Just curious, how many of you have a Garand and do you still shoot it?

I carried one in the US Army, heavy as a corn sheller. If you like them, that's fine with me.

I have one, H&R, I still shoot it. Tons of fun.

Count me in.......

Had a Winchester.

Someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

Yes, I have one and do shoot it.
It is fun and gets attention at the range.

Got one that was a safe queen, made within one month of the manufacture date of the M1 my dad carried innthe Battle of the Bulge. Carry it hunting every Veterans Day and usually get a deer.

Yes. Mine was refinished and looked brand new when I bought it. 1943 SA receiver and a new criterion barrel. I shoot it.

Yes. Keep it in my shop. Everybody needs a shop Garand.

Have 8 of them from the CMP. Lots of fun to shoot

Yes and yes. 1953 Tractor.

i wish

I have one I need to get around to finishing. I think I have everything but an op rod, bolt, and a hand guard. Everything but the receiver is stuff I scrounged from rebuilding Garands for customers who didn’t want their parts back. Receiver is a Winchester a good friend gifted me.

Yes and yes. All four manufacturers.

I love to let somebody who has never shot a Garand shoot a full clip. When the en bloc pops out with a ping, ask them in a loud, accusing voice, “what did you do to it?” You usually get a wide eyed WTF? look. 😮

I have had several, still have one, a '53 IHC. Shot it some yesterday, zeroed it with my regular load sans FMJ bullet, using a 150 grain Interlok instead. The idea is to blast a deer with it this year.

Have a h&r and two built up 308 rifles. They are nice rifles.

Have a 44 Springfield with a 52 SA barrel. My buddy shot a doe with it last year. 168 Hornady match. Damage to the deer was tremendous. Lung shot through ribs.

Have a few. The last one purchased was a Springfield that still has the Red River rebuild tag on it. Paid an even $1000 for it an that was almost 10 years ago. It is more or less a new rifle. Haven't even shot it.

Still glad i bought a couple of DCM guns when the getting was good. What they want for a decent Garand these days amounts to armed robbery.


I shot one in July just because but i am really focusing on the AR these days. That said, I will NEVER get rid of my M1's.

I've had two or three over the years. Don't have any now, though. I guess I was never particularly impressed. I'd much rather have an FAL or G3. I currently own a US made G3 clone which serves that role better than a Garand. I wish I had never sold my old H&K 91 which I purchased in the late 1970s. Sold it just before their importation got banned by George HW Bush, after which point the prices went from around $700.00 to around $2,500.00.

I got mine back when they were $168. from the DCM
.I won the only rifle match I ever took first place in using it.
Maybe I should deer hunt with it?

Beautiful stock.

agreed!

I've had several CMPs over the years. Probably one of my favorite rifles. Unfortunately, all but one is gone as life and maturity has set in. I realized having a car that runs and groceries for kids are more important than having extra rifles around.
I'm looking forward to taking my remaining M1 to the range again soon. Maybe....

Picked up one of those beat to hell ones coming in from Korea in the late 80's.... Needed more than I was gonna give it so it went down the road in a trade. But the Springfield receiver serial number was in the 11 thousand range so it must have originally been a real early one. Got a nice one from the CMP in Oct 1996. Shot NRA High Power with it for a few years. Still got it. It gets to the range several times a year usually. Also have some 5 round clips for hunting and substituted some 150 gr. Accubonds for the 147 gr. FMJ's in the G.I. duplicate handloads with IMR-4895 and plan on harvesting some venison with it in honor of one of my late uncles who had carried an M-1 in the Pacific in 1944-45. He always thought it would be neat for me to take a deer with a Garand.

I'm down to two.

I have one it’s fun to shoot. I shot it, in cmp vintage rifle match did pretty good.

I have four left, one of them being a shooter, haven’t shot it in a couple years.

I have a H&R Garand '54/'55 manufacture from the CMP. Fun to shoot but don' t seem to shoot it as much as I should.

I used to have some. lost in a boating accident......

Took mine to the range about 6 months ago...

I'm absolutely blind as a bat without optics.

With glasses on I can see the sights, but the 100 yard target is totally nada.

No glasses means no sights at all, but the target is kinda there a little bit.

Shot two clips... all 16 were in a 4" group.

Won't me... but that rifle sure knows how to shoot... must have been owned by a Marksman before I bought it.

Yes, those canoes can be mighty tricky. Same thing happened to my AR.

I do, it's a Springfield that I bought in the late eighties. One of the Blue Sky imports that are supposed to be crap. This one isn't.

I wouldn’t not hunt with it.

I have one that my father found in my grandfather's house after he died in 1959. We suspect it came from his second wife's son who was in the army. This step-brother of my father's died shortly after returning home from WW II of some disease. The barrel was about worn out and the extractor also. Several years ago I replaced the extractor and had a gunsmith rebarrel it with a new Criterion. I seldom shoot it, but cannot say why. It is a fine rifle, but pretty much a safe queen.

I got one, the Korean War commemorative model.

I do indeed.

I liked the M14 better.

I have one.

I have three battle rifles, carried both the Garand and M14 in the Marines, the M1 Carbine has the barrel date of the month and year of my birth.

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?

shoot a 03A3, you would like the sights better than the 1903
if they were danes, you might have the VAR barrels, finest kind.

there is a hood that fits over the front sight to protect it.

Yea, I'm aware of it and really considering one, I would prefer a winged one like the Garand.

But if a hood is all that's available...

Thanks for mentioning it. That is an itty-bitty front sight.

I think I’m going to take mine this weekend, shoot pigs if I catch some.

'55/56 year class for my SA. Nothing fancy, just good a collecting whitetail deer.

i am going back from an imperfect memory on this, but i think the marine front sight was narrower too.

there are still quite a few garands left in various european countries, belgium and italy, i am sure about.
i also know of some model of 1917's being used in competition in germany.

Had a tanker once, it was a good gun. Sold it and got two M1A’s with military parts, and never looked back. Now, the M1A is a rifle I can love,

OK,,,,, I said that my M1A might suffice. I was being open minded & ask if I was missing anything by not having a Garand.

Seven hours go by and no replies..

My M1A must be OK ???

well, i like the m1A too, which is the son of the garand.
but a well put together garand, with that hand rubbed oil stock, there is just something about one.
they are addictive.
everybody should have at least one.
which started me on the road to perdition, with the leather scabbard, flat fender jeeps, bayonets, the list goes on.

I used to think that as well - have always liked the M1A/M14 and have owned several over the years and never a Garand. More recently I found a Garand for sale locally and decided a guy really should have one of each and now I do.

Same here, unfortunately!

I had one several years ago. Fired it only rarely. Bought a 1903 Springfield and shooting is fun again!

Ordered one today!