New toy came in

[pafindr]

My Service Grade HRA M1 Garand came in from the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP)!
I'll be breaking it down to inspect and lube it in the next day or so.

Not to fond of the pumpkin color stock so I may have to strip it.

[retdetsgt]

Nice!

[Cat_Doc]

Congrats. I love shooting the Garand. And haven't smashed my thumb yet while loading!

[pafindr]

The Garand is the 1st rifle I learned to shoot with, it's a great rifle.
It's amazing that our WWII and Korean War Vets had to carry this thing around. It weighs just over nine pounds plus they had to carry their ammo. One bandolier weighed about 5 pounds, had 50 rounds in eight round clips. I don't know how many rounds they carried in the pack to fill their bandoliers.
Add to that all the other things they carried: Mess kit, MREs, shovel, grenades, side arm, bayonet, etc.

[Norm357]

That is a fine rifle right there!

[marinepilot]

That is a fine rifle right there!

The only thing that would make Norm like it more would be if it loaded into a spinning cylinder!

[retdetsgt]

The Garand is the 1st rifle I learned to shoot with, it's a great rifle.
It's amazing that our WWII and Korean War Vets had to carry this thing around. It weighs just over nine pounds plus they had to carry their ammo. One bandolier weighed about 5 pounds, had 50 rounds in eight round clips. I don't know how many rounds they carried in the pack to fill their bandoliers.
Add to that all the other things they carried: Mess kit, MREs, shovel, grenades, side arm, bayonet, etc.

The Army was still using the M-14 when I enlisted. It was 11.5 lbs, 14.5 lbs loaded. That's why we thought the M-16 must have been designed by Mattel..... Also the M-16 20 round mags were about half the weight of the M-14's 7.62 (.308) ammo. The M-14 was a great rifle too though, IMO.

[3.slow]

You have to smash your thumb one time just to say you have done it. Very accurate rifle

[pafindr]

I'm leaning towards keeping the stock it's current color. Since the wood is birch if I strip it and use raw Linseed oil or Tung oil it will look to light, like pine wood. The only way to really get that nice dark Garand color with birch is to stain it and that usually doesn't look that great.
I will probably buy another M1 but from Winchester, these were the only ones that were made only during WW2 and are rare because they only made about 513,000. If I can't find a Winchester I can try to find a Springfield but have to find one with a serial number in the 3.8 million or lower range as those where the ones that were in WW2. I want it as historically accurate as possible. And of course if you have two Garands you must buy a third so you can stack them.

The M14 is also a great rifle. It was based off the M1 Garand but made as an automatic. The civilian version of the M14 is the M1A and not an auto rifle.

I have never suffered from Garand thumb and hope I never will. The friend that taught me to shoot the M1 made sure I learned what not to do.

For those that don't know what Garand thumb is: When loading the Garand you have to push the clip down into the receiver. When the clip is all the way down the bolt closes and if you don't do it correctly it tries to feed your thumb into the chamber.

YouTube - Garand Thumb

[MikeG]

The Army was still using the M-14 when I enlisted. It was 11.5 lbs, 14.5 lbs loaded. That's why we thought the M-16 must have been designed by Mattel..... Also the M-16 20 round mags were about half the weight of the M-14's 7.62 (.308) ammo. The M-14 was a great rifle too though, IMO.

You can barely make out the M-14 in your Class A enlistment photo. I guess you weren't allowed to take the box mags off the range.


Who knew the 'M' stood for Musket?

[retdetsgt]

You can barely make out the M-14 in your Class A enlistment photo. I guess you weren't allowed to take the box mags off the range.


Who knew the 'M' stood for Musket?

Well, yeah if you're a big sissy that needs to have a repeating rifle..... "Wah, wah, wah, I don't want to reload after every shot......"