Posted on 06/07/2012 5:33:05 AM PDT by marktwain
Just in time for the 68th anniversary of D-Day.
The importation of as many as 87,000 M1 Garands gathering dust in South Korean storage may soon get the green light for importation to the US. Special thanks is due to Montana Senator John Tester and Representative Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming who introduced legislation to prevent the US government from interfering with the importation of US-made guns that were previously exported to other countries. In the face of this pressure, the State Department will no longer prohibit the exportation of these M1 Garands back to the US.
"From World War II to Korea and Vietnam, M1 Garand rifles played a crucial role in history," Tester said. "These American-made firearms will always be valued as collector's items, and law-abiding Americans have the right to keep them under our Constitution's Second Amendment. I'm glad the State Department listened to my concerns and those of America's gun collectors."
These rifles, which are completely legal in the US, and are even considered to be Curios & Relics because of their explicit value as collectible firearms, had been previously blocked for reasons ranging from wanting to protect US firearms manufacturing interests to ostensibly keeping guns off the streets, billing the M1 Garands as high-power, high-capacity semi-automatic rifles too dangerous for Americans.
With the State Department reversing their position, the US and South Korean governments will be working to find an importer to bring these Garands home. They will be distributed through the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), the government-chartered organization that promotes riflery and firearms safety.
The condition of these M1 Garands has not been established, but in the past, the CMP has rebuilt Garands into like new condition with new Walnut stocks and new Criterion barrels, both in their original chambering, .30-06 Springfield and also in .308 Winchester.
We really like M1 Garands in .308, as they can still use en-block clips in addition to being chambered in a more modern, more versatile, and importantly, more available cartridge.
This is good news for all the fans of the M1 Garand, both as an elegant, reliable, and attractive rifle as well as a firearm that is truly part of American history. The bad news is that waiting will be hard. Still, the CMP has more than a few M1 Garands on-hand. You can see what rifles they have for sale right here.
Anniston. Details at http://odcmp.com/Sales/stores.htm
My brother-in-law was there when the Chinese invaded. He said he saw hordes coming at them in waves. China had so many young men this was a way for population control as those in front had rifles, those behind them had spears and clubs, those behind them had nothing and were expected to pick up the rifles of those slain.
I’m pretty sure the gun.com article is wrong about the CMP involvement with this batch of M1s. CMP only receives their rifles from the U.S. Army, per their operating charter.
If these rifles are shipped to the U.S. via an importer, they will be sold commercially.
As soon as these are graded I’m driving down to the Anniston CMP store and pick out a few. I do also wonder what is to become of the tens of thousands of M1 Carbines that can be shipped back to the US ... fish don’t have hands.
French sent s Foreign Legion unit - most of their
forces were tied up in IndoChina aka Vietnam
Was lead by a Lt Gen who assumed rank of Colonel to lead
unit - was supposed to be harbinger of larger force
General’s name was Ralph Monclar (a nom de guerre - real
name Raoul Mangrin-Venerey) Used alias to protect family
from Nazis during WWII
Was wounded 17 times in WW I and WW II
Look up Battle of Chipyong-Ni
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chipyong-ni
That would be a major desecration of an M1.....
Hmmm...if that's true, why is it so easy to get semi-auto AK-47, 74, and 103's...?
The .30 M-1906 (30-06) spec has not changed since 1906 execpt that non chlorate primers are now used as a rule.
I saw this on the internet so it must be true. Unfortunately I think it probably is true.
Anyway it said that the Anniston Army Depot was cutting brand new M-14s into scrap. Also read they were doing the same to new in the cosmoline Winchester model 52 .22 target rifles. This was at the orders of Clinton of course.
the weapons you describe are not really AL-47 etc... but weapons based on them, at no time did the semi-auto’s ever have full auto fire control groups and often have been made to be unable to accept full auto groups (having just the FC group and a weapon for them has been in the past prosecuted as having a Machine Gun
I remember when we were going to get to buy our 45s when they replaced them with the 9mms. I was going to buy mine for sentimental reasons. I believe Bill Clinton had them all melted down.
Some idiot will put a 30-06 round in it, blow it up and sue. That’s why they are converting them
Won’t blow up.
May bend the op rod though.
A lot of people shoot modern factory ammo through their Garands. It is suggested that bullet weights are limited to 150gr.
quote from Hatcher’s notebook. “In trying to determine the ultimate strength of the gun, Mr. Garand built up progressively higher proof loads in increments of 5,000 lbs. pressure, from the regular proof load of 70,000 lbs. to the extreme figure of 120,000 lbs. per square inch. At this later figure, cracked left lugs on the bolt began to be encountered. A gun in which the bolt had the left lug cracked by one of these excessive high pressure overloads was then fired an endurance test of 5,000 rounds of service ammunition, using the cracked bolt, which showed no further deterioration.
There were M-14s scrapped in the 90s, yes, but far more were given away or sold to the three Baltic nations. I believe that when the Iraq and Afghan wars flared up (and the value of 7.62 NATO on a wide-open battlefield was again demonstrated), we ended up re-acquiring a lot of them.
Most of the scrapped M-14s were actually scrapped in the 1980s. And yes, the problem with the M-14 is that it was designed and made as a machine gun, even though most of them never had the selector switch installed. There’s only one or two “legal” M-14s on the civilian market, and the owners had to go to court to prove that they were not assembled for the military, had never been assembled with the selector switch or shaft, and so had never been “machine guns”. (As I recall one was assembled from an H&R receiver that had spent its life sitting on an executive’s desk.)
Because the individual items never were machineguns - unlike the M14s, which were.
ATF sees a vast difference between “once was but now isn’t” vs. “never was”.
“So let me get this straight. We gave these to the South Koreans so they could protect themselves, and now they are selling these back to the US Veterans that sacrificed so much for them.”
Here’s the problem—they did get a lot of these rifles as Lend-Lease/MAP, yes...but they also BOUGHT a lot of them outright. And no records were kept (by us or them) on which ones were which.
There were some major questions surrounding the M1 Garands and carbines imported from Korea in the 1980s, as to whether they were not-paid-for Lend-Lease/MAP arms. Now, the Koreans are claiming that the worn-out rifles from the 1980s were the Lend-Lease rifles...and that these are the ones they bought and own outright.
I’ve heard reports (and seen a few pictures) of unopened “cans” of rifles in SK depots, but given the abuse these rifles are documented to have seen in South Korean hands (remember that many of these saw service in Vietnam as well as Korea), I won’t get my hopes up.
“My understanding is they cannot shoot today’s .30-06 ammo. It’s a liability issue.”
There’s plenty of current-production ammo that’s safe for a properly maintained Garand. It was designed around a 150 grain bullet and IMR 4850 (I think) powder...anything meeting the same range of standards should be fine.
From reading people’s reports, my impression is people run into problems when they use a bullet heavier than 150 grains (heavier weight = slower propulsion = higher gas pressure) or powder with different burn rates. (Years ago I read of one poor fool who had multiple “incidents” with his M1...turned out he was using Kynoch ammo loaded with cordite.)
I doubt the CMP would want to even be involved in this scam. They are claiming the worn out junk rifles are ours and the good condition ones are theirs?
We're being played for fools.
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