"Tanker" Garand - Holbrook Device and Smith muzzle brake installed

[Hank Dodge]

I finally got a chance to get to the range today. I've been doing a bit of work on a shortened M1 Garand that I have chambered in .308. I've been trying to set up a "California legal" auto-shucker for home, ranch, and range use. I took it apart and smoothed things up a bit, installed some new springs, and added a couple aftermarket parts.

I added a Smith Enterprises muzzle brake to help with the muzzle blast. Man, what a difference it made. It eliminated darn near ALL of the muzzle jump and improved my ability to shoot the rifle accurately. It is a nicely designed unit that installs by removing your gas cylinder lock and replacing it with the new part. Fitting may be required to get it to index correctly with the correct amount of pressure on the gas cylinder, but it should be minor if any. As stated, it really reduced the perceived muzzle jump on my little "Tanker". In the daylight, I had no negative aspects to using this break. I need to fire it in reduced light to see if I'm going to have any ill effects with the increased amount of gasses being diverted upward; I'm sure it's worth the trade off. I still need to change out my rear sight that is a bit loose, but I'm getting 2" 8-shot groups at the 100 yards I was shooting at. I'm happy enough with that for now.

I also added a "Holbrook Device" to the rifle. It's a modified op rod catch that defeats the automatic clip eject function. It locks the bolt back and retains the clip in the receiver after the last round is fired. I like this idea for a range / ranch gun because you are no longer chasing the clips around on the ground and in the brush. Just hit the lever on the receiver and the empty clip pops up and into your hand....slick! It also holds the bolt open when you load a clip into the receiver until you pull back and release the charging handle. Another benefit for the range is that you can load an empty clip into the receiver and then single load rounds into the rifle. Pretty neat modification in my opinion. It is a quality part that installs easily, and the rifle can be restored to function as designed just as quick should you decide the clip auto eject feature is again desired.

Contact John for more info. on this great part: [email protected]

Both the Smith Enterprises muzzle break and the Holbrook Device are drop-in parts that require minor fitting if any. If you can field strip your weapon for cleaning, you can install these parts.

Go to the Smith Enterprises website. They have a neat video of that muzzle break on an M-14. It's pretty cool.

http://www.smithenterprise.com/spec/SEI_M14_USCG_MB-1.mpg

http://www.smithenterprise.com/index.html

I just thought it would be nice to modernize this little Garand a bit. I love the sights on these rifles. I think that this rifle would do every bit as well as one of those short M1A rifles at a fraction of the cost. I've always liked the Garand better anyhow; I think they carry better without that magazine sticking out of the receiver. Heck, the 8-round clips are easier to carry than the mags also. Maybe I'm just a bit old fashioned.

Overall, a nice afternoon at the range with what has turned out to be a very functional rifle. Just thought I'd share it with you folks. This rifle is turning into just the ticket. Once I get that rear sight changed out, I should be REALLY happy.


Hank

 

[Trebor]

Your M-1 makes Baby John C. Garand cry...

Just joshin. I'm a fan of the Garand and if these mod make the rifle work better for you, I'm all for it.

The purist in me wants to keep all my Garands GI stock. The "tacticool" part of me wants to put a Garand in a BM 59 folding stock, shorten it to "tanker" length and convert it to .308. So far, I've resisted.


(Actually, with the rise in surplus .308 ammo prices, I'm glad my Garands are still in .30 - '06. I can get '06 from the CMP cheaper then any .308 these days.)

 

[Gator]

The "tacticool" part of me wants to put a Garand in a BM 59 folding stock, shorten it to "tanker" length and convert it to .308. So far, I've resisted.

I admit, I was weak. I built up a .308 "tanker" in a Nigerian BM-59 stock several years ago. It was kind of neat, but tradition finally got the better of me and I sold it last year. I also had a Holbrook device in it. That is a very worthwhile mod for range shooting.

 

[Eightball]

Sounds like a handy and needful project. I'm curious to see how this thing looks--any chance you have pictures to post?

 

[Hank Dodge]

I'm a real "Traditional" guy as well. This may be a diversion from what old John C. Garand invented 70 years ago, but I think he would approve. This little Garand wears a very nice walnut stock and traditional leather sling. The Smith muzzle brake really looks like it was made for it (oh....I guess it was, huh?). As far as the .308 conversion, that was a decision based on ammunition availability and compatibility with others in my battery ( a decision made before 9/11 and reduced surplus ammo. supply ). The Holbrook....like I said, it is a great modification for my intended use of the rifle; and, it can be uninstalled in less than 5 minutes. I like to think of it as "The rifle that John C. Garand should have made".

Pictures?? I need to figure out how to do that. I do have a digital camera, but I don't know how to go about posting pics on the net.


Hank

 

[Trebor]

Pictures?? I need to figure out how to do that. I do have a digital camera, but I don't know how to go about posting pics on the net.

Here's what I do:

Download the pictures from your camera to your computer with internet access.

Sign up for a free account at Photobucket. www.photobucket.com

Upload the pictures you want to post to your photobucket account.

Open two browser windows: One at THR for your new post and one at your photobucket account.

Write your new post. To add the pictures, copy the tags from the pictures you want at your photobucket account and then paste those [IMG] tags into your THR post.

Here's what an image tag looks like. I "broke" this tag by leaving off the last ] bracket so you could see it as text. Had I left that last bracket in, the picture would have appeared instead.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/Trebor1415/HPIM5552.jpg[/img



Your photobucket account is now "hosting" those pics. They will show up in your post for as long as you keep the pics in your photobucket account. If you delete them, or rename them, you'll get the dreaded "Red X" in your post instead of the pictures.

There are other free photo hosting sites as well. I just use photobucket and it's the one I reccomend since it is the only one I'm familiar with.

Btw, here's my photo hosted from Photobucket. This is the same example I used above, except I correctly copied and pasted it without "breaking" the end tag.

[ATTACH=full]333357[/ATTACH]