Posted on 12/31/2016 9:29:45 PM PST by MtnClimber
In January 1945, just months before Germany's unconditional surrender in World War Two, George S. Patton famously declared the M1 Garand as "the greatest battle implement ever devised."
The accolade is well-deserved. This semi-automatic rifle served American troops in the fields of Northern France, the coasts of Okinawa, the dry heat of Africa, and the oppressive humidity of the Philippines. And in more ways than one, the M1 Garand helped win the bloodiest war in human history.
THE BEGINNING OF A WORLD WAR WEAPON
Fittingly, the gun that would help to liberate France was created by a French-Canadian—John Cantius Garand. Twenty years after moving to America at age eleven, Garand began working at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts on a series of semi-automatic rifle designs in 1919.
His timing couldn't have been better. After the nightmarish, bloody demonstration of modern warfare that was World War I, the U.S. military needed to replace its bolt-action rifles with a modern semi-automatic weapon that could vastly increase the average infantryman's firepower. During the First World War the U.S. had seen how useful semi-automatic rifles could be, especially the French-made RSC 1917, the first widely issued semi-automatic military rifle.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
For later.
Thankfully, I haven’t got my thumb caught yet (Garand Thumb)!
The thought of it makes me cringe-I had a buddy get it, and it did look more painful than whacking your thumb with a hammer!
M1A’s is the civilian model of M14.
I’m told the Springfield has a far more abrupt and powerful kick...
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang...
PING!
CC
Yep. That’s because the Springfield is a bolt action. There is no bolt return spring to absorb recoil.
Yes, I also have one M1A. It is a Springfield Armory National Match Loaded configuration.
Part of the reason my dad was deaf in his right ear!
I had an old family friend who was one of the M.O.H. awardees from Iwo Jima. He carried a Johnson rifle and said he preferred it to the Garand. I got to hold it but never fired it so I have no olinion.
I didn’t find that so. The most powerful kick from a .30-06 that I ever experienced was with a Garand M1 NM Match rifle owned by a local gun club. It had been glass-bedded for accuracy. And, boy, it was accurate! I had not fired an M1 for 30 years, but was permitted to use this in a DCM shoot for qualification to buy my M1. Actually I came in third out of a group of 20 fellow competitors, some of them regular shooters of that club. At the time I used the M1903, I was carrying the M1 as an infantryman. The M1903 was a sweet shooter.
Went thru boot camp at Parris Island with the M-1, you could look down tables sitting in the mess hall and see the black thumbnails.
I had a couple of them tell me the worst part started the day after when it was purple and swollen and they still had to push those clips in.
God bless ya, but I am laughin my ass off
Troops learned to keep an empty clip and throw it down to see if they could get enemy troops to think they needed to reload and pop up....
Sigh. I can’t get any prescription that helps...I have four pairs of bifocals, all with different strengths, and now I can’t even see the rear sight unless I take my glasses off, and if I do that, I can’t even see the front sight, never mind the target!
Well, being a guy and all, the fact that it kicks, belches flames, and can occasionally make a hole in paper 100 yards away is fun, and it is going to have to suffice for me!
LOL, made me think of that old joke “Hans! Is that you?”
I’ll bet most guys only had it happen once! Can you imagine if you did it twice in a row? I am certain if I did, I would violate a number of range rules in short order, not to mention cuss up a string that would hurt the ears of the most plain and fancy of cussers!
Holy crap-I’m gonna get one! Thank you for posting that!
I have one of each and can vouch for that. My right shoulder has been surgically repaired, and the 03 gets uncomfortable after about 3 magazines.
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