M1 Garand

Took to Justin to the range today for some more practice. A nice gent came over and asked if he'd like to shoot his M1 Garand......well why not? I'd never shot one myself but figured the recoil would be fine with the weight of the rifle and the semi-auto action. Wow, what a sweet shooting rifle. I got my share of shooting it too, banging a 12"x12" gong at 200 yards with open sights. Durn accurate rifle it is!

Learned to shoot one AND field strip and reassemble it BLINDFOLDED when I was 14 and going to a military school. Could do the field strip and assembly in under 4 mins then

Maybe the finest battle rifle ever made.

Red Leg said:

Maybe the finest battle rifle ever made.

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So General Patton said I believe.

Not only are they a darn fine battle rifle, they are just plain fun to shoot!
Did you and Justin get the requisite instruction on avoiding M1 thumb? Sounds like a good day at the range. I bet he really enjoyed that!
The .375 and I are headed out in the morning for some final load development and a little practice. Supposed to be clear and cold, 34 degrees. Remember what that feels like Phil? You leave on your hunt real soon don't you?

IdaRam said:

Not only are they a darn fine battle rifle, they are just plain fun to shoot!
Did you and Justin get the requisite instruction on avoiding M1 thumb? Sounds like a good day at the range. I bet he really enjoyed that!
The .375 and I are headed out in the morning for some final load development and a little practice. Supposed to be clear and cold, 34 degrees. Remember what that feels like Phil? You leave on your hunt real soon don't you?

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34 degrees in Idaho in April? Dang warm my friend! Leave May 22nd, 41 days, but who's counting?

I knew about M1 thumb prior to today. The nice gent was smart enough to load the rifle for us as to avoid that problem. But yeah, just fun to shoot. A bit of trigger creep, but once it hits the wall, you know when it's going to break.

According to this gent, by virtue of being a member of this shooting club, I'm entitled to receive the appropriate letter to enable me to purchase one from CMP. So yeah, there goes another several hundred dollars for another rifle!

M1's are just a blast to shoot. Like them much better than any AR.

PHOENIX PHIL said:

34 degrees in Idaho in April? Dang warm my friend! Leave May 22nd, 41 days, but who's counting?

According to this gent, by virtue of being a member of this shooting club, I'm entitled to receive the appropriate letter to enable me to purchase one from CMP. So yeah, there goes another several hundred dollars for another rifle!

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Heh heh heh, 41 days means sleep is become more difficult, right? I'm a little over the 120 day mark and can hardly stand it
The several hundred dollars will likely be the cheap part. Ammo in that semi auto is going to be a real issue with a teen age son!
Be the best couple hundred bucks ever spent

M1 or M14 are fine weapons, the feel of them is far more natural to a rifleman than the AR/m16. No buffer in the stock working against your cheek. I can't help but admire the men that carried these rifles into battle every time I have one on my hands. Glad you guys got to spend some time with her. After shooting one it doesn't take long before one finds its way to your safe.

Amen brother. Back in the good old days at one of our local clubs some of the more "seasoned" members used to set up a just-for-fun, assault-the-ravine, take-the-hill course of fire for M1's, M14's & FAL's only. Usually in the evening after the monthly LRTR shoot. It was a blast! A half dozen at a time would load out with all the ammo they could carry and skirmish through the sage brush shooting everything from clays and stationary steel to Texas Stars and Spinners. More of a "battle drill" aka excuse to burn down some ammo You woulda loved it Bullthrower!

Red Leg said:

Maybe the finest battle rifle ever made.

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+1, THE finest battle rifle ever made. I love M1's. I'm pretty fond of M14's too. Makes since considering it's the son of the M1.

One of my favorite quotes by Patton was, " the object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his."
He was hard core as were the great men that he lead in battle.

Hello fellow Rifle Enthusiasts,

Back when I was interested in combat arms, among other things I owned two Garands (one full heavy target version, built up by Fulton Armory on an original Springfield receiver and one unmodified original International Harvester standard Infantry rifle version).
Also, I owned two M-1A rifles (one "bush model" with 20" barrel and one standard model with 24" barrel).

With the standard M-1, I shot many Nevada jack rabbits and California ground squirrels, plus 6 caribou in Alaska.
One caribou I shot from prone at over 400 paces across a frozen lake as it was walking right to left, along the far bank, on the first shot and running two more shots.
First shot (150 grain Remington Core-Lokt spritzers) cut across the brisket and it then ran.
2nd shot broke a foreleg and third ended the situation by going through heart/lungs.

Only 3 shots fired and no misses (I do not prefer long shooting at game but time was running out and this was the first caribou I had seen in days so I shot it).
Those old rifles will do the work if you practice with similar ammunition to what they were designed to shoot, in this case - 150 gr spritzer.

With the short M-1A ("Bush Model"), I also shot many rabbits and squirrels, plus 5 black tail deer on Afognak Island (that was the limit then).
The full size (24" barrel) M-1A I had set up with a military surplus scope mount and Leupold 6 power with 42mm lens but, all I ever shot with it were paper and steel targets.

At the end of the day, I will always rate the M1 as superior to the M14 / M1A design, because I found the M1 to not be difficult or picky about anything.
Mine would function reliably with everything I fed them, including reloads.
That blasted gas nut on the M14 had to be set just right or the weapon would malfunction.

Then once you tweek it enough times to finally get it right, the two I owned were generally not quite as accurate as either of my M1s were in the first place.
Also, I found the smooth lines of the M1 to not hang-up at all on my clothing or twigs and such but, the M14's 20 shot magazine wanted to grab everything I was wearing and every stick or long weed I walked past.

I always thought Ruger missed their chance when they made that POS Mini-14 but instead, they should have made a scaled down in-battery clip fed 8 shot, "Baby Garand" in proportionately small calibers such as, .222, .223, 7.62x39, 6mm PPC and similar ones.

Blah, blah, whatever,
Velo Dog.

Cliffy said:

Learned to shoot one AND field strip and reassemble it BLINDFOLDED when I was 14 and going to a military school. Could do the field strip and assembly in under 4 mins then

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I accidently partially field stripped one during a mil rifle shoot. The gun wasn't made for lefties and every now and again 15% of us will pull the charging handle out.

Bullthrower338 said:

M1 or M14 are fine weapons, the feel of them is far more natural to a rifleman than the AR/m16. No buffer in the stock working against your cheek. I can't help but admire the men that carried these rifles into battle every time I have one on my hands. Glad you guys got to spend some time with her. After shooting one it doesn't take long before one finds its way to your safe.

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the M14 made a comeback in the Stan. Accurized they were preferred over the bolts for 500M sniping. as one soldier put it. when 4 terrorists are planting a road side bomb you get one with the bolt, if you are fast you get all 4 with the M14

lcq said:

I accidently partially field stripped one during a mil rifle shoot. The gun wasn't made for lefties and every now and again 15% of us will pull the charging handle out.

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A good friend of mine once said to me (he is a leftie), "sometimes I think God made us lefties as a source of amusement for the inferior masses". That made me laugh until it eventually occurred to me that I should be offended

They make fine hunting rifles as well!!


I bought a second stock and did a little "customized" camo work with a few cans of spray paint and some masking tape:


What I've heard is that the stock design is such that it is similar to a shotgun, so it makes tracking moving targets easier......don't know if it's true or not, but the sika in the first picture was shot on the run, and hit with 2 out of three shots.

Very nice Phil, there are a large group that get together at the local range for their M1 shoots. They also donate one M1 per year to a disabled vet, very cool.

Paul,
Indeed a "baby Garand" would be very cool especially in a triple 2! IdaRam, pitch the idea at your next round table! TS could market it as the IdaHo Baby Garand.lol.
I agree with ya on the Mini-14 totally although I do own 3 of them and can't really explain why I do. There were several PD's that carried them in the trunk of their cruisers back home in MT and I always thought a M77 chambered in 308 would have been a much better choice to protect and serve instead of to spray and pray.

Cody

IdaRam said:

A good friend of mine once said to me (he is a leftie), "sometimes I think God made us lefties as a source of amusement for the inferior masses". That made me laugh until it eventually occurred to me that I should be offended

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I only get offended if they call me a political leftie, now that is truly an insult.