The Countdown Continues: Greatest Implement Ever Devised*, Part I

In March, 1944, The Allies bombed Berlin in broad daylight for the first time in large numbers. Eccentric British nudist General Wingate started up his guerrillas against the Japanese in Burma and later, in the same month, would be killed in his plane's crash. On the ides of March, the allies started the second attempt to take Monte Cassino, which of course, destroyed an abbey that had stood since 524 AD. A few days later, British Mosquitoes would drop tons of bombs on Hamburg Germany in a "nuisance" raid. And in Massachusetts, in the city of Springfield, a billet of steel was becoming my U.S. Semi-Automatic Rifle, Caliber .30, M1.

This is my rifle, there are many like it, but this one is mine.

I know this by the serial number and armory name etched on the rear of the receiver. This rifle has passed through a few hands like all of the American Veteran Rifles, but this one had been under the tender loving care of a friend and fellow Rockingham County Gun Club member. And surprisingly he said yes when I asked him if he'd sell it. It was handed down to him by an even older club member who had purchased it (are you sitting down?) through the government agency created after The War Between the States to promote civilian marksmanship!


By the way, the Civilian Marksmanship Program is alive and well today and, in fact, if you wanted to, you could purchase an old battle ax too--after you fulfill certain obligations. Heck, they'll even mail it to your house. Be warned though, when you get them fresh from the CMP, it's coated in cosmoline, and it will look like it's been to Bataan and back. Not many pristine wall hangers left from the heyday of M1 Garands.


John C. Garand, who invented the thing in the early 1930's, was from Canada, and he wanted a 7mm caliber cartridge, the .276 Pederson, for his auto loading rifle, and even had a working model. But none other than Douglas MacArthur himself decided, for the nation, that the United States would stick with the cartridge we'd been using since 1906: Cartridge, Ball, Caliber .30, Model of 1906. So Garand went back to work and came up with my rifle.


It's an eight shot, honest to goodness "clip" fed, semi-automatic rifle. If you've seen Band of Brothers, you've seen them "in action". The cartridges, held in the clip, are jammed down into the receiver and then the bolt's slid sharply shut, chambering a round thus making you ready for firing. And, when the clip is empty, the follower spring, which pushes the cartridges up to be caught by the bolt, ultimately flings the clip out with a distinctive and satisfying "ping!"

The eight cartridge clip loaded with hunting cartridges.

I won't quote General George S. Patton* who loved the rifle because you've heard it before. And I won't mention the rifle's "flaws" everyone laments because frankly, they won't matter to me and what I'm going to do with this machine, and that's hunt. So far the deer have never shot back so my life doesn't have to depend on the Garand, but even if the deer did (or a sleeper cell of cornfield-raiding Al-Qaeda), I'd feel secure enough carrying this rifle. It will serve very well sitting in a tree or under my burlap poncho, of that I am sure.


I can't say with certainty that this rifle has ever seen combat. When I bought it, it had new wood on it, so if there were any battle scars on its original stock I'll never know. Manufactured in 1944, with just over a year left of hostilities, it would have had to hustle to get to either theater before May 8, 1945 or September 2, 1945. I can only guess and figure it did not. However, in 1951 it received a new barrel at the Springfield Armory so perhaps it made it to Korea for the awful mess that still haunts the world to this day.

Whether or not it's been fired in anger, or if it were a training rifle for its entire time of service doesn't make a difference to me. Again, like the other battle rifles I've hunted with, and plan to hunt with, I want to put to rest that feeling that the rifle I hold now was a killing machine in the hands of soldiers or Marines.


Sure, I plan to kill with the same rifle, but it's not a desperate fight for my life, and I'm not shooting in anger at my fellow man. It's the management of wildlife populations and, perhaps, if given the chance, the eradication of invasive coyotes who, along with feral cats, decimate smaller-sized wildlife populations that I hunt.


At the range, I've used three different loads in the rifle with three different bullet weights and haven't had a single failure to feed or "jam", but then, I'd be shocked if I did--it is, after all, an M1. I have just started tinkering with this rifle and while the load I've worked up is plenty good for taking deer, I still need some practice precisely placing projectiles in paper.

The sights are military "peep" sights that I'm pretty familiar with, but I just need more time at the bench. So like my buddy Bill says, "Shoot more, more often." I'm at the point now that I can hit a 5"x7" card at 200 yards, which surpasses what I feel comfortable with attempting on game using the 1903 Springfield bolt action rifle, but I'm going to work on that too. And what the hell, when shooting at the range, for eight shots, you're feeling and hearing the same thing the greatest generation heard countless times, all the way to the "Ping!"