first i will say that the question brought up by 444 was entirely legit, especially given the emphasis/importance given in some circles to the tac reload.
personally from the first hand (as in i somehow got them to tell ME about their experiences) accounts of a number of combat vets, i am rather dubious of the utility of the "tactical reload". especially in a rifle like the garand.
8 rounds out as fast as they could be aimed and reload as fast as possible....in cases were there was no more shooting the last fill-er-up was a TR.
Just lock back the bolt, hit the clip eject and catch your unused rounds. Put them in your pocket. Pop in a new clip. 3 seconds total time spent.
If a person is in too much of a hurry to do that, they should not be tac reloading.
these two quotes sum it up to me. with a garand there is/was no NEED for a TR.... you shoot till the clip comes flying out, then shove a fresh clip in there, or if there was a significant lull one might choose to try and top off the clip in the gun, or as my great uncle who is a Korean vet once said, a trrop could choose to pop the clip out, shove a full one in and refill the partial with loose rounds.
Tac reloads as we know of them now are MAINLY due to the combined effects of HAVING detatchable magazines, which have to be manipulated(sp?) to clear the way for a fresh load of ammo and a bunch of folks with alot of (some would say TOO MUCH) time on their hands to figure out "new and improved" ways of doing the things.
to paraphrase the combined comments along the same vein, of a number of combat vets i have met and spoken with in my relatively small number of (27) years, "if you got time to monkey with something you AIN'T in combat!!" and trust me guys a tac reload IS "monkeying with something".