M1 Garand

The **M1 Garand** is a rifle chambered for the .30-06 round and was the first semi-automatic rifle to be generally issued to the infantry of any nation. It is the most popular American rifle during World War II. It is a valuable collector's item today along with the M1 Carbine.

## History

The story of the first semi-automatic rifle ever widely adopted as a standard military arm began after the start of the First World War, when the inventor John C. Garand (a Canadian, then living in the USA) began to develop a semi-automatic (or self-loading) rifle. He worked at the government-owned Springfield Armory and during the 1920s and early 1930 developed a number of designs. The first prototypes from 1919 to 1924 were built using the unusual primer actuated blowback which worked well, but due to the then-new progressive burning propellant this system was unsuitable for a military rifle, so he switched to the more common gas-operated system. He filed a patent for his semiautomatic, gas-operated, clip-fed rifle in 1930, and received a US patent for his design late in 1932. This rifle was built around the then-experimental .276 caliber (7mm) cartridge.

At the same time, his rifle was tested by the US Military against its main competitor, a .276 caliber Pedersen rifle, and was eventually recommended for adoption by United States Army in early 1932. Shortly after, US general MacArthur stated that the US Military should stick to the old .30-06 cartridge. Foreseeing that, Garand already had a variation of his design chambered for 30-06. Finally, on the 6th of January, 1936, the Garand rifle was adopted by the US Army as the "rifle, .30 caliber, M1". Early issue rifles, however, showed quite poor characteristics, jamming much too often for a decent military arm: as a result, a lot of noise was raised that eventually reached the US Congress. In 1939, a major redesign was ordered, and Garand quickly redesigned the gas port system, which greatly improved its reliability. Almost all M1 rifles of the early issue were quickly rebuilt to adopt a new gas system, so very few "original" M1 Garand rifles survive to the present day, and those that do are extremely expensive collector's items.

### World War II

When the USA entered World War II, the mass production of the M1 rifles was set at the Springfield Armory and at the Winchester Armory. During the war, both companies built about 4 million M1 rifles, making the M1 Garand the most widely used semi-automatic rifle of World War II. During the war, the M1 Garand proved itself as a reliable and powerful weapon.

There were minor attempts to improve it during the war, but these did not leave experimental stages, except for two sniper modifications, M1C and M1D. Both were approved for service in 1945 and both featured a telescope sight which was off-set to the left due to the top-loading feature of the M1. After the end of World War II, the production of the M1 in the USA was stopped, and some rifles and also licenses to build it were sold to other countries, such as Italy and Denmark.

### Korean War

With the outbreak of the Korean war in 1950, the production of the M1 for US forces was resumed early in 1952. Rifles were manufactured at Springfield Armory, and also at Harrington & Richardson Company (H&R) and International Harvester Company. Those companies manufactured M1s until 1955, and Springfield Armory produced the Garand until 1957.

### Present Day

With the official adoption of the new rifle and ammunition in 1957, M14 and 7.62x51mm NATO, respectively, for US service, the M1 rifle became obsolete. It was still used during the later years, however, due to the lack of M14 and M16 rifles, and saw some service during the early stages of the Vietnam war. Later, many M1s were transferred to the US National Guard, used as a training weapon by US Army or sold to civilians as a military surplus. Other users of the M1 were used by Italy (where these rifles were later redesigned and rebuilt into 7.62mm BM-59 rifles), Denmark, France and some other countries. There were also attempts to rebarrel the M1 for the 7.62mm cartridge in the USA and to adopt a detachable 20-rounds magazines from Browning BAR rifles, but these were less successful and haven't seen any significant service. The M1 Garand remains a high sought after rifle, and is wanted in the civilian market for primarily hunting and target shooting.

In the early 2000s, McCann Industries manufactured M1 Garand big game rifles that are chambered in .458 Winchester Magnum. This version of the M1 was discontinued after around a decade of production, when McCann Industries' primary gunsmith at the time passed away. The base rifle is identical to the standard M1 Garand, but McCann Industries added an aggressive muzzle brake on the barrel on a mercury cylinder in the stock to reduce and deflect recoil. The weapon also features McCann's own M1 Garand Gas Trap Adjuster.