Fun chilly match with M1 Garand today

[1KPerDay]

Tactical match. Everyone else shooting ARs. I shot my crusty Blue Sky import M1 Garand and lumbered around and blew a lot of ammo. It was fun. I missed a lot of longer range steel and had fun and hit some shorter range steel and had fun.

Interestingly, I watched the guys in my squad have quite a few malfunctions throughout the day. Lots of failures to fully chamber, lots of dropped (insufficiently seated) mags, a few double feeds. My M1 ran great. Not a single problem other than my fumbly loading of Greek clips that aren’t the smoothest. Temps ran between 32F and about 20 after the sun went down.

 

[1KPerDay]

Quick video of one close range stage for any interested

Big fat slow guy shooting M1 Garand in a tactical rifle match 😂

youtube.com

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

Glorious

 

[D.B. Cooper]

That's not a Garand because there is no ping when the clip ejects. Unless, of course, the myth of the ping giving away your position is just that-a myth.

 

[Walkalong]

That's very cool, and looks like a lot of fun.

 

[22250Rem]

Cool video. Thanks for posting. Always wanted to try something like that with My M-1, but never got around to it.

 

[entropy]

Quick video of one close range stage for any interested

Big fat slow guy shooting M1 Garand in a tactical rifle match 😂

youtube.com

What the heck was the last scenario supposed to be, a Hamas squad hiding behind a kid?

That's not a Garand because there is no ping when the clip ejects. Unless, of course, the myth of the ping giving away your position is just that-a myth.

The first one is hard to hear, but the rest are there.

 

[usaral63]

Like your toothpick.........you could clean your earwax with it too!

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Good stuff!

What's the masking tape on your jacket for?

 

[1KPerDay]

Good stuff!

What's the masking tape on your jacket for?

Taping up all the holes in the targets after each shooter so you can score them properly. As you can imagine those particular targets were pretty much exclusively made of tape by the end of the day

 

[1KPerDay]

What the heck was the last scenario supposed to be, a Hamas squad hiding behind a kid?

LOLOL no idea. I stopped trying to see anything realistic in matches a long time ago.

 

[tominboise]

What ammo were you using - M2 Ball? Handloads or surplus? Were you able to recover your brass after the match?

Your shoulder is tougher then mine.

 

[1KPerDay]

Here’s a more involved stage with some steel at the end for any interested.

M1 Garand slow run and gun LOL

youtube.com

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Dude, you so need to use that self-portrait on your Xmas cards!

 

[1KPerDay]

What ammo were you using - M2 Ball? Handloads or surplus? Were you able to recover your brass after the match?

Your shoulder is tougher then mine.

For the paper-only stages I use M2 HXP (Greek) mostly. If there’s any steel targets on the stage I use handloads with non-magnetic bullets as required by the range owners. These were 168 Nosler CC 168s over 46.8 grains H4895. I also have a small batch of 110 grain ballistic tip loads for plate racks if the match director is worried about the Garand breaking targets (it has happened). I have also blown paper targets completely off their wood stands at close range too LOL.

I try to pick up all my clips and empty brass between scoring and taping and resetting, and squad members are usually helpful in policing up those big artillery shells (compared to all the 5.56 everywhere the .30-06 brass is pretty easy to pick out). However I always lose some. I probably lose about 10-20% of my brass and maybe a couple clips, if we get rushed or busy. I had to SO/run the timer most of the day so I probably lost a bit more this time. You gotta pay to play so I try not to worry about it.

As far as tough shoulder, the Garand is a very soft shooter. My AK beats me up a LOT more. My shoulder isn’t bruised or sore at all today.

 

[Riomouse911]

Here’s a more involved stage with some steel at the end for any interested.

M1 Garand slow run and gun LOL

youtube.com

Pretty cool stuff! I must say that being a lefty on that stage was a little bit of an advantage, most of the shots looked like they were to the right as you moved into place.

You did great with the old warhorse. It did look a bit chilly out there, tougher to get the ol’ wheels rolling when the mercury drops .

Stay safe.

 

[Random 8]

We had some local matches like that. I ran a couple with the M1 and one with a PSL and the scope removed, and a couple with the CETME I used to own. The operators learned to secure the targets more generously as the first run I blew a few cardboards off the sticks. With the CETME and W846T handloads, I actually melted a couple of pasters on a really close target.

We used to do a bolt action class at the end of the year that included a bayonet charge where you had to parry a falling broomstick, butt stroke a sandbag off a post and stab an archery bale. You started with a Popper and your handgun, then recovered a Mosin M44 with 5 rounds in a stripper clip. You then transitioned to a Mauser that you had to capture by knocking down another target. My favorite match ever! Ah the good old days before the serious "tactical" shooters took over that club and .30 cal got rare and expensive.

 

[amflyer]

“What’s that chambered in?” Lol, as the kids say.

When people ask me about the 30-06, I tell them, “With today’s bullets, it’s made the 300 H&H obsolete.”

I get a lot of nods and vacuous looks.

Best round ever.

 

[Charlie98]

Heavy Metal!!! Heck yea!

I've done some shoot and scoot on my own with the Garand... it's a lot of fun, but you realize how few '8 rounds' is when you are trying to engage multiple targets.

I would have to say you are at a disadvantage being a lefty... trying to hold it with your strong hand, and load with your off hand. That looked awkward.

 

[1KPerDay]

Heavy Metal!!! Heck yea!

I've done some shoot and scoot on my own with the Garand... it's a lot of fun, but you realize how few '8 rounds' is when you are trying to engage multiple targets.

I would have to say you are at a disadvantage being a lefty... trying to hold it with your strong hand, and load with your off hand. That looked awkward.

I probably made it look more awkward than it has to be LOL. If you do it right it’s as fast or faster than removing your hand from the grip and loading righty. You have to be strong though. With these clips and this particular rifle I often end up swapping the left hand to hold the rifle under the point of balance which is basically the right handed loading method anyway, so yeah that’s not the most streamlined technique

 

[Frulk]

I enjoyed both of those videos. Thanks for posting them.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Your shoulder is tougher then mine.

You get used to it. Although...it's common to have a red spot on my shoulder after a match like that.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I stopped trying to see anything realistic in matches a long time ago.

THIS.

Last summer, I came up witht he idea of a D-Day Commemorative run n gun match. It was great, but we had a light turnout. (about 15-18 or something like that.)

Last month, I came up with the idea of a Cold War era match. I designed stages around what we used to train for in the 80s and 90s. Match was supposed to be limited to Cold War era military firearms. They turned it into a basic 2-gun match to boost attendance, with those shooting Cold War era guns receiving a few seconds bonus off their times. They had to cancel it due to lack of participation.

This month, they're doing a Battle of the Bulge Commemorative match that is, as near as I can tell, the same modern 2-gun format. I'm not even going to bother. Yeah. Let's compete with an M1 and a CMP 1911 and WWII web gear against AR/M4s with red dots and race guns with 15 rd mags and RDS sights. No thanks.

 

[1KPerDay]

THIS.

Last summer, I came up witht he idea of a D-Day Commemorative run n gun match. It was great, but we had a light turnout. (about 15-18 or something like that.)

Last month, I came up with the idea of a Cold War era match. I designed stages around what we used to train for in the 80s and 90s. Match was supposed to be limited to Cold War era military firearms. They turned it into a basic 2-gun match to boost attendance, with those shooting Cold War era guns receiving a few seconds bonus off their times. They had to cancel it due to lack of participation.

This month, they're doing a Battle of the Bulge Commemorative match that is, as near as I can tell, the same modern 2-gun format. I'm not even going to bother. Yeah. Let's compete with an M1 and a CMP 1911 and WWII web gear against AR/M4s with red dots and race guns with 15 rd mags and RDS sights. No thanks.

May as well go and have fun. Who cares if you win? If the match director is smart the M1 guys will shoot in Heavy division anyway so you’d only really be scored against any AR10 or SCAR-17 or FAL guys. Usually I’m the only guy shooting heavy or maybe one other shooter.

 

[1KPerDay]

I ended up placing 82nd out of 92 shooters (first in Heavy division LOL), even though I didn't shoot one stage so got zero points for that one.
Placed 64th on one stage, 85th on two, 80th on one, and 76th on one. My total time was 422 seconds and 33% of points possible, while the match winner's time was 187 seconds and 87% of points possible. I scored 116 Alphas, 7 Charlies, 3 Deltas, and 4 Misses. The match winner (open/competition division) scored 121 Alphas, 24 Charlies, 2 Deltas, and 3 Misses. And did everything a LOT faster LOL.