M1 Garand
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What were the origins of the Garand? “Our New Service Rifle (1938)”
Above: John C. Garand shows off the excellent balance of the M1 rifle. Credit: SANHS Our New Service Rifle JOHN CANTIUS GARAND 1888-1974 “A Quiet Genius Who Gave To His Adopted Country ‘The Greatest Battle Implement Ever Devised’ The M1 Rifle” Above from the inscription on the John C. Garand bust at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site Donated by the Membership of the Garand Collectors Association June 6, 1994 For more than thirty years the Ordnance Department endeavored to obtain a satisfactory semi-automatic or self-loading rifle to replace the bolt action Springfield. These efforts were not confined to development within the Department. Invitations were extended periodically to…
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My Path to Becoming an M1 Garand Collector, Researcher and Author, (Part 4/4)
My Path to Becoming an M1 Garand Collector, Researcher and Author, Part 4 By Scott Duff For most of the 1980s I was employed at the Pittsburgh based headquarters of a major national mechanical contractor that specialized in large industrial and commercial projects. I worked in the law department as a contracts administrator specializing in claims and litigation support. My activities included coordination with outside attorneys, document discovery, claims writing, contract writing, and preparing expert witness testimony. My work experience prepared me for research and writing on the topic of the M1 Garand rifle. Therefore, it seemed logical to me to transfer the results of my research at SANHS and…
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My Path to Becoming an M1 Garand Collector, Researcher and Author (Part 3/4)
In addition to participating in IPSC competition, I began to shoot in Service Rifle matches. I was shooting in four matches a month, practicing with pistol and rifle weekly, and spent my free time cleaning guns and reloading ammo. Great fun! I wish I had kept track of how many rounds I fired in both platforms, but I did not. My best guess is that in the 1980s I was somewhere between 50,000 and 75,000 rounds. It could have been higher. I don’t really know for certain, but that is a good guess of the range. While competing in the shooting sports, I also I had become interested in collecting…
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My First M1 Garand (Part 1/3)
“Let’s begin the meeting. Hello, my name is Michael, and I’m addicted to collecting U.S. Martial Arms.” Let me tell you how it began, what I call “The fatal moment of my life”. I was a student at Pitt in 1996 and to break the monotony of our studies a friend and I attended the big gun show in Greensburg, PA. I was raised in a hunting family, and was no stranger to firearms, but viewed them more as tools rather than something you would want to own for its own sake. A 16 oz. Plumb claw hammer is a nice hammer, but its job is to pound nails, not…
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Seeing Double: Duplicate Serial Number – Springfield Armory and Winchester M1 Rifles
Most long time M1 rifle collectors know that duplicate World War II serial number Springfield and Winchester rifles exist. This was revealed in the July 1960 issue of American Rifleman magazine by a brief article that included a photograph of an SA and WRA rifle both with serial number 2445470. In 1987 I conducted a survey of serial numbers contributed by the Garand Collectors Association (GCA) membership, it revealed that several blocks of assigned serial numbers that were duplicated. This information was presented in my book “The M1 Garand: World War II” in Chapter 4, Production, Deliveries, and Serial Numbers. Newer collectors may not have been aware of this duplication,…
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The “Gas Trap” Garand
Newer M1 Garand rifle collectors may not be aware that the U.S. Rifle, Cal. .30 M1 with which we are all familiar featured a very different type of gas system when it was adopted in 1936. The collector term standardized by the Garand Collectors Association (GCA) in 1993 for the first type of gas system was Gas Trap that utilized a false muzzle to deflect or “trap” the gas into the gas cylinder. The early barrel was threaded at the muzzle and the gas cylinder screwed onto it. The gas plug slipped down into the front of the cylinder and was held in place by a screw. The barrel had…
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Lowest & Highest Serial Number M1s (Part 1/2)
Many gun collectors are interested in the lowest and highest serial number firearms of the model in which they are interested. Collectors of the M1 rifle are not an exception. With that in mind, a brief summary on the earliest M1 rifles is in order. The goal of the US Army’s Ordnance Department to develop a semi-automatic service rifle began in the early part of the 20th century. John Garand was one of many inventors trying to accomplish this goal. In 1919 he was appointed to work on development of a semi-automatic rifle at the government’s Springfield Armory located in Springfield, MA. In 1932, as a result of tests conducted…
