M1 garand- Help
My friend has an M1 garand that is in 308 caliber. It shoots great on the first 6 shots. The last two sometimes jam between the clip and the chamber. We think it is a clip problem as the clips are for 30/06. What do you folks think is the cause and what is the remedy? Thanks, Bill
Bill Dwyer
Bill Dwyer
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Well I'm only a novice on the M1 myself but to start the ball off, I believe the clips are the same. Try a few different ones and see if you keep having trouble.
"...hit your enemy in the belly, and kick him when he is down, and boil his prisoners in oil- if you take any- and torture his women and children. Then people will keep clear of you..." -Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher, speaking at the Hague Peace Conf0 -
Bill.... I have a .308 Garand, and it sometimes does the same thing with the last rnd in the clip.
There are no .308 clips. The same clips are used for both the .308 and 30-06 rifles. I believe the problem stems from the fact that the .308 is a shorter rnd and has to jump the gap before the tip of the bullet contacts the bullet guides, which are the two little cut outs below the chamber.
I believe there is a spacer device that can be used to help with this problem, but I will have to look for a supplier.0 -
I have shot Navy MkII M1's for more than 20 years with literally many thousand rounds expended. Just make sure the top round of your eight round clip is on the right side as you look down on it in the weapon. If your weapon continues to malfunction you are going to have to look for something else wrong...any M1 clip will function properly as long as the tp round is on the right. And no don't ask me where I learned that from but it was probably Don McCoy, the finest M1 match rifle builder, on the planet. Let me know if this hint works out for you. Beach 0 -
Beach, the only reason the top round is usually placed on the right is because most shooters are right handed and it makes loading the clip easier. Whether the rounds are placed with the top round on the right or left should make no difference on how they feed.
Sounds like a feeding problem to me. Seems like we need Neal Myers on this one.
Charlie
"It's the stuff dreams are made of Angel"NRA Certified Firearms InstructorMember: GOA, RKBA, NJSPBA, NJ area rep for the 2ndAMPD. njretcop@copmail.com0 -
It seems I read somewhere that pushing down (when loading) at the case shoulder junction, instead of at the case base would help. Not sure, been having faulty memory lately.
Some guys like a mag full of lead, I still prefer one round to the head.0 -
Lefty raised the most likely source of the problem - was there a spacer installed in the front of the mag well? Might also help if we knew who made the barrel, and who did the conversion---this is a job for a gunsmith.
I would swap out the clip latch to see if that is the culprit.
The only clip loading problem I can recall is when the rounds are not flat against the back of the clip; smack the bullet noses on a wooden board (NOT the stock) before loading.
Neal0 -
nmyers....Have never seen one with a spacer installed in the front of mag well. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened but I've shot and owned a boatload of .308 Navy MkII's; never saw one with any additional spacer. I've had Navy special barrels on the MkII's and a couple of match M1's with heavyweight Douglas barrels as well as a really nice M1 done with a Krieger barrel. I know that Don McCoy at the end of his career was building them in .270, .243, .25-06 as well as the two original calibers. I don't believe he had to do anything special for those calibers either. Beach 0 -
Check three things 1. Op-Rod end for carbon build up(clean it) 2. Gas cylinder (clean it) 3. Weak Op-Rod spring, its the long 15" one (replace) 0 -
Thanks fellows. This weapon was completly gone through by Fulton Armory in Maryland, It has new everything. Op rod,extractors,barrel, etc,etc. It is like a new rifle. It is extremely accurate and shoots great except for the occasional glitch that I mentioned. It is clean and there is no carbon buildup. Thanks for your interest and your help. Bill[:)]
Bill Dwyer0 -
I was always my understanding that the magazine well spacer was not needed in order to allow the modified M1 Service Rifle to function with 7.62mm NATO ammo. The purpose of the spacer was to prevent the accidental insertion of a loaded clip of .30-06 ammunition which could not be chambered due to its longer length.
Mark T. Christian0 -
Say, Commissioner, did you do the obvious, which was to contact Fulton Armory? They may have a solution for you over the telephone. There is something to the "load the first round to the right" advice given by Beachmaster73--but the cause escapes me at the moment. (Some of us "experts" got that way by living a long time, and memory loss is attendant). Anyway, I recall that at one time this was a fairly common problem and involved modification of some part to cure, but loading the clip as described by Beachmaster was the immediate solution. Perhaps Fulton put an unmodified part into your rifle, as they must be seeing the bottom of the barrel for new replacement/rebuild parts. I've got about an even dozen of these rascals, and none of them have the problem. You might also assure that your clip'(s)lips aren't deformed. Since the problem doesn't always happen (you said "sometimes") it might just be one bad clip. As a gunsmith, I also like fergusonmorse392's suggestion of taking a look at, and possibly replacing, the operating rod spring. That is what causes upward pressure on the magazine follower, which is necessary to keep cartridges pushed to the top of the magazine for feeding, and a weak spring would exert less pressure as the magazine emptied and the cartridges moved toward the top. One other possibility, a bent/deformed follower arm which rubs against the inside slot of the bullet guide as the magazine empties and the arm changes position. Check for a shiney area on the inside of slot that the arm passes through and on the sides of the arm. 0
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