when and where was your !st encounter with the m1 garand

[keokeboy]

June of 62 I went to basis training,schofield brks,hawaii ,25 inf got issued a m1 garand as our primary weapon that we had to treat as something that will prolong our life. ten and a half pounds of firepower. hunting wild pigs with a old win 30-30 I thought it was great,until I got my hands on that m1. first time we went to qualify at the range, 75 yds.150 250 after couple m1 thumbs,could nor believe how accurate this rifle was.

[oldogy]

1958. Fort Jackson, SC. I hated the damn thing. Loved the MI Carbine and the 1911 that I carried later.
oldogy

[gdmoody]

I am not quite old enough to have carried one in basic, I carried the M-14 in basic. I don't remember the exact time when I first came in contact with it. A friend of mine had one and when I shot it, I fell in love with the thing. I couldn't afford to buy one for several years but when I finally could, I bought one.

[Lotsdragon]

My father has his from the korean war, still uses it to hunt deer with. Great Rifle and when I can find one that I can afford I will have one too.

[blackcat_attilio]

Hi! It happend on Sept. 1979 , Italian Army.

[Oldeyes]

My very first exposure to the M-1 Garand was in '66 in conjunction with a small unit combat training field exercise at Ft. Knox, KY. It was during the KY late spring rainy (monsoon) season and we all got totally embedded in the Ft. Knox red clay mud. If your shoe lace got loose during the exercise, the mud would suck your combat boot right off your foot. I to this day distinctly remember charging up a steep red clay mud hill in the pouring rain, stepping on the front edge of my poncho and falling forward on my face burying my M-1 Garand a full 8" deep in the red mud. I was not at all alone in that regard that day. It was one of those military 'object lesson' days for our platoon. At the end of the day (9 PM) we stripped ourselves and the Garands and took them in big piles of pieces parts into the steaming hot shower in the barracks. After which we dried all of the parts, randomly grabbed a hand full of necessary ones and reassembled our rifles. To my surprise those totally randomly reassembled M-1 Garands still worked like a champ. The M-1 Garand is a truly amazing old battle rifle.

[b.goforth]

June 1958 at Fort Chafee Arkansas. i loved it then as well as now. i have no use for the m1 carbine. i qualified with the carbine, the 45 pistol, the 45 grease gun, the 1919 machine gun. if going into battle will take a Garand over all of them.

bill

[deadin]

July or August 1959, USN Boot Camp San Diego. We only got the Garand for Qual firing. Being Navy our drill rifles were M1903A3s. As I remember they had the front sight blade removed. I can't remember if the rear sight was gone also. The bore had a wooden dowel plugging it.
As I said, drill rifles for learning the Manual of Arms, marching, etc.

[22WRF]

1961 Naval Station Key West

Beach Patrol waiting for the Cubans

[fas111]

NYARNG 1965-1970

[millwright]

At the Flemington, NJ Fair Grounds, circa 1957-8. The local Guard unit always had a display and permitted everyone to handle Garands, Carbines, BARs, etc. I was shown how to open and close the bolt, (without getting the M-1 thumb). What I remembered most was its weight, since I must have weighed all of 100 lbs at the time....I could barely lift the BAR as I recall.....

Can you imagine this today !! ??? >MW

[RJay]

1959, Fort Leonard wood Mo. Qualified all the way out to 600 yards. Later qualified on the M1 and M2 carbine, 50 and 30 cal Browning and even the 3.5 rocket launcher. Got to RVN the first time in 1966, they handed me a M-14 with a selector switch. I was able to break it down only because of my familiarity with the M1 Garand. Carried that M14 a month before I got a chance to fire it, damn thing had a broken firing pin. By the way, when folks talk about the M14 being hard to control in full auto, they are not bird turding.

[kr6ng]

1955 in a short lived ROTC stint, 1956 Ft Jackson SC basic training.

[Jim K]

Sort of interesting. When I was in college, a friend and classmate was in the Marine reserve and was the armorer at the local reserve center. I used to go in with him sometimes on weekends and help clean and maintain the weapons.

After I graduated, I volunteered for the draft (1955) and went to basic training at Ft. Jackson, SC. We were issued M1 rifles, given quick field strip instructions and told to take them down and clean them. So I did. When the platoon sergeant saw all those little pieces from the bolt and trigger group, he about had a fit. When I put them all back together, he didn't know what to make of a raw draftee who could do that.

Jim

[pinkerpv]

It was September 1967, University of Southern Mississippi ROTC. 1800 men in the Brigade; at least 1400 plus me had to clean our issued M1 every week and drill with it every Wednesday. It was great. Never got to shoot it because we changed to M14s the next year and qualified with them at Summer Camp. Issued M16s on active duty. Finally got to shoot my own M1 bought at the CMP in Anniston, AL. What a feeling of nostalgia.

[scudrunner]

OMG.....

Some of you guys were handling the M1 Garand before I was born!!!

At any rate.... I went to a DCM meet in 1991 (now the CMP) qualified and purchased one for 165.00 American (plus shipping), about 8 months later it came in the US Mail. Still have it, barrel date of May 44, nice rifle, I can see why we won WWII. The stock was a bit ruff so I refinished it and it turned out really nice. One of the best shooting rifles that I have, would not trade for love or money. A great piece of history!

Drive On!

[killbuck]

April 1961, Camp Matthews USMC rifle range. First time ever to shoot a high powered rifle. Shot expert with a 232. Expert the rest of my time in too.

killbuck

[blackcat_attilio]

Originally Posted by blackcat_attilio

Hi! It happend on Sept. 1979 , Italian Army.

Hi folks, about what above here is a pic taken at that time: all the soldiers have a Garand - among them is me.

[Popeye]

Sometime in the early 1960s, I don't remember exactly when, in the Clifton, VA area. A friend bought one for hunting. We shot it at our range. I didn't think much about it as I was "into" blackpowder "Civil War" weapons at the time. It was 20 years before I bought one for myself. Now, I own three.

[Marlin]

1956 at Air Force ROTC Summer Camp at Craig AFB in Selma, Alabama.

That was my introduction to the south, too. After graduation I have been in the south ever since !!!!!

[Redhand]

Hey, It happened in 1966, I've learned alot since then. I don't know whether I should relate this experience or not. I.T.R Camp Lejeune,our platoon was going thru a pop-up target range using M-1's, we were about the 6th platoon being cycled thru the drill. The P.M.I drill instructor told us that the rifles would be very dirty and hot from laying in the sun. He said under NO circumstances should we try to clear a jam by ourselves and further reiterated that he or any of the other instructors should not catch any Marine stomping on the op-rod to clear a jam. I get up to about the third target and pick up the rifle, I take off the saftey and pull the trigger Nothing ,Nada. I attempt to eject the round and could not get the op-rod to pull back, I takes a quick look up and down the line and no instructor and sure enough I tilt the rifle towards the target and applies a heel to the op-rod. All of a sudden I'm on the ground sucking dust with and excruciating pain and pressure between my shoulder blades. I thought I had done shot myself and from the voice I heard next, thought I had died and gone to Hell. I will never,ever attempt to clear a jam again with my foot ever, I will never try and stomp my Marine Corps rifle again. I think I have a size 13 boot track permanently implanted between my shoulder blades to remind me.

[Laufer]

blackcat Attilio: Buona sera.

I don't know whether you were in the Infantry, but what sort of combat training did they have in the Infantry?

Any long marches in the Alps, or the foothills, such as near Aviano AFB etc?
I've heard from co-workers and others how beautiful it is up there.

My family was in Roma, Firenza and Venezia a few years ago.

[blackcat_attilio]

Originally Posted by Laufer

blackcat Attilio: Buona sera.

I don't know whether you were in the Infantry, but what sort of combat training did they have in the Infantry?

Any long marches in the Alps, or the foothills, such as near Aviano AFB etc?
I've heard from co-workers and others how beautiful it is up there.

My family was in Roma, Firenza and Venezia a few years ago.

Hi Laufer! I wasn't right in the Infantry, our final destination was anti-aircraft artillery (80m/m batterys or "Hawks" batterys). I was in the 5th Reg. Anti-Aircraft Artillery Missiles HQ nearby Venice. Nowadays in the same Camp are the Italian Marines (Lagunari).
Our march training was not so hard, long marches down the sporting field inside the Camp; for the rest we studyed about use of our M1 Garand, about ROE..... I missed the long march on the mountain tracks as the Alpini do.
Have you served in Aviano AFB ?

I hope your family enjoyed Italy.
Ciao!

[Lark07]

I was in Navy boot camp back in the 80's. We had deactivated M-1's that we were not allowed to call rifles or guns. We were told to call them pieces.

My next experience with one was at the local Big-5 store a few years ago. They had them on sale for $600 (back when CMP had them for about $500). I bought one knowing it was likely a mish-mash of parts, but it was a Garand and that is all I cared about.

I took it to the range not really thinking about much other then avoiding the dreaded M-1 thumb. I had lots of time shooting my M-1a, but this one was different. I fumbled a bit with loading the en bloc clip, then very cautiously pushed it into the rifle afraid that the bolt would jump forward and squish my thumb. It didn't. I then pulled back on the charging handle to load the first round. Nothing happened. I turned to my right and as luck would have it, there was another guy shooting his Garand and I asked "how do I load this thing". He told me to just hit the handle; I did and it chambered a round. Eight rounds later I got the ching sound and reloaded again. Lots of fun.

I bought an 8 pound keg of 4895 and loaded all of the brass I had been collecting for the last year. The Garand is the only 30-06 I own, so it all gets 150 grain bullets and feed into this rifle. I just need to get a 1903 now.

[Jim K]

A couple of more "M1 stories". During basic training, I encountered a dud round on the rifle range. So, concerned with a hangfire, I recocked the rifle without opening the bolt and tried again. Still no go. The range sergeant saw me cock the rifle and wanted to know whatinhell I thought I was doing. I told him I had a misfire, and he grabbed the rifle and did the boot stomp. I almost wished it had been a hangfire, but it wasn't. It was an old, corroded round that some joker found on the ground and loaded in a clip and I hadn't noticed.

Around the same time, we did the infiltration course, crawling through sand with MG fire overhead. The drill was a dry run (no firing) in the morning, then a live run in the afternoon, and another at night. After the first run, the rifles were full of sand, and we had to clean them. So one guy decided to avoid that in the afternoon and wrapped a rag around the receiver to keep the sand out. When our platoon sergeant saw that, he had a ball about a rifle having "the rag on." He got a good laugh and should have stopped, but he continued that he didn't know there were male and female rifles. Some clown in the rear (not me) said, "Where do you think carbines come from?"

Everyone just about died laughing.

Jim