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I am sure it was click-bait, but saw a headline that said that they might be using Garands in the firing squad for Nidal Hasan.
What I wanna know is if the Army is a member of a recognized CMP-affiliated club and can prove participation in a marksmanship-related activity or otherwise show familiarity with the safe handling of firearms and range procedures.
I'm reasonably sure they meet the age and citizenship requirements.
In the quote in this post it says that you can stuff 8x 8-round Garand clips into an M1956 universal ammunition small arms pouch.
Confirmed!
I was surprised that I owned two of the guns mentioned.
A Savage 99.
A Winchester Model 54.
My 54 is in the wrong caliber, it's in .30-06.
Both guns still shoot just fine.
They exceed both my eyes and my skills.
All Winchester Model 54 rifles are pre-64 because they stopped making them in 1936.
Dear sellers, you don't need to say that they're pre-64 guns.
Something I've found interesting in the pre-64 Winchester Model 70 market is how few 30-06 guns I've seen for sale.
Bunches and bunches of .270 Win guns though.
This is the inverse of the Model 54, where .30-06 guns are the majority.
I noticed because I have a .30-06 Model 54 and I window-shop for a .270 to go with it.
GURPS: Gun Tech just landed.
It's the long awaited supplement that lets us gun nuts calculate gun stats from real world information.
Way back in 3e, we back of the napkin calculated that there was no game difference between .280 Remington, .270 Winchester and .30-06.
We did this because of my relaying the debate between my uncles Robert.
My mom's sister's husband insisted that .30-06 was ideal.
My step-mother's brother insisted that .280 Rem was superior.
Both agreed that .270 Win was clearly inferior.
I have official 4e stats for .30-06 and .270 Win that I have disputed because a smaller bullet going faster should carry more range.
.30-06 is 7d+1 pi, Acc 5 and Range 1,100/4,500.
.270 Win is 7d pi, Acc 5 and Range 900/3,600.
Gun Stats disagrees!
.270 Win with a 130gr bullet at 3,060 fps calculates to 7d+1 pi, Acc 5, and Range 1,140/4,800.
.280 Rem with a 120gr bullet at 3,150 fps calculates to 7d pi, Acc 5, and Range 880/5,500.
.30-06 with a 150gr bullet at 2,740 fps calculates to 7d pi, Acc 4 and Range 890/3,700.
.30-06 with a 150gr bullet at 2,920 fps calculates to 7d+1 pi, Acc 4 and Range 950/4,000.
These are not what I was expecting at all!
This is just on an initial skim of the rules.
Cliff's Notes version of the M1903 stock. Detailed explanations here and here.
The OG stock with its straight wrist is the "Type S."
In the mid-1920's it was decided that a pistol grip would be a good idea and the "Type C" was created and was included with the M1903A1.
There was no marking change made to the rifles, so the stock and a change in parkerization serve to ID A1's.
Refinish and repairs with "Type C" stocks make it impossible to ID a real M1903A1 from an M1903 with a "Type C" stock without the serial number and a list of production dates from Springfield National Armory.
Now the fun part!
While the M1903 was officially replaced by the M1903A1 vast quantities of finished "Type S" stocks existed, so the M1903A3 was predominantly made with those.
A beefier "Type C" stock was introduced during WW2 and is most often seen on the M1903A4. This is also the most common version of the "Type C" found.
The "scant" stock comes from using one of the vast quantities of Type S stock blanks to create as close to a "Type C" as you can get.
Both the "Type C" and "Scant" stocks were primarily used as repair parts rather than new-issue.
Also! An OG M1903 "Type S" stock will not fit on an M1903A3, but a "Type S" for an M1903A3 will fit on an earlier gun because it's inletted for both.
The slim "Type C" stock is not inletted for the A3.
The chonky "Type C" and "Scant" stocks are inletted for both.
The Colt R75 Monitor, a variant of the BAR, was first offered for sale in 1925.
All you needed was money. No background check. No waiting period. No tax stamp.
Just plunk down your cash on the counter and head home to bankrupt yourself buying .30-06 to feed it.
Did I say counter?
Mailing a check to Colt could get you one delivered by the Post Office in six to eight weeks!
Tonight, I sat in a theater and watched Jaws.
It's held up wonderfully!
Hurry! It's only going to be in a theater near you for Labor Day weekend and it's well worth the experience.
This is an M1951 web gear compatible Greek M1 Garand ammo pouch.
It is 2 lb. 11.5 oz. with four 8-round en bloc clips and 8.4 oz. empty.
There are M1951 style grenade loop and retainers (as shown with my fetching dummy grenades).
The clips need to be inserted as shown! If they are both nose down or nose up, it's very difficult to get them out with the pouch loose in your hand, and would be impossible with it attached to your web gear.
If you have the outside clip nose up, the back of the inside clip snags on the hem of the mouth.
A decent means of carrying 32 rounds for your Garand and, I assume two pouches were given each soldier for a total of 72 shots. Less than the 104 carried in the WW2 pouches, but all of them are more readily accessible in the Greek method. Three pouches and a canteen would balance OK to tie the capacity of the old 1923 belt.
By way of comparison the M1956 Universal Small Arms Ammunition Pouch is 12.5 oz. empty and 2 lb. 15.7 oz. loaded with two 20-round FAL magazines. With a basic load of two pouches and one mag in the gun we have 100 rounds on tap for just a 1/4 lb. more on your belt and a pound more in your arms.
Loading a field dressing and four 20-round M16 magazines loaded with 28 rounds each is 3 lb. 6.6 oz. Two pouches and 18 more in the M16A1 gives 162 rounds. For about 3 lb. more on your belt and almost the same less in your hands.
A Soviet pigskin ammo pouch for a Mosin Nagant carries 30 rounds on 5-round clips for 2 lb. 4.4 oz. (6.6 oz. empty) and you get a much lower rate of fire for not a lot of weight savings.
Greece hung onto the Garand long enough to issue M1951 style pouches.
Each one will hold two en-bloc clips per pocket, for 32 rounds per pouch.
Kinda neat!
You can get them from Apex Gun Parts (where I stole the pictures)
In GURPS, .270 Win does 7d pi. .30-06 does 7d+1 pi.
Essentially identical, with a very slim edge to '06.
Comparing four common thirty caliber hunting guns in GURPS.
It might get bigger if you click on it...
Lever guns get a slight edge in rate of fire.
They all weigh about the same and have similar capacities.
.30-30 lags in damage, but it's sufficient to snuff the white tailed hoof-rat. Or for social purposes.
We had a player who was a little slow and not making the transition from medieval fantasy to cliff-hangers pulp and only knew about one gun.
The AK-47.
We explained to him that the .30-30 was very similar in damage and range to the AK, just slower shooting and lower capacity.
He equipped every character from then on with a Winchester '94 if such was available.
It never failed him.
Of course, back then, I'd have never had made stats for a Savage 99 and .300 Savage.
Except for that one player, they'd have never taken a lever gun, or even a hunting rifle adventuring.
.30-06 was already done, as was 8mm Mauser. All I had to make for them were 7.65x53mm and 7x57mm Mauser, for resupply purposes in South America.
Marv proved his new-to-him Rifle, calibre .30, semi-automatic worked.
It shoots very low at 25 yards but about centered at 100.
He shot a decent group for, "I'll just point at the blurry blob," too.
Everyone forgets the M1917 when talking about US Mauser clones.
It's got a similar genesis as the M1903, "Wow, that 7x57mm Mauser sure was keen! Let's copy it to replace our current rifle. But let's change the cartridge... And the... And the..."
The Brits made a lot more changes than we did when copying the Mauser action, but that's what they were doing when making the Pattern 1913. That became the Pattern 1914 when they decided it wasn't prudent to switch calibers in mid-war (ask Italy and Japan about this and they would agree), but did want more rifles please. NOW, please.
Once their emergency needs were met, we realized that we didn't have near enough of our primary rifle to be in a war as well. So the Pattern 14 gets made in .30-06 and viola! M1917.
It's got controlled feeding:
And it takes stripper clips.
Fun fact: Because the magazine well on the P.14 was made to accept five rounds of rimmed .303 British ammo, it can accept six rounds of .30-06, plus one in the chamber.
Though, maybe not an actual, real Mauser...
It shows all the earmarks of originally being an FN made Venezuelan contract gun it's a Golden State Arms Santa Fe Deluxe Mauser.
At any rate, it does show the similarity to the M1903A3.
Controlled round feeding.
Because it's converted from a military rifle, there's a stripper clip guide, assuming you want to remove the scope to use it.
The bolts are very similar:
The Santa Fe gun has an aftermarket safety so that you can mount a scope.
We're continuing the comparison from this post by adding a Winchester pre-64 Model 70 and a definitely post-64 Model 670.
All three guns came with iron sights. Of note, though, is while the Model 70 comes ready for scope mounting from the factory, that stock is dropped for the irons. The 670 has a raised comb that makes you really have to scrunch your cheeks to get down on the irons.
I've compared the 54 to the 70 before.
The pre-64 Model 70's bolt is so very similar to the 54 that they nearly interchange. As such, it's a controlled round feed design.
Neither gun can be fed from stripper clips.
The 670 is an even more de-contented version of the post-64 Model 70. As such, it is a push-feed.
What does that mean?
Controlled feed means that the round pops up into the bolt face with the extractor already in the groove. It is held, and controlled by the bolt and the extractor all the way into the chamber. You can chamber a round with the gun upside down.
Push-feed doesn't control the round until the cartridge case's shoulder hits the chamber and the extractor clicks over the rim as the bolt is closed. If you try to chamber a round upside down, the round will fall out of the action.
But you can see how many fewer parts and machine operations are needed to make a push-feed bolt here:
Fewer parts and operations make a gun less costly to make and thus make it more affordable.
Gun writers hated this change to make the Model 70 more competitive with the Remington Model 700, which is also a push-feed design. I've compared the pre-64 70 to the 670 before too.
The Winchester Model 54 and Remington M1903A3 have a lot in common and many differences.
Both have controlled round feeding.
 |
| L: M190A3 R: Model 54 |
Model 54:
M1903A3:
Both have 5+1 capacities and can be loaded from stripper clips.
Model 54:
M1903A3:
Both guns are clearly influenced by Mauser. The M1903 to the point of having to pay for patent infringement to the losers of a war.
The bolts are different. The ejector locations are not the same and there's no safety lug on the Winchester. The safeties work the same, but the Winchester has a shorter throw thanks to an aftermarket upgrade to clear a third-party scope that's no longer present.
Just for you, Technomad!
Super simple rotary magazine setup.
Plus, how to take it apart!
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Today, in 1926, is the day Mr Garand patented what was to become the M1 rifle.
John Pederson and Melvin Johnson most affected.
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