The M1 Garand Seventh-Round Stoppage

In 1939 the US Rifle, Caliber .30, M1 had been selected to replace the US Rifle, Caliber .30 M1903 (Springfield).  Selection of the M1 as the new service rifle had been very controversial.  Handmade models had been used to pass the tests which led to the rifle’s adoption and tool room models followed.  All of those rifles had tied every bundle, performing without a hitch.

The M1 had been put into limited production at Springfield Armory in Massachusetts.  Tooling and manufacturing methods were being developed.  The first production models didn’t do as well as the originals had done.  A number of troubles arose.  The defects were the results of slight changes which were made in dimensions and shapes of certain component parts to facilitate mass production of the rifle.

Mr. John C. Garand, the inventor of the M1, had not been consulted when the manufacturing processes were being planned.  One army officer went so far as to suggest that Mr. Garand’s employment should be terminated in order that his $3500 annual salary could be saved.  Mr. Garand should have been consulted.  He had designed each component part of the rifle not only so that it would function correctly, but also so that it could be made efficiently.

One defect in the rifle caused a “seventh-round stoppage”.  When the top round of a clip was on the right when the clip was loaded into the rifle’s magazine, the seventh round from the clip would frequently fail to feed.  The round would jump up and be forced forward by the bolt so that the point of the bullet would be jammed against the top of the receiver ring.  This failure never happened with the handmade or the tool room models of the rifle, whose manufacture Mr. Garand had supervised.

While work was being done to find a fix for the defect that caused the problem, the War Department, with no warning, ordered that 200 of the new rifles be sent to Camp Perry, Ohio to be demonstrated to, and fired by, the high power rifle competitors at the National Matches.  By a 1903 law, civilians are required to have access to service rifles, so that in time of war a trained cadre of riflemen can be rapidly pressed into service either to fight or to train others to shoot.

The powers that be at Springfield Armory were goosey.  There was great concern that if several thousand of the country’s best riflemen encountered enough of the seventh-round stoppages, the M1 rifle’s reputation might be damaged.  Proponents of a rival semiautomatic rifle could learn of the problems with the M1 and might stir up trouble; might even force adoption of the other rifle, which would cause abandonment of the work that had already been done and set the production of a new service rifle back several years.

On each of the M1 rifles sent to Camp Perry, the follower, the movable part of the action that contacts the bottom round in a clip full of cartridges, was altered so that a clip could not be loaded into the magazine unless the top round was on the left.  The ammunition to be used in the rifles was inspected to insure that each clip was assembled so that the top round was on the left.  People from the Ordnance Department were sent to Camp Perry to oversee the firing of the new rifles.

At Camp Perry, everyone who wanted to fire an M1 did so, and no seventh-round stoppages occurred.  But, the nervous attitude of the Ordnance people created suspicions about the rifle.  Also, experienced riflemen will always discover the best way that a rifle should be used, and the fastest and most efficient way to load a clip into the magazine of an M1 is when the top round is assembled on the right of the clip.  Questions arose as to why the top round had to always be on the left of the clip.

A possible fix of the problem was proposed when an assistant foreman came up with an alteration of the rear lever of the operating rod catch.  (I don’t know what that alteration was.)

When the idea was being explained to the officer in charge of the Experimental Department, a partially finished receiver of one of the earlier rifles was examined and it was found that it was different from the receiver that was being currently manufactured.  The corner of a vertical guide rib in the right side of the receiver was being removed while doing one of the machining steps to cut the threaded hole in the receiver ring for the barrel.  A boring operation was removing stock to a greater depth than necessary and was beveling off the corner of the rib.  Metal was welded in that area on some of the rifles and hand filed to the contour that Mr. Garand had intended when he designed the rifle.  It worked.  The manufacturing process for the receiver was changed and with that the seventh-round stoppage was no more.

As a matter of interest, the rifle that some people said was too complicated even to be manufactured, was being produced at Springfield Armory, by 1943, at the rate of 4000 per day, and at a cost of only $26.00 per rifle.

Until 1953, head stamp characters were adjacent to each other, as “D E N” and “43”.  In 1953, space was added between the characters to eliminate potential stress risers or weak spots in the heads of the cartridges.

In the 1940s, commercial .30’06 ammunition with a 150 grain bullet was loaded to a nominal 2980 feet per second velocity by the various ammunition companies.  Today, the nominal velocity of a 150 grain bullet in a commercial .30’06 cartridge has been standardized at a much lower 2910 FPS velocity.  Average maximum Chamber pressures were once held near the 50,000 pounds per square inch level for the .30’06.  .30 caliber military ammunition was loaded to around 44,000 PSI levels to reduce the danger of excessive chamber pressure of a round left in a rifle chamber which has become hot from firing a large number of rounds.

The Cartridge, Caliber .30: Ball, M2 shoots a 153 grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2805 feet per second.  The maximum average of the mean radii at 600 yards is 7.5 inches (approximate group size of 22.5 inches).

The Cartridge, Caliber .30: AP M2 (Armor-Piercing) shoots a 165 to 168 grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2775 feet per second.  The maximum average of the mean radii at 600 yards is 10 inches (approximate group size of 30 inches).  As a matter of actual fact, some lots of AP were as accurate as Ball, M2.  In 1946, an accurate lot of AP, M2 was used in the National Matches.

Ball, M2 and AP, M2 shoot to approximately the same point of impact at 600 yards, although AP, M2 will drift less from wind.

The Cartridge, Caliber .30; Ball, M1 shot a 173 grain boat-tailed bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2647 feet per second.  The maximum average of the mean radii at 600 yards was 6.5 inches (approximate group size of 19.5 inches).  It was phased in, then out before World War II, in favor of Ball, M2; when the extreme range of Ball, M1 ammunition was found to exceed the safety distances of many rifle ranges.

Ball, M1 has an extreme range of 5500 yards.  Ball, M2 has an extreme range of 3500 yards; as does AP, M2.

Some special lots of Ball, M1 produced in the 1920s for use in the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio, had mean radii as low as 2.3 inches (approximate group size of 7 inches) at 600 yards; as low as 5.7 inches (approximate group size of 17 inches) at 1000 yards.

If there was a choice, I always preferred using Ball ammo when I was on Okinawa because I thought it was more accurate than AP.  Probably, on average, it was.  The specs for accuracy were looser for AP than for Ball.

I do remember having to seek out Ball ammo.  As I recall, most of the ammo we received on Okinawa was AP, which bears out what Marty Black found for the unfired clips in the areas where a lot of action took place.  I shot quite a few rounds on Okinawa and I was always looking for more Ball.

As far as the position of the top round in a clip (left or right), I believe it could have been either way in clips that were assembled in the 1940s.  The need for clips to be top round left was a temporary one.  After 1939 there would be no reason for the clips to be loaded a particular way.  The M1 that fired them wouldn’t care.  The clips were assembled and loaded into bandoliers by hand at the ordnance plant, so, with no rule that specified the position of the top round, pure chance, or whether the assembler was left or right handed might determine the position of the cartridges in a clip.

Our rifle club has Ball, M2 issued for qualification firing, all in clips and bandoliers.  All the clips in an LC 67 lot that I sampled were loaded top round right.

I still shoot at least five matches per year with an M1, usually 80 shots per match, plus sighters and the occasional practice.  I only shoot hand loaded ammo.  It’s easier for me to load a clip into the magazine of an M1 quickly if the top round is on the right, so all the clips I have are top round right.

The all tracer clips that Marty Black found on Okinawa– ?  Sherlock Holmes might deduce something like this:  Someone broke down some machine gun ammo, maybe to load up some BAR magazines.  He hated to waste the tracers and loaded them in a bunch of M1 clips.  Later, he abandoned them — too much to carry around.

Tracers are bad ammo.  They are not accurate and do not follow the same trajectory as Ball or AP.  As for using them to mark a target, okay for close range, say three hundred yards or less.  A thousand yards away — he might have a hard time hitting the ridge line with tracers, much less a specific spot on it.

I remember breaking down some M1 clips on Oroku Peninsula in June, 1945 to load some BAR magazines and remarking to the other man in my hole upon seeing 45 as part of the head stamp.  I don’t recall the ordnance plant initials because I didn’t know what they meant then, but I knew that the Arabic numerals signified the year the ammo was manufactured.

I don’t remember ever seeing clips with the notches cut through, but then, I wasn’t looking for them either.

I have been a high power rifle shooter since 1952, after I got my degree and settled in Oklahoma, and a serious competitor since 1955.  I have run across much .30 caliber ammo.  I have seen 42 and 43 ammo often.  I have some WCC 45 cartridges, the only 1945 ammo I have ever seen in the States.  I made dummys out of some of them and gave one to each of the members of G-3-29 that I saw in San Antonio at the 1991 6th Mar Div Assn reunion.

I have never seen a .30 caliber cartridge with a 44 or a 4 head stamp here in the States.  Probably, nearly all of the ammo made in 1944 was sent overseas and never brought back to the States.

Our rifle club began getting issues of M2 Ball ammo from the DCM in 1952, after receiving six M1 rifles.  The first ammo we received was DEN 42.  Then we got some that was repacked in Nevada in 1950 that was mixed U 42 and U 43.  We next got some SL 52.  I bought some new primed cases from the DCM (Director of Civilian Marksmanship) and they were all FA 49.  We had one outstandingly accurate lot of LC 54 and another LC 54 lot that was almost as good.

We were issued some AP in the 1950s and we scrounged some more.  It didn’t shoot too well and the club donated all of its AP to the Cuban freedom fighters in 1960 (what a well kept secret that was).  It is now probably in the belly of a ship resting on the bottom of the Bay of Pigs off the island of Cuba.

We got one lot of LC 64 that was loaded with ball powder.  Something about the ammo caused a brinelling of chambers.  That lot was recalled and we received some LC 55 in its stead.  Since then, every lot of ammo we have received has been LC 67.

I have two M1s.  One of them I bought from the Director of Civilian Marksmanship (DCM) in 1974.  Its serial number is 274xxxx.  The date on the barrel was 4-53.  That date is when the barrel was made.  The rifle had been rebuilt and rebarreled some time after that.  I had the rifle rebarreled with a heavy .308 Win. Douglas barrel and accurized.  I saved the old barrel.

The other M1 I bought about 1989.  Its serial number is 296xxxx.  I don’t remember what the date on the barrel was and it is now long gone.  The rifle was imported from Korea by the “Blue Sky” Importing Co., located somewhere in Virginia.

Another company that imported M1s was located in Virginia, but I don’t recall its name.  By U.S. Treasury rules, the importer’s name must be stamped on the barrel.  Since the barrel on an M1 is partially covered by wooden hand guards, the stamping was near the muzzle.

Blue Sky disassembled each of its M1s and reparkerized each metal part.  (The other company did not do this.)

The receiver and the barrel were reparkerized as one unit, including the inside of the barrel.  That meant that the bore was ruined.  I replaced the barrel on the Blue Sky M1 with the one I had saved from the DCM rifle.  It head spaced to about .004″ over minimum.  I also replaced two of the highly stressed parts, the firing pin and the op rod spring.  Parkerizing can cause a condition called hydrogen embrittlement.  I had seen Blue Sky rifles with these two parts broken (one op rod spring was in four segments), so I replaced them to save possible trouble while firing the rifle in a match.

I replaced the wood.  Years ago, I found two M1 stocks with figured wood for ten bucks each at a gun show and I put one of them on the Blue sky and accurized it myself.

It is a beautiful M1.  With all parts reparkerized and a nearly new barrel, it is better than new.  An M1 collector might not like it, but it is ideal for shooting, and that is is the purpose for which rifles were intended.

Both M1s have National Match sights (half minute adjustments) and have had trigger jobs.  Both rifles have National Match operating rods.  The Blue Sky op rod touches in the gas cylinder and back at the receiver — period, and no where else in its length, the best I have ever seen.

The DCM rifle shoots awfully close to minute of angle in ten shot groups with good hand loaded ammo.  The Blue Sky is easily a minute and a half rifle and might be close to minute and a quarter, which is not bad for a GI barrel.  The DCM rifle has a heavy barrel and a .308 Win. is usually more accurate than a .30’06.

The specs for a National Match M1 in the 1960s required seven inch groups of ten shots at 200 yards, which was 3 and a half minutes — not too swift.  Most of them shot much better than that.  I competed in the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio seventeen times between 1961 and 1988, using National Match M1s and M14s until 1977 when I bought my own M1A (semi-automatic version of the M14).

With issue Match ammo, both of the two National Match M1s I used were about two minute rifles, one slightly better than the other.

I sent one of the two National Match M14s I was issued to Ft. Benning for accurizing and used it to make the National Civilian Team in 1966 and get a “Leg” in 1967.

Average service grade M1s probably shot no better than five minute ten shot groups at 200 yards with Ball ammo.  In 1955, at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, I saw a sergeant first class with a batch of at least 20 M1s he was testing for accuracy prior to a Regional Match which was to be held at Ft. Sill.  This was in the days before glass bedding had been developed.  There were ways to accurize M1s then, but they were not as sure fire as glass bedding and were much more tedious and time consuming.  So the sergeant was selecting rifles that already shot well enough to use in a “Leg” match.

About 1956, the Army started a Marksmanship Unit at Ft. Benning, Georgia where ways to accurize service rifles were developed.  Army rifle teams shot very accurate rifles.

The Navy used M1s for its rifle teams when the Navy still competed.  They had two categories of accurized M1s.  Any team rifle had to shoot six inch ten shot groups at 300 yards.  Any rifle that shot smaller than 3 1/2 inch ten shot groups at 300 yards was given a narrower (.062″) front sight and a rear sight with an .052″ aperture.  In 1964, a Navy shooter was the national champion at Camp Perry.

The Air Force used M1s and had some really good shooters until they dropped competition and started using M16s as their service rifle.  They had some outstanding armorers and the M1s their teams shot were very accurate rifles.  It was a retired Air Force armorer who accurized my DCM M1.

The M14 rifles used today by the Marine Corps for their rifle teams must shoot 3 inch ten shot groups at 300 yards from a machine rest.

I had an M1A (semi-automatic version of the M14) that would shoot almost that well before I shot the bedding out about the same time that the rear op rod guide loosened in its spline and defied all attempts to make it stay tight.  I used that rifle to become a Distinguished Rifleman, made the President’s Hundred four times and won several place awards at 1000 yards with it.  I sold it this year.  My .308 M1 is almost as accurate and doesn’t have a magazine hanging down in the way.