The 3rd in line on the Fudd Hierarchy of guns they overhype, the M1 Garand’s a transitional design that’s so violently locked in the 1940′s that all it needs is a pinstripe suit and a ‘40 LaSalle to be right at home. It’s a gun that was revolutionary by war’s beginning and outdated by wars end, and yet still served far longer than anyone expected like the one lone grandma in every small town doing everything herself despite the fact she’s well into her 80′s.
Born from America’s desire to finally replace the Springfield after unceremoniously chucking the M1917 out the window after WWI, the M1 would come from Canadian immigrant Jean Cantius Garand, or just John Garand for those who hate how the Quebecois name their kids. He would slowly build up the M1 Garand and submit it to Army trials where it would duke it out with a Pedersen derived design. But Pedersen’s reliance on the .276 Pedersen cartridge plus the whole waxed case thing irked the Ordnance Department and thus the Garand won by being able to be run in .30-06.
The rest, we all know, serves in WWII, Korea and very minorly in Vietnam, becomes super cheap before becoming very expensive yada yada yada. The M1 Garand is good in the specific generation of guns it presides in. Second generation semi-auto rifles, guns like the G43, SVT-40, AG-42, MAS 49, etc. The gun is beefy, so it does a decent job of soaking up recoil from any hot loaded .30-06 like say…black tips. The rear aperture is nice, the pistol grip is big and comfortable and the trigger is crisp in a mechanical way like a good manual gearbox. The only bad thing I could give the Garand is the en-bloc clip system, which is the only transitional bit on the gun.
Since I own the Garand pictured above and have shot the shit out of it, I can assure you it isn’t bad. The “ping” is easily drowned out in any serious firefight by other shots, plus the reload is so stupid simple you can easily get it loaded and back into the action. The M1 Thumb really only happens on reloading it with the bolt closed, and even then all you have to do is just pull the bolt all the way back and make sure to get your thumb out when the bolt is released. It’s the oldest relatively practical combat weapon you can still take into the field, although I don’t entirely advise it. Beats a bolt action though.
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