Tag Archives: garand

The beauty in up-cycled Molle II egg pouches

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Let’s talk for a second about NSN: 8465-01-525-0589, Molle II Hand Grenade Pouch, IR Reflective.

These bad boys are about the size of two packs of cigarettes and are made, as you would guess, to swallow one frag-type grenade. Thus:

They also are dirt cheap (get surplus, you can find them for about $3. I inherited several of these from a friend who just got out and was getting rid of most of his stuff), reliable, have easy Molle snap attachments on the rear to fit on any sized belt, bag or carrier; and of course a snap front as well as a drain hole in the bottom. While I (generally) don’t carry around grenades or flash-bangs anymore, the pouches are useful in lots of other capacities such as to carry an IFAK (it’s like a take-out Chinese food container, you can really stuff a lot in there, just be sure to bag it to keep the wet out) or compass while hiking or camping.

I also tend to need some extra M1 enblocs from time to time as I use a CMP special grade (old WRA receiver, misc GI parts, new Criterion barrel in a Boyd’s hackberry stock) for deer/hog hunting and a 1944-vintage 3.1-serial field grade Springer for range antics.

I find that one pouch holds three enbloc clips perfectly for an all-up weight of 26oz for said ammo, clips and pouch:

Two pouches give you 48 rounds at the ready, four is 96 rounds for 6.5-pounds of weight on the rigger’s belt going into an unconventional 3-gun match. The more you know…

If you are interested in a deal on an IHC Garand, there has been a development

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The U.S. loaned 312,430 M1 rifles to NATO-allied Turkey, beginning in 1953 and ending with the final shipment of 5,000 in 1972. A few years ago, several thousand were returned from the Turkish Navy and now, over 13,000 have come back from the Turkish Air Force and are filtering out through the CMP as testing and grading are being completed.

The good news is, as many as a quarter could be rare IHC models.

The neat news is, they also sometimes have Turkish dope charts (marked Nisangah Tanzi) affixed to them.

More in my column at Guns.com

Heard you were looking for a pre-owned M1 or M1911? CMP just got 99K of the first and 8K of the latter..

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The Civilian Marksmanship Program has recently received truckloads of vintage M1 Garand rifles long ago loaned to U.S. allies overseas and is preparing to inventory M1911 pistols as well.

Gina Johnson, CMP’s general manager, told me via email Tuesday the federally-chartered non-profit corporation has been moving the repatriated 30.06-caliber rifles into their warehouses in recent days.

“We have roughly 86,000 rifles from the Philippines and roughly 13,000 rifles from Turkey in our possession,” said Johnson.

And then there are the 1911s…

More in my column at Guns.com.

Your non-collectible M1 Garand option

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I have been on the CMP’s “list” for years and have bought several M1s and bayonets as well as a couch-sized stack of milsurp (Greek and Norwegian) ammo through their good offices. Unfortunately, it seems their stocks of field grade, rack grade, and service grade Garands have dried up and, other than the occasional collector grade gun put up for auction and some sniper models, the best thing going is a mixmaster rifle they are making that actually sounds pretty good.

Referred to as the CMP Special Field grade, this is a “completely refurbished rifle consisting of an original M1 Garand Springfield or HRA receiver, new production Criterion barrel, new production American Walnut stock and handguards, and new web sling. Receiver and most other parts are refinished USGI, but some parts may be new manufacture. Receiver will have considerable pitting above the wood line”

The price? $830 plus shipping, which when you consider that Criterion does nice work on their barrels and typically asks $200~ for them alone, is not that bad of a deal.

Speaking of non-collectible M1s:

Robar offers a service to bring non-collectible “beater” M1s up to a really sweet grade.


Robar’s Service Grade Enhancement Package ($1895) consists of:

-Supply and Install New Barrel, Headspace and Time
This service includes the removal of the old barrel and installation of a new barrel. The chamber will be finish reamed to give proper headspace within military specifications. The take off barrel will be returned unless directed otherwise.

-Supply and Install New Op Rod

-Metal Refinish
This service includes the disassembly of the rifle, surface preparation and coating/plating of the metal parts to match new laminated stock. Rifle will be reassembled and function fired. Includes NP3 plating 10 M1 Garand Clips. Removal of excess pitting is not included.

-Fit New Laminated Stock/Return Old Stock
This service includes the removal of the old stock and transfer of the stock hardware from the old stock to the new laminated stock. We will also make sure the hand guards have appropriate clearances and the trigger group lock-up is properly tight, but not too tight.

-Supply and Install New Gas Cylinder

-Trigger clean up, remove creep, 4.5 lb+
Remove all noticeable creep from second stage, but maintain a crisp military two stage trigger pull and a trigger weight of at least 4.5 lb.

-Supply and Install Ultimak Scout Mount

175 million self-loading military rifles made since 1896– and most are likely still around

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AK-47 style rifles accounted for almost half of the global production of self-loading rifles over the past century according to the study. (Graphics: Small Arms Survey)

AK-47 style rifles accounted for almost half of the global production of self-loading rifles over the past century according to the study. (Graphics: Small Arms Survey)

A new study released by the Small Arms Survey found that over half of all autoloading rifles ever made for military use are either AK-type or AR-10/15 type designs.

The 60-page study was authored for the Geneva, Switzerland-based SAS by N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, an international policy-neutral technical intelligence consulting group.

The effort concentrates primarily on military arms issued as a primary combat weapon and not those built or marketed to the civilian or law enforcement user. As such it includes select-fire and automatic magazine-fed rifles such as the AKM and semi-auto battle rifles such as the M1 Garand made after the advent of smokeless powder. Excluded were crew-served weapons.

Starting with the Danish Navy’s order of 60 Rekylkarabin carbines in 1896 and moving forward, the study concluded some 175 million self-loading rifles have been produced for military use since then, noting this figure was “conservative.”

More in my column at Guns.com.

Everything you wanted to know about Garand rebuilds

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The always knowledgeable Bruce Canfield has a great piece over at American Rifleman on field and arsenal care of the M1 while in U.S. service to help better illustrate just what happened to these guns.

m1_lede

When M1 rifles were received by an ordnance facility for overhaul, they were unpacked, serial numbers recorded and the arms were degreased as necessary. They were broken down into the major groups; stock group, barrel group and trigger group. The metal parts, except the barrel, were removed and set aside for inspection and gauging. The wooden components were inspected and repaired, refinished, or discarded as necessary. Barrels and receivers were inspected and gauged to make sure they were within “specs.” Any barrels that proved unusable–due to substantial pitting, wear or excessive throat erosion–were removed from their receivers and scrapped. Receivers passing inspection were refinished (reparkerized) as required. The other metal components were inspected and gauged. Parts passing inspection were placed in storage bins for subsequent use. Superseded (obsolete) components were replaced, and those that required modification for continued use were altered as necessary.

Much, much more detail here.

Springfield Armory’s War Daddy: The Illinois M-1 Garand

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The company we know today as SA, who use the same name as the legendary Springfield Armory founded by the Continental Army, actually started in Illinois in 1974 with the production of a semi-auto version of the M-14 rifle (dubbed the M1A) and a new-production version of the classic 8-shot 30.06 brawler of World War II and Korea: the M-1 Garand rifle. Would you like to know more?

The M-1

Author's 1943-made WWII-era (real) Springfield Armory M-1 Garand. Click to drink in the walnut and steel goodness in high rez!

Author’s 1943-made WWII-era (real) Springfield Armory M-1 Garand. Click to drink in the walnut and steel goodness in high rez!

In military speak; the M1 Garand is officially known as Service Rifle, .30 Caliber, M1, NSN 1005-00-674-1425. Between 1937 and 1957, at least 5,468,772 Garands were produced by five manufacturers for use by the U.S. military. The government, always tight with a penny, kept these in front line service until 1963 and then transferred them to reserve and National Guard where they were often seen giving hippies some love as late as the mid-1970s.

The Army likes the M1 so much that they still keep more than 68,000 of them on hand for training and ceremonial purposes and loans out another 250,000 are still owned by Uncle but loaned out some 31,000 veterans groups and law enforcement agencies through the Ceremonial Rifle Program.

Orange County sheriff honor guard with loaned M1 Garands

Orange County sheriff honor guard with loaned M1 Garands

Designed by John C. Garand (hence the name) over a ten-year period, this iconic gas-operated, semi-automatic, rifle with its rotating bolt and long-stroke piston extraction is fed by a unique enbloc clip that holds eight rounds of 30.06 Springfield ammo and a skilled rifleman could run up to 50 rounds per minute through his weapon when the chips were down.

Out of production by the government since 1957 in favor of the M14, in the 1970s they made a comeback…in Illinois.

springfield armory garandRead the rest in my column at XD Forum

1950s Fiberglass Garand

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So yeah, I spent some time with the RIA guys at the NRAAM in Nashville and got to touch on this for a bit. Big up and see the natty stock.

m1 garand w fiberglass stock

Yup, its old school 1950s fiberglass. This particular rare M1 is chambered in an experimental 22-308 rifle cartridge. In addition to that it also has the very rare ergonomic designed/shaped all fiberglass M1 stock and a one-piece all fiberglass M1 front and rear handguard as direct from Springfield Armory.

m1 garand w fiberglass stock 2 m1 garand w fiberglass stock 3

More on it here