the palm to ensure the bolt is closed.[38][43]

Contrary to widespread misconception, partially expended or full clips can be easily ejected from the rifle by means of the clip latch button.[38] It is also possible to load single cartridges into a partially loaded clip while the clip is still in the magazine, but this requires both hands and a bit of practice. In reality, this procedure was rarely performed in combat, as the danger of loading dirt along with the cartridges increased the chances of malfunction. Instead, it was much easier and quicker to simply manually eject the clip, and insert a fresh one,[44] which is how the rifle was originally designed to be operated.[43][45][46] Later, special clips holding two or five rounds became available on the civilian market, as well as a single-loading device which stays in the rifle when the bolt locks back.

In battle, the manual of arms called for the rifle to be fired until empty, and then recharged quickly. Due to the well-developed logistical system of the U.S. military at the time, this wastage of ammunition was generally not critical, though this could change in the case of units that came under intense fire or were flanked or surrounded by enemy forces.[45] The Garand's en-bloc clip system proved particularly cumbersome when using the rifle to launch grenades, requiring removal of an often partially loaded clip of ball ammunition and replacement with a full clip of blank cartridges.

By modern standards, the M1's feeding system is archaic, relying on clips to feed ammunition, and is the principal source of criticism of the rifle. Officials in Army Ordnance circles demanded a fixed, non-protruding magazine for the new service rifle. At the time, it was believed that a detachable magazine on a general-issue service rifle would be easily lost by U.S. soldiers (a criticism made of British soldiers and the Lee–Enfield 50 years previously), would render the weapon too susceptible to clogging from dirt and debris (a belief that proved unfounded with the adoption of the M1 Carbine), and that a protruding magazine would complicate existing manual-of-arms drills. As a result, inventor John Garand developed an "en bloc" clip system that allowed ammunition to be inserted from above, clip included, into the fixed magazine. While this design provided the requisite flush-mount magazine, the clip system increased the rifle's weight and complexity, and made only single loading ammunition possible without a clip.

Ejection of an empty clip created a distinctive metallic "pinging" sound.[47] In World War II, it was rumored that German and Japanese infantry were making use of this noise in combat to alert them to an empty M1 rifle in order to catch their American enemies with an unloaded rifle. It was reported that the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground began experiments with clips made of various plastics in order to soften the sound, though no improved clips were ever adopted.[46] However, this claim regarding the risks of a pinging empty clip is questionable due to hearsay produced as fact by the only known source, the otherwise fairly reliable author Roy F. Dunlap in Ordnance Went Up Front in 1948. According to former German soldiers, the sound was inaudible during engagements and not particularly useful when heard, as other squad members might have been nearby ready to fire.[48] Due to the often intense deafening noise of combat and gunfire it is highly unlikely any U.S. servicemen were killed as a result of the ping noise; however some soldiers still took the issue very seriously.[49]

Lots of boat accidents.

Yep, those are the problems with it. Archaic design.

On the article:

The only time I've ever seen anybody catch their thumb in the mechanism is closing the bolt on an empty rifle. If you're pushing a full clip in place, your thumb is too high to be caught by the bolt and mashed. Not so when pushing the follower down to close the bolt, if you don't have control of it.....ouch.

Pings....I don't know about anything except the firefights I've been in, but if somebody's gun was pinging, I wouldn't be able to hear it. Hell, when I'm shooting mine and I have earmuffs on, I don't hear it. You are also usually accompanied by other soldiers and it's protocol to announce you are "Loading", in any event if somebody on their side pops their head up, somebody on our side does there best to blow it off.

One major complaint I have with the Garand is the inability to quickly top off the magazine like one could with a Johnson, which had its own issues.

I have two, down from 4.
Shoot them quite a bit along with an M1A
In fact I bought a Dillon 550 just to feed them.

Not at the time.

Yes and Yes. Though I don't recall how many are in the safe, 2-3 I think for sure. Maybe 4

I've got four service grades that came from the CMP about ten years ago. I used to shoot them a lot but others have taken their place at the range. Picked up a couple of the Navy .308 barreled receivers and built one up using another service grade. They always get lots of comments at the range. Too heavy for my taste to carry deer hunting although I did it once.

Imagine carrying it throughout a tour in WWII. I think I’d have been looking for any opportunity to switch out for an M1 Carbine.

Currently have three "keepers", other wander in and out of the safe.

CMP Service Grade Springfield - 1943 issued receiver and barrel, mostly correct parts, and GI wood.

CMP Special - Springfield low number receiver built by me at the CMP Maintenance Course, was fortunate to be drawn for the class three years ago.

CMP Special - Winchester receiver, in .308, correct WRA bolt, and the typical mix of CMP parts for a Special.

One will make it to a deer hunt at some point, hasn't been a priority yet.

Nah, you would've been an 18 year old full of piss and vinegar just like your buddies. UP THE HILL!!!

I've never owned one & every time I get the urge I tell myself that I have an M1A & that's close enough. Hope I haven't missed out on too much. But I like so many styles & eras of guns that I just can't have them all.

I got two Garrands in one morning for $350 and $400 in 1997. I think both were Danish from the CMP.

My father, who fought in WWII as a 22 year old second lieutenant in 1944 occupied Italy, said he thought the Garrand was clumsy. He liked his 1903 Springfield that got him a marksmanship badge.
My father was not really fighting. He ran the motor pool. The vehicles were serviced by German prisoners of war, while my father chased Italian women.

My uncle did fight, hard against Germans. But he carried a Thompson or steered a Sherman tank, and never commented on Garrands.

Having shot both the Garrand and the 1903, I hate the 1903 fine little notch sight, and much prefer the Garand peep sights.

I have both, though my 03 is a 03A3, and totally agree the Garand sights are much better, even to the peeps on the 03A3, the front sight being on the fine side and rather easy to damage.

Recoil is not a huge amount softer, but noticeably so with the Garand, also.

But with my sample of two, one each, the 03A3 is slightly more accurate. I shoot the same exact load in both, and they both have Criterion barrels. I still kinda favor the M1 but enjoy both quite a bit.

The 1903a3 was my first rifle at 10 years old. Full military dress,it got a few deer. I about rubbed the finish off. Still have it. Accurate rifle. Got into the garands, started handloading. Listened to the old timers,stuck with imr 4895 and 147- 155 bullets. They have performed well.

If anyone thinks the Garand is heavy, consider foot pounds of striking energy vs. weight of rifle. The M1 Garand fares a lot better than the AR15 in that comparison.

At Kent State University in Ohio, there is a modern art outdoor statue made out of 1/4 inch steel plate. At one place there is a hole right through it, made by a ball round from a Garand in 1970. Anyone wanna bet tht the AR15 mouse gun would do the same?