Thought I'd give this worthy thread a long overdue bump.
This September at the Camp Ethan Allen CMP matches (Vermont) I shot decently and grabbed two silver and two bronze medals. One of the silvers was with the old USMC O-66 M1 Garand. A side note: The usual Old Colony crew accounted for a total of ~19 medals from a handful of guys. Most had multiple medals and two of us had four each. I love shooting this rifle at matches because it looks like a 'been there done that' M1. Of course that's exactly what it is.
The CMP armorer from Anniston noted the early serial number and the fact that this rifle never received the 7th round mod. He thought that was quite unique and that it was an interesting rifle I should show to the head of Garand Collectors Association. Not sure exactly who, but he was there promoting the GCA. Unfortunately I missed the GCA guy, which would have been a fun conversation. One of my older friends who is a well known M1 guru swears this is a fake 'O-66'. I mentioned this to the armorer who replied there is nothing about the rifle that would suggest it could have been faked plus per my FOIA response it had been in government hands as far back as the records go.
Here's a pic of the 7th round mod:
And one like mine, without:
I always load my clips with the top round to the right and have never had an issue with jamming or "7th round stoppage". Believe me, Murphy's law states that if anything goes wrong, it will go wrong in the middle of a match rapid fire stage.
A decent article about early USMC M1's (pardon the source):
An Official Journal Of The NRA | Marines & The M1 Garand: The First 400
This September at the Camp Ethan Allen CMP matches (Vermont) I shot decently and grabbed two silver and two bronze medals. One of the silvers was with the old USMC O-66 M1 Garand. A side note: The usual Old Colony crew accounted for a total of ~19 medals from a handful of guys. Most had multiple medals and two of us had four each. I love shooting this rifle at matches because it looks like a 'been there done that' M1. Of course that's exactly what it is.
The CMP armorer from Anniston noted the early serial number and the fact that this rifle never received the 7th round mod. He thought that was quite unique and that it was an interesting rifle I should show to the head of Garand Collectors Association. Not sure exactly who, but he was there promoting the GCA. Unfortunately I missed the GCA guy, which would have been a fun conversation. One of my older friends who is a well known M1 guru swears this is a fake 'O-66'. I mentioned this to the armorer who replied there is nothing about the rifle that would suggest it could have been faked plus per my FOIA response it had been in government hands as far back as the records go.
Here's a pic of the 7th round mod:
And one like mine, without:
I always load my clips with the top round to the right and have never had an issue with jamming or "7th round stoppage". Believe me, Murphy's law states that if anything goes wrong, it will go wrong in the middle of a match rapid fire stage.
A decent article about early USMC M1's (pardon the source):
An Official Journal Of The NRA | Marines & The M1 Garand: The First 400
