M1 Garand

M1 Garand is a semi-automatic rifle that is chambered for the .30-06 Springfield ammunition. Developed by the Canadian-French born John C. Garand, the gun is considered the first semi-automatic rifle to be adopted by the US military as a standard firearm.

By the time Garand was inventing the M1, he had already developed a number of designs. Although all the early rifles he developed were built with a relatively rare system of cartridge primer blowback, they were all pronounced unsuitable for military operations. He was therefore forced to switch on to a more advanced gas operated system. And that's when the idea of developing the M1 Garand cropped up. He started by filing a patent for his clip-fed, semi-automatic, gas-operated rifle in 1930, but it was until late 1932 that the US granted him his patent. It didn't take long before Garand began working on rifle by first building it around the (then-experimental) .276 caliber 7mm cartridge. Before the end of 1932, the rifle got tested against its one and only competitor-the .276 caliber Pedersen, after which it was recommended to be adopted as a standard military firearm. Unfortunately, the then-US general, MacArthur, insisted on sticking with the old .30-06 cartridge. But Garand had already foreseen that and developed a variation of his design, chambered for .30-06 rifle cartridges. Finally, at the beginning of 1936-January 6th, the rifle was officially adopted by the US army as a standard weapon for combat.

Design details

A number of critics have described the rifle's feeding system as archaic, since it relies on clips to feed the ammunition. For a long time, this has formed the basis under which the rifle gets criticized. Some officials in the military artillery circles also demanded the rifled be designed with a fixed, non-protruding magazine. This was after many people believed the detachable magazine on the general issue service would easily be lost by the US soldier besides making the rifle too vulnerable to clogging dirt and debris.

All these beliefs were later found baseless when the company adopted the M1 Carbine. And since a protruding magazine could not be adopted -as this could complicate the existing AA manual-of-arms-drills, inventor John Garand was forced to develop an “en-bloc" clip system. With this, ammunitions could be inserted from above into the fixed-magazine with the clip included. Even though this improvement provided the crucial flush-mount magazine, the clip system increased the rifles weight and even made it more complex.

Though originally chambered for .276 Pedersen cartridges, their chambers were later changed to accommodate the then-standard .30-06 Springfield. With this cartridge, the rifle could fire up-to an effective range of 400 m (440 yards), with the full capacity to inflict armor-piercing ammunition to casualties beyond 800 m (875 yards) away. The large diameter of the .30-60 cartridge, however, made it only possible for the clip to hold a maximum of eight rounds.

Features

M1 rifles have varied weights; ranging from 9.5 pounds (4.41 kg) to around 10.2 pounds (4.63 kg) when fully unloaded - depending on the stock wood density and sling type. Their lengths are standard - 43.6 inches (about 1, 107 mm).

The M1 rifle can only hold 8 rounds of the .30-06 Springfield ammunition. And once the last cartridge is fired, the rifle automatically ejects the clip.