Peculiar Garand Trigger Guard

[Linstrum]

I bought my Garand back in 1979 in the days when they weren't generally available to the public like they are now. When I got it, it had a corroded-out barrel from the corrosively primed military ammo used before about 1953, the wood was full of rack dings, and the upper handguard was a mismatched dark chocolate on a nearly blonde stock. I steam ironed out the rack dings, stained the wood for a better color match, and finally bought a receiver wrench and put in a good barrel. Because it was the only Garand I had ever seen up close I never noticed the trigger guard was different.

When Garands got to be more common and I could compare mine to others, I noticed that my trigger guard was different from all the others I was seeing. Besides the standard lock hole in the safety, the trigger guard has an extra boss on the back with a lock hole for a gun rack lock rod or padlock. I have not found any description of this type of trigger guard on the Internet, but maybe some of you folks out here might know what its significance is. What passed through my mind were rifles issued to military police that needed securing against unauthorized use or theft in a vehicle or police station, but that is just a thought.

[JDL]

Linstrum, I believe what you have is an early, milled trigger guard, instead of the later stamped variety. The hole in back is just for gripping to disassemble. -JDL

[garandsrus]

Linstrum,

From your description, you have a trigger assembly that has a hole for a "winter trigger" which is a lever that you can squeeze that pulls the trigger. This was done so that a soldier could shoot with thick gloves on. Here's a site with more information and some pictures... http://www.civilianmarksmanship.com/accessoryhtml/accwintertrig.html

The trigger assemblies are pretty common. I don't have the winter trigger though.

John

[omgb]

I've got the same thing on my Garand. I also have the trigger group. Let me tell you boys, that thing is an accident waiting to happen. I've played with it and if you were to set the gun down wrong, it will fire. If you pick the gun up wrong, it will fire. If you hold the gun loosely and alow your hand to let the stock rock slightly, you have an 8 shot BAR. Nice piece of history though, but not a day-to-day useable thing.

[Linstrum]

Hey, there, guys, thanks for all your suggestions.



I just checked out the photos on the CMP site that Garandsrus was so kind to provide, and that is what I have, minus the trigger extension.

Mystery solved!

I had read about a kind of winter trigger in one version of the Army Field Inspection and Repair manual, but the one described there is fastened with wood screws to the stock wrist. The later one described at the site Garandsrus mentioned was not shown in that particular earlier version of the Field Manual that I have.

The serial number of my Garand receiver is 2,934,2XX, which was most likely made in May of 1944, so the Korean War era trigger group was added later.


I tried to insert a photo earlier but it didn't work, but I'll try again now.

OMGB, thanks for the warning, I can see that it is quite dangerous. It would be, since it defeats the purpose of the trigger guard, which is meant EXACTLY to prevent all the problems from hapening that you just described!

[C1PNR]

Wow! And all this time I thought it was just a handy hole to put a section of cleaning rod through to open the Trigger Housing Group.:coffee:

[tinsmith]

In the book, "The Last Parallel" by Martin Russ, the author mentioned that they were issued the "winter Triggers" in Korea. He states that they threw them away for the reasons already mentioned.

The milled trigger guard pre-dates the winter trigger. The hole we can assume was to lock the rifle in a rack. You can't pass something through the trigger guard without someone just opening the trigger guard and making off with the rifle.