"In my opinion, the M-1 Rifle is the greatest battle implement ever devised."

• Gen. George S. Patton, 26 January, 1945

guys weve been talking a lot about the time around wwii

it was a revolutionary time in firearms design

we talked about german guns in wwii

we talked about british guns in wwii

we talked about soviet guns in wwii

you know who were gonna talk about now

best country of all

us guns in wwii

this is the m1 garand

it was americas standard issue rifle from before the war even started

outclassed every bolt action anybody else was using

everybody else spent the war trying to match it

only problem is it was designed by a canadian

but he was a french canadian so i guess thats not so bad

lol

ok so john garand was born in a little town in quebec but his family moved to connecticut when he was a boy

he learned english in a mill

then worked at a shooting gallery

and ended up getting really into weapons designing

he made friends with people in the industry who liked his stuff

they helped get his foot in the door with the military

talking to the navy and the army

and he eventually got hired at springfield armory

that was a big deal because they were basically like the official gun factory of the united states

i dunno how this foreigner got in

friggin h1b visas

but yeah so since like 1901 the us military was kinda interested in trying out this whole semi auto thing in a rifle

it wasnt so hard in a pistol

but rifles are more powerful and that made it tricky

theyd put out a request and a bunch of people submitted designs

but the military had some kinda weird requirements

no protruding or detachable magazine

no bullet lube lol

but yeah people submitted designs

the military tried them out and the designers did tweaks

this went on for a while all through wwi

well garand submitted designs too

he had some troubles making it strong enough

in fact his first .30-06 prototype broke and they had to do testing with .276 caliber rifles

but eventually he got it to work and not explode and the military selected his design

the rifles were first delivered in 1937 and the army was pretty much completely changed over by the end of 1941

which is good since thats when japan attacked

it served in all theaters of wwii with all branches of the military

it served in korea too

soldiers loved it

not too heavy

very powerful

8 rounds instead of 5

semi auto

reliable

easy to take care of

it was friggin great

everybody else was trying to play catch up

in fact the very first article i posted

[the sks]

it was made by the soviets in 1945

and thats just one attempt at giving soldiers a semi auto in response to what the us had since before the war even started

murica

after the korean war the us went about modernizing and replacing the m1 garand

it took way longer than youd think it should have

and they ended up with the m14

but the m1 garand

and the m14

are very friggin similar

in a broad way the m14 is just a garand with a detachable magazine

full auto

though that was quickly removed

and chambered in .308 winchester

but even then the .308 was just a modern reformulation of the .30-06 to take advantage of newer powder chemistry

guys its basically an m1 garand with a detachable magazine

the m14 served in vietnam and in limited capacities on into the modern day

there are probably some still in various special forces armories right now

so the garand is such a great design it and its derivatives have served for over 80 years

pretty damn good

so lets take a look at the design

this was back when militaries were worried soldiers would lose anything not tied to their body

including magazines

so instead of a detachable magazine garand used an en bloc clip

you load up 8 rds into the clip

then just stick the whole thing into the rifle

its lighter than a magazine but much faster than loading one at a time

so thats pretty neat

and the whole thing works with a long stroke gas system

theres a gas port drilled under the barrel right before the muzzle

this pushes gas against a gas piston and a long twisted operating rod that tangles its way back to the bolt

its pretty tricky

the bolt is a two lug rotating bolt

and the fire control group has two hooks grabbing a big hammer that rotates up to the end of the bolt

this is an adaptation from a design by john moses browning

patron saint of all gun owners

so field stripping is actually really easy with no tools

just what you want in a weapon

put the weapon on safe and pull down the trigger guard

the fire control group will slide out

then you can pull the receiver out the top

push the op rod spring forward a little and remove the follower extension

then you can remove the op rod

remove the bolt and the weapon is field stripped

super easy

if you want a garand today

hell go buy one

they have been sold by lots of people in many waves

the civilian marksmanship program has sold them

people use them in shooting matches

they can be found anywhere from very valuable rare specimen to cheap shooter

tho cheap is still probably close to 1000 bucks i dunno

you can buy accessories for it

but really are you going to mess up a piece of americana lol

pew pew

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