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Better Day At The Range I could not wait to see what the folks at The
Civilian Marksmanship Program had accomplished with my M1 Garand so I cancelled
my Friday plans and drove out to the rifle range. I set up my shooting bench as
I always do and waited for a cease fire so I could go post a target at 50 yards
and then see if the old M1 Garand rifle would finally cycle. One
of the guys that had been up at the rifle range before (watching me swap out parts)
was a guy from Mil Tech who was busy test firing their M1 Garand rifles. He joked
with me asking if I thought it would work this time. I was polite...
no really... I was. After posting
my target I walked back to the bench and my wife set up the spotting scope. I
got out my notebook so I could record any new problems and laid out several clips
of ball ammo. I then laid the rifle up on the sandbags and with some trepidation
began my test. The Moment
Of Truth... I loaded a clip of ball ammo into them old
Springfield Armory M1 Garand rifle and directed my attention to the black part
of the target. A breath in... a little exhale.... squeeeeeze.... 'POP' the muffled
sound of a shot... and then... 'pingkityping'! It had ejected the spent casing!
Well that was a start. In prior
tests my M1 Garand rifle had failed to eject more times than it failed to feed.
I pulled the bolt back about 1/2 inch and noted that a new cartridge had fed.
Woohoo! This might just be working! I tried again...
squeeeze.. POP... pinkityping!
Again...
squeeeze.. POP... pinkityping! Again...
squeeeze.. POP... pinkityping!
Again...
squeeeze.. POP... pinkityping! Again...
squeeeze.. POP... pinkityping!
Again...
squeeeze.. POP... pinkityping! Again...
squeeeze.. POP... pinkityping!
--- Ka-Lang!
The empty clip ejected and bounced off of my
head! Hot damn! The thing actually
works! After having spent over 100 rounds of ammo testing and swapping parts and
trying again and never having it cycle before, what would normally be passé to
most people WAS indeed a big deal. Jerry's
Magic had worked! The Garand rifle finally functioned like a champ. The
Broad Side Of A Barn I now
directed my attention to the target. I certainly had not expected the sights to
be set correctly, but I could not see one single hit! Bah! 50 yards and not a
single black mark on the tan paper. Well at least the rifle was cycling. I'd have
to figure out the sight problem. I'd wait for the next cease fire and move the
target in to 25. I looked at my shooting partner who was smiling and pointing
to the spotting scope. I dutifully obeyed and peered into it. Oh
my! It turned out that I had not missed the target at all... In fact somehow I
had actually gotten all 8 shots in the black! And what's more the group was damn
tight! I wouldn't have to move my target IN for the next round, I'd have to move
it BACK! (Gotta have some challenge afterall.) On the next cease fire I did just
that... I moved the target back as far as the range would allow (only 100 yards)
and loaded up 3 clips of CMP's match ammo. Twenty-four
slowfire shots later I looked through the scope again to find that twenty-four
bullets had punctured a 3 - 7/8 inch group out of my target and all but nine of
them were in a ragged 1- 7/8 inch hole! To say I was pleased with my M1 Garand
rifle and surprised at the change would be an understatement. 
24
Rounds slow Fire Benchrest with M1 Garand at 100 yards with CMP match ammo.
I
took the old M1 Garand apart, this time detail stripping it completely except
for the sights and then I reassembled it. I fired again and had no stoppages and
no problems. I was very
pleased and I remain so today... Please Go To The Final
Page Please
feel free to explore the other sections of this website:
[About
This Website] [How I Maintain My M1s] [CMP Program - Our Experience]
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[M1 Garand Accessories] [A Little Important Humor] [Links to Other M1 Garand Sites] This page was last updated on:
June 16, 2007
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