Garand troubleshooting

[BoolitSchuuter]

Got a question, my son in laws M1 experiences a third round stoppage on occasion. I'm thinking its a weak op rod spring or a possible bind in the lifter/ follower assembly. Any suggestions? :???:

[220swiftfn]

I remember reading about this *somewhere*...... Stoppage on the third round was known as the "seventh round glitch" and prompted a slight redesign. This implies that your SIL has an earlier Garand, and the work around on it is to load the En-block clips so that the top round is on the left IIRC (hopefully someone with a better memory will chime in here......)


Dan

[Multigunner]

These early Garands with too much metal removed during boring out of the receiver ring for the barrel were usually rectified by welding in the missing steel and recutting the rail.
I suspect unaltered early receivers may have collector interest, even though this was a defect in the otherwise fine design.
I cartainly would not consider having the receiver rectified , so long as the rifle operates properly when the clip is loaded properly to compensate.

[BoolitSchuuter]

This rifle is built on a 1,5XX,XXX SA receiver. We are going shooting Wednesday morning, I'll check on the indexing in the clip and start there. When I loaded up a bunch of clips for him, I did index them so the first round was on the right. You may have the answer. But it raises another question - Why would it matter? :coffeecom

[zomby woof]

http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/snap5.jpg

[phonejack]

Everything is lubed with grease and not oil,right?

[220swiftfn]

This rifle is built on a 1,5XX,XXX SA receiver. We are going shooting Wednesday morning, I'll check on the indexing in the clip and start there. When I loaded up a bunch of clips for him, I did index them so the first round was on the right. You may have the answer. But it raises another question - Why would it matter? :coffeecom

Don't remember WHY it mattered, just that it DID...... I don't even remember where I ran across that little tidbit about the early ones (maybe an old American Rifleman???) If Multigunner's right about too much metal being hogged out, it's probably the action flexing causing the jam, and the round feeding from the stiffer side when the lifter is at the "problem spot" is enough to get it in.....????:confused:

Then again, it looks like his was built in '43????

Dan

[Multigunner]

When doing the initial boring out of the receiver ring, to be threaded for the barrel shank, they went to deep and cut away steel where the top of the front enbloc clip guide rail should be.

At some point lack of support to the body of the enbloc clip at that point can disrupt feeding. I guess the weight of other cartridges in the clip keeps it stable until a certain number of rounds have been fired.
The problem did not show up at first because clips were normally all loaded in the same order. Later on occasional clips loaded in the wrong order became more common.

[shotman]

well have heard the deal about the first loaded on the left. So I pulled out a ammo can that is new 1942 never been out of the bandoleer still have the cardboard sieve . ALL are loaded first round on left. So got some out that I have loaded. It seem to me that being right handed all mine were loaded ,first on the left. I tried to reverse them and was able to do it BUT it seemed hard for me.
I work on the VFW honor guard rifles and they sometimes missed. I couldnt get them to miss when I shot them. They load their clips from boxed blanks so out of 5 guys some could load different ways
I have 2 Garands, I am going to try the Rt hand load and see

[Multigunner]

I pirated the following from another forum.


From “The M1 Rifle” page 14 published by the NRA

M1 7th Round Jam
While loading some 8-round M1 clips for a club match, I was warned to load them with the top cartridge on the right, or risk failures of the rifles to function. Is there any substance to this?

Answer: The warning you received was exactly backwards. The problem described did exist, briefly, but was solved sometime in late 1940 or early 1941. Further, before the fix was introduced, loading an M1 clip with the top round on the right did not prevent the rifle from jamming, it caused a jam to occur. The problem was that when a rifle was loaded with a clip that had the top round on the right, the seventh round (also on the right) would jump the clip and stub against the rear of the barrel above the chamber. The condition was considered so serious (and potentially damaging to the already questioned reputation of the Army's new rifle) that the M1 Rifles sent to Camp Perry in 1940 were specially modified to prevent them from being loaded with a clip having the top round on the right. In addition, ammunition sent with the rifles was checked and any clip found to have the top round on the right was reloaded to put it on the left. The problem was solved shortly after the 1940 National Matches when engineers at the Springfield Armory found that a drilling operation removed metal from two vertical ribs that supported the left front edge of the clip. Restoring the two ribs to their original configuration stopped the 7th round jam from occurring and allowed ammunition manufacturers to load clips without regard the location of the top cartridge. As a matter of convenience, it is easier for a right-handed shooter to load a clip that has the top round on the right.

[BoolitSchuuter]

Zombie Woof, I think might have the answer. Having built this rifle, I ordered a new op rod spring yesterday.
I ran this rifle thoroughly after I built it and had no failures. This third round issue has happened twice just recently, so I suspect the op rod spring. I had bought it "New old stock" on Fleece Bay. Lesson learned.

[BoolitSchuuter]

Got the new op rod spring, hope to find out if this will fix the problem or not.