M1 Garand

Lore & Background

John Garand, a Canadian-American, worked at the U.S. Army's Springfield Armory and began working on a .30 caliber primer actuated blowback Model 1919 prototype. After various trials and caliber changes, the rifle was standardized as the 'semi-automatic rifle, caliber 30, M1' on 9 January 1936. Production began at Springfield Armory in September 1937. About 5.4 million M1 Garands were made during World War II. The rifle was used by every branch of the U.S. military and performed well. It was replaced by the M14 rifle on 26 March 1958.

In Their Own Story

The rain on Empire Bay's harbor had turned the dockyard into a black mirror. Tommy shouldered the Garand, felt the cold walnut stock bite into his cheek, and watched the en-bloc clip drop free with that sharp, ringing ping. Three men in a stolen Coast Guard cutter were running the wrong kind of cargo, and the port authority wasn't calling it in. He cycled the bolt, felt the next round seat home with a soft clack, and let the first shot walk the water. The second one walked the mast. The third one walked the man who'd been steering. He racked the bolt, caught the empty clip in his palm before it hit the mud, and fed a fresh one home. The rain kept falling. The cutter kept listing. And somewhere down the pier, a trumpet was playing something slow and wrong.

Reader's Guide

The M1 Garand is a .30 caliber, gas-operated, eight-shot clip-fed, semi-automatic rifle. It uses an en bloc clip. The rifle is 43 inches long (exact length not specified further in source). Sources differ on pronunciation: some say /ˈɡærənd/ (like John Garand's surname), while a 1952 U.S. Department of Defense periodical gives /ɡəˈrænd/ (guh-RAND). American Rifleman deemed either pronunciation valid.

Did You Know?

• General George S. Patton called the M1 Garand 'the greatest battle implement ever devised'.
• The M1 Garand was the first standard-issue autoloading rifle for the United States.
• The rifle was originally tested in .276 caliber before being ordered back to .30 caliber due to existing stocks of .30 M1 ball ammunition.
• Some M1 Garands were still used by the U.S. into the Vietnam War, and the rifle remained in service with the Army Reserve, Army National Guard, and Navy into the early 1970s.