The M1 Garand: The Greatest Rifle of All Time

[Ignition Override]

If you were roughly 8-9-10 years old when the tv show Combat premiered, both the Garand and the ‘Carbine’ seemed like the coolest-looking guns.

Cage, Little John, Kirby, Sgt.. Saunders and Lt Jason (carried a Thompson?) were saved by them plus teamwork.

 

[1942bull]

I did boot camp at Parris Island in September of 1959. I was in Infantry Training Regiment at Camp LeJeune in mid-November of 1959. I was aboard an assault ship for Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The M1 was over my shoulder through all of that. I could make a center mass hit at 500 yards using the peep sight. I lugged an M1 through swamps, creeks, sandy beaches, mud pits, saltwater, snow, ice, rain, at a range of temperatures from 0 degrees to over 100 degrees. The M1 never failed. One day they issued me an M14 and later an M16. All I wanted was to get an M1 again. It was like the M1911 — nearly indestructible.

 

[bikerdoc]

No sir! Can't prove that by me.
There are 5 NVA that thought that also. They found out different. I

 

[Ignition Override]

bikerdoc: Whose comment were you addressing? Just curious.

 

[maxxhavoc]

Just got back from taking one out to stretch its legs. Good Therapy Session.

 

[MutinousDoug]

I lugged an M1 through swamps, creeks, sandy beaches, mud pits, saltwater, snow, ice, rain, at a range of temperatures from 0 degrees to over 100 degrees. The M1 never failed. One day they issued me an M14 and later an M16. All I wanted was to get an M1 again. It was like the M1911 — nearly indestructible.

I worked with a guy who joined the Army in 1958, was sent to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in 1969 and medically retired from there. We were both Vietnam vets so we had a bond and talked. He said his army (25th ID) hated the transition from the M1 to the M14 almost as much as it did the transition to the M16. An ammunition issue as well; the 7.62 case shoulder was over annealed causing bent rounds on feeding and subsequent failures.
He just laughed and said "Grunts aren't happy unless they had something to gripe about".

 

[MutinousDoug]

Just got back from taking one out to stretch its legs. Good Therapy Session.
View attachment 998608

Nice Range!
Pretty spot too.