Posted on 09/23/2011 3:41:03 PM PDT by cavdad
Bought a M1 Garand last weekend and shooting it for the first time tomorrow. Range is supplying military grade ammo this time. In the future where is a good place on the web or in Raleigh, North Carolina to buy military surplus 30-06 ammo?
By the way, the rifle is a Springfield Armory 1954 model with proper cartouche and ordinance stamp. No mismatching stock or parts.
Nope.
Instead of bang it was boom.
Kinda shook the folks around me up some.
Pinging the late TexasCowboy as it was his brand new gun I broke.
Why is that necessary? I'm certain such care wasn't observed when they were first issued to the soldiers during wartime......
Yep, that’s the trick. I was stationed in Germany 1965-68. Every time we went to the range the little PX available to us ran out of Kotex. The guys were using it for shoulder pads. At the end of day there were 55 gal drums overflowing with the tattered Kotex pads.
The wives complained bitterly and damn near marched on Battalion HQs about the third time this happened. BN CO finally instructed S3 to notify PX at least 3 weeks in advance of range firing so it could be sure to have sufficient stock on hand.
Here’s a widely-referenced writeup on reloading data:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000620055732/home.att.net/~Masterpo/M1load.htm
The primary rule is “Don’t use slow powder”.
Geez..
9mm should be everywhere.
Not that I know of. It was TexasCowboy’s rifle and he handled the return to Springfield. The ammo was new and theoretically even I shouldn’t have been able to “operator error” this catastrophe.
If they ever figured it out they were quiet about it.
Springfield paid me back for the surgery that I required and I dropped it after that. Then TexasCowboy got sick and I really dropped it after that.
Didn’t realize it was Texas Cowboy’s rifle.
It was my understanding that they never came up with an answer.
The only think I could think of would have been a metal shaving inside the bolt locking the firing-pin into the “fired” position, causing a slam-fire, but even that explanation has weaknesses.
I don’t have a 30.06
I prefer .308 and the elcheapo 7.62x54
The good thing is that once you have perfected the recipe that works the best for you... reloading not only saves money and gives more consistent results... it also gives one a much greater sense of accomplishment. Although I have to admit that once you start collecting reloading tools and materials you can spend a lot of money.
There are reduced load recipes intended for proper operation in the Garand that use a fast powder and a fairly heavy cast bullet. If you cast your own bullets and make your own gas checks... using these reduced load recipes you can reload a 30-06 cartridge for under 15 cents a piece not including the price of the brass. The savings ad up pretty quickly; after a couple hours at the range and you can head home and tell your wife you just saved over a $100 by shooting your Garand. ; ) Hey it is the same kind of logic used by politicians who are “cutting the deficit”!
And it pales next to the M1911 that it replaced as a support side-arm in terms of knock down power...
But, I do love it too.
A slam fire would have exited the barrel the same as an intentionally fired round. The rifle was pointed down range and it wouldn’t have been a safety issue.
TC and humblegunner had fired it previously and I had just fired the twelfth round. When it comes to firearms I have no arrogance at all and will request a step by step walk though as if I had never fired a weapon before.
In my opinion we did everything right the Garand had some internal problem that chose to raise it’s head on magic thirteen. Springfield apparently chose to keep the answer to themselves.
Why? I have a M1 manufactured by Springfield Armory in 1943, serial # 2117528 that is in really, really good condition that I've been thinking of selling since I never have a chance to shoot it.
The only reason I haven't sold it yet is because I don't know who to take it to in order to get a fair price for it........
The bolt lugs appear to be intact and the receiver recesses that I can see are undamaged, so I think that last bit of safe design provided by John C. Garand was probably incomplete.
It's a little late, but I'd stick to an original Garand instead of a reproduction.
Very sorry you were injured.
You appear very knowledgeable and I am not able to counter any point except that the bolt was slammed into place and the rifle ready to fire.
It just didn’t wait for me to pull the trigger.
Watch out for VZ 58’s, Hakim’s, Rasheed’s and Ljungman’s too!
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I have a Hakim , the 8mm Mauser version of the Ljungman ... goes well with my K98’s ... that Hakim can bite your thumb pretty hard but it’s accurate and soft on my shoulder ,, as it should being a full 14 lbs.
WOW!! How bad were you hurt?
the USA replaces rifles at will, if you own it, it's a different story... the idea behind it is to burnish the barrel and fill in all the pores of the freshly machined steel with the copper from the bullet jackets to keep out lead etc and make it easier to clean and less prone to rust
at least that is the way it was taught to me...
It is a tremendously satisfying feeling for me to turn a bunch of dirty old wheel weights into trays of nice clean shiny boolits. I need to start stocking up on wheel weights now that the zinc weights are taking over. I have a few hundred pounds but you know how quickly that amount can be used up. The recycler I usually buy from is now charging 40 cents a pound, but I suspect that in the not too distant future that will be a bargain that we will only reminisce about. I am also thinking it might also be a good idea to start building traps to place behind my targets.
I think that the bolt did close alright but didn’t completely lock (rotate into position) and firing pin struck the primer with its inertia. It should not have been able to do that - because of that slot in the lower rear of the receiver. I’d also guess that it was relatively new rifle and not heavily lubricated, which added some friction to the bolt closing process. That caused the bolt to slow a bit as it closed, the rotation wasn’t complete but the firing pin continued forward unimpeded and struck the primer.
Your pictures show that there was huge gas release at the breech and that gas split the stock in several places and threw the operating rod aside. The bolt locking lugs appear to be intact, which indicates that they didn’t fail - so the rifled fired with the bolt unlocked.
If I am right, the cartridge case was ruptured at the rear portion and most likely the head of the cartridge was completely severed.
I am not infallible but I have conducted a lot of investigations of weapon and ammunition failures during my career. I was also one of the last Marines issued an M-1 (1965 - carried in ITR before deplying to Vietnam).
Hope you have healed completely.
Semper Fi,
Chainmail
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