[Z71]

Hmmm.....Somebodys been banging their loaded 8 shot clips on the side of my M1 Garand!

I had noticed a bit of stock filler in some tiny round dings on the right side of the butt, plus a few of the same on the other side too.

Just dawned on me what they were! Two staggered rows of 4 bullet points per row? Some idget has banged the points of his ammunition against the buttstock, once on the right once on the left. Not just unsightly, or all that noticable even. Been filled, stained, sanded, oiled, and I guess its old history now.

Good grief people! The rifle has a steel buttplate! If you must bang your ammo back in the clip, bonk it on the buttplate!

Shouldn't gripe I guess, just part of the guns history of use. Still, does bug me that somebody would idley mar the stock on such a beautiful rifle intentionaly.

 

[cpw]

They probably did not think about what they were doing.

 

[Cass]

I have several M1's with those marks. They did it to make sure that the rounds were fully seated in the clip, so they wouldn't bind or jam when loading.

Cass

 

[reddog]

Geez, the guys life was on the line and you're worried over dents. He did it to insure the clip would load easily and not jam up.

 

[cpw]

Geez, the guys life was on the line and you're worried over dents. He did it to insure the clip would load easily and not jam up.

Don't you know that all those guys were supposed to be thinking of the future collector's market.

 

[Z71]

Unless the guy or guy's did it in Vietnam, probably got done at the range. Rifle was made in 1955.

I thought that clip bonking was supposed to be done on your steel helmet anyhow?

 

[cpw]

That can hurt and/or also make a noise.

 

[Foxtrot351]

I have several M1s with the little dents also. I guess it might have been a fairly common practice with some. It just dawned on me a couple of months ago that the marks were from a loaded clip.


Foxtrot351

 

[brucers99]

Supposedly the Koreans were actually trained to do this before inserting the en bloc clip. Every stock I have ever seen from S. Korea looks like a woodpecker attacked it on the right side.

 

[A square 10]

i supose it coulda happened in vietnam , there were a few there early on , but i think it would be a mark of character as long as its not destructive[you said hardly noticeable] so a good conversation starter

 

[Z71]

Yes, not terribly noticable. This stock has been sanded pretty heavily. Has numerous filled in dents and dings. Been stained too.

Of all the M1 rifles I've looked at(a dozen or more), this one is by far the best mechanical condition M1 I've examined. I can live with a so-so stock. Most of the M1 rifles I inspected thinking I might buy had less than perfect bores. Not really bad, but noticable wear and several had some pitting.

I bought this one because it had a perfectly clean bore, and quite nice parkerizing. Thats one of the reasons I bought an M1 I could examine in person, was scared the CMP might send me something I wouldn't like.

I like this one, she ain't perfect, but she's paid for!

 

[BradB]

Bullet Dings

I got this story first hand from the collector friend involved (who has since passed away) and have seen the gun. Local collector of some note saw a WWII vet interview in the newspaper and noticed a gas-trap garand in the background of the photo. After a phone call and a meeting, they worked out a 5-figure price. The WWII veteran owner had been in the Army from the mid-1930s and was issued the rifle at one point.

After sealing the deal and taking payment, the vet requested to keep it one more week so he and his 50+ year old son could go out to shoot it. Buyer was excited enough to have found the "grail" for his Garand collection that he reluctantly agreed. What's a little more carbon to clean up right? A week later the buyer got the call that the rifle was ready for pick-up. When my collector friend arrived, the "honest wear" on this $10,000 plus Garand had been "enhanced" by "son of doofus" who felt compelled to bang each and every clip of ammo point-first to "seat the rounds" after the vet mentioned "this is how we did it in the war". The irreplacable firearm now had several dozen fresh, deep dings all over both sides of the butt!!! Buyer took it, but asked for $1k back. The vet refused to come off the price because the dings were "part of history" even if only a couple days old.

 

[cpw]

Considering the price, his mistake was in not taking immediate possession.

 

[BradB]

He was heartsick. Who would have expected that kind of treatment on essentially a "loaner" gun at that point...

 

[Coldwood]

i supose it coulda happened in vietnam , there were a few there early on , but i think it would be a mark of character as long as its not destructive[you said hardly noticeable] so a good conversation starter

It's a great conversation starter, let me join in. I was in South Korea 61-62 and the M-1 Garand was my issue weapon. I don't remember anybody, from basic training on, telling me to hit the stock or the buttplate or my helmet with the pointy ends of a clip. That sounds like some kind of a trick out of a John Wayne movie, looks really cool. (Oh, and I never remember me or anybody else having a misfire because we didn't do it...in fact I remember no misfires at all).

Now, I don't know what the troops in the ROK Army we're doing. Maybe they were.

In my three years of active duty with the M-1, I don't remember ever seeing any of the kind of marks on a gunstock like you're talking about.

Think about it. If that was done everytime before a clip was loaded, what do you think the stock would look like? And US soldiers are liable to pay for any damage they do to government equipment because of misuse.

 

[MrBurritoMan]

i might have to add in this discussion that most of the service men were loading these rifles in the duress of battle and cared little for the "beauty" of their rifle. also most of the people in that time period cared little for the physical appearance of something but more for its physical function. honestly if they are old dings and dents caused by seating he rounds in a clip i wouldn't care, i kind of like my rifles like that. if, however, it is a fresh set of dings on a 10k rifle, i would be more than pissed; i would be absolutely livid! that kind of behavior is inexcusable especially when you are at the range and have all the time in the world to seat the rounds in a clip. what a different world we live in as compared to 60 years ago...

 

[Coldwood]

i might have to add in this discussion that most of the service men were loading these rifles in the duress of battle and cared little for the "beauty" of their rifle. also most of the people in that time period cared little for the physical appearance of something but more for its physical function.

That's a good story. In the "duress of battle" did you stop to tap your clip before loading it?

Didn't think so. Because you don't need to do that with an M-1 Garand.

How many M-1s issued were actually used in battle, fantasy or reality?

Back to the "collector's" story. Since when did the US Army allow discharged soldiers to go home with their M-1 Garands? The military budget doesn't allow it, and on some level ever since the American Civil War, it must be illegal.

Now the WWII geezer may have had one sitting around his room, bought it for memories, they weren't then and aren't now that hard to get. And he was probably happy as hell for his one day of newspaper fame and followup by the collector...and his son got in on it too. This is fun, play it up.

 

[The Mr Mitch]

Gotta chime in for Coldwood's side. I was issued an M1 at Parris Island in 1959. NEVER (IIRC) was told to seat bullets. Neither on the rifle nor butt plate.
Carried one for three years and was issued an M14 in 1962. Carried it until 1963.

The first time I saw someone 'seating' bullets was a 'Nam war movie and they smacked their helmets with M16 mags. I liked that and do it now with my Bushy mags against any thing except my head. That hurts and damages my head even more.

If we'd scratched that rifle, we'd been sleeping with it for quite awhile. Or worse.

 

[Coldwood]

Ping!

What I do love is that "Ping!" (when the empty clip flies loose) that tells everybody within a hundred yards that you're out of ammo and fumbling for another clip

 

[mike radford]

Quite a few Garands and carbines went to Nam. SF issued them to the folks they trained. At least that is what they showed us in the training films I saw in the early 70s.