#M1Garand

Here’s a U.S. soldier’s reaction after firing an M1 Garand during the Friendship Shoot that concluded the 2024 European Best Sniper Team Competition. The location is the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) in Hohenfels, Germany. The European Best Sniper Team Competition is a U.S. Army Europe and Africa led, JMRC-hosted annual event testing the marksmanship, physical prowess, and technical expertise of sniper teams across Europe. During the 2024 event, 35 teams from 19 NATO Allies and Partner countries competed to become the best European sniper team.

Welcome everyone to the  TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I figured with Memorial Day around the corner it may be a good opportunity to talk about M1 Garand maintenance or even a touch of general firearm maintenance and conservation. The last time we did something like this was with a Glock and a Glock Armorer’s Book. Perhaps you have Pappy’s M1 and want to clean it according to the military manuals or you just want to be on top of preservation. Let’s dive right in!

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world. Last week we checked out the very rare British-made Birmingham Small Arms “Ralock” 22LR semi-auto rifle. A lot of you who had one or shot one said that they were great rifles while others mentioned that the stocks were quite fragile, or that the rifles were particularly a pain in the ass to service. Either way, I really appreciate you sharing your experiences and thoughts with all of us in the comments, it’s great to have firsthand accounts of how these rare pieces actually operated. This week we’re back again with another quite rare rifle, this time one meant for the US Military, specifically the United States Marine Corps. I’m of course talking about the Harrington and Richardson Model 150 also lovingly known as the “Leatherneck.” Made to mimic the much venerated M1 Garand service rifle, the Leatherneck is the United State’s own rimfire trainer. Today we’ll take a look at the heritage of the Leatherneck, and check out what they had and have to offer in terms of reliability, accuracy, and investment value.

Welcome everyone to the 216th edition of ‘Hot Gat or Fudd Crap?’, one of our many series here on TFB. If you’re new to the series, this is where we look at the most obscure firearms that are actually for sale and ask the question – is this Gat a sweet deal or only have Fudd appeal?  Each week the TFB staff weighs in with their thoughts, but readers get the final say in the poll at the bottom of each article.

Dear Santa Claus,
While I freely acknowledge that I thoroughly deserve a stocking full of coal this Christmas, as has been the case every year for more than three decades running, hear me out: guns are awesome. Also, I know where you live – seriously, the North Pole isn’t hard to find – so don’t make me come after you. Therefore, I hereby present a list of firearms-related Christmas presents I’d appreciate you leaving under my tree at zero dark thirty on 25 DEC 2022. When you infil the chimney, just watch out for my claymore Roomba; he’s a spicy little robot and if shrapnel shreds the mistletoe, my wife will be displeased.

Since colonial times, Americans have held shooting competitions with rifles used for militia service. These “service rifle competitions” have grown and become formalized into their own sport. Thousands of shooters participate across the country each year, with the national matches held at Camp Perry each summer. Though they are not the most high-speed or tactical event, they are an accessible sport and an excellent test of marksmanship.

Thanks to my friend Paul for pointing this out at our FFL’s place of business. Our FFL had acquired a number of guns from a rather large estate sale. This AR-15 has M1 Garand iron sights on it. You read that right. M1 Garand iron sights on an AR-15 carry handle upper. I shall dub thee M1AR15.

Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article sponsored by  Wheeler,  Tipton,  Caldwell, and  Frankford Arsenal, I decided to dive into the rabbit hole of attempting to explain the M1 Garand’s gas system, why average modern ammunition is not ideal for the rifle, and solutions to that issue. In the last few years working at a gun shop, I have noticed the increase in the popularity of older firearms among younger people. People will come in whether it is those young folks or older ones that just got a dream gun (an M1 Garand) from when they were younger and they will ask for 30-06 ammo in general. Yes, the rifle will function and shoot any type of .30-06 Springfield on the market but unfortunately, the gas system is not engineered to deal with the velocities and pressures produced by modern ammunition. The result? Their piece of nostalgia and history ends up damaged or broken. All of that being said let’s dive right into the M1 Garand gas system and ammunition solutions.

One of the purposes of TFB’s  Photo Of The Day is to broaden the audience for the excellent work done by professional photographers of firearms. A perfect picture may take everything between a split second to months of planning, and it would be sad to see that kind of work go unnoticed and disappear. Like this M1C Sniper Garand picture, for instance. Just imagine the history behind it!

The Civilian Marksmanship Program offers vintage military rifles and pistols for sale from time to time for a purchase to the general public. In their latest site update, CMP warns against the use of certain types of .30-06 Springfield ammunition inside specific rifles that are at least 70 years or older. The warning is being issued as an addition to the manual that is included in each of their rifle shipments.

The M1 Garand 30 caliber (30-06 Springfield) semi-automatic rifle is one of the single-most recognizable service rifles in the world.  The design for the Garand was completed in 1936 to replace the United States Army’s aging Springfield 1903 bolt-action rifle. The rifle went into production in 1937 and the first rifles made their way into the soldiers of the US Army en masse 1938. This gave the United States a distinct advantage as being the only country able to equip its soldiers with a semi-automatic rifle as standard armament.

Photo Of The Day – We travel back in time to 1964 for some Apocalypse Now feeling.

With the soldier’s load growing beyond the bounds of reason, and the Army set to replace the M4 Carbine in some units with the new Interim Combat Service Rifle, questions have arisen about how the soldier’s burden has changed over time. In the comments section of several of my articles relating to these subjects, readers asked if I could compare the current soldier’s load with the soldier’s load from World War II, to see how they compare. As always, I am happy to oblige.

In January, just before the 2017 SHOT Show, I got the opportunity to travel to Cody Wyoming to visit the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, to see some of their rare firearms and bring photos of them to our readers.

On January 28th, TFB TV undertook a daunting task. We wanted to try and recreate an organizationally correct U.S. Army Paratrooper squad, with the same small arms and live ammunition that squad would have used in 1944. Recreating World War II small arms has been done through reenactments and in the film industry, but these only involve blanks. Shooting World War II small arms at a square range go doesn’t very far in understanding how these weapons functioned in combat. But neither is truly using these small arms as intended. These M1 Garands, M1A1 Carbines, and 1919 LMGs were created to be used by American soldiers in accomplishing their task of assaulting Fortress Europe and conquering the Japanese in the Pacific theatre. They were adopted and issued to be used by entire units of men, working together to neutralize an opposing enemy force.