Garand "Tanker"

There are no "true" Garand carbines aka "Tankers" in the private market.

Garand and Springfield experimented with a short 18" barreled Carbine version with a folding stock (the M1E5) and a carbine 18" barreled with standard stock (the T26)

There was a high demand for a more mobile service rifle at the time of WWII in the Pacific theater. Which resulted in a lot of testing and chop jobs by front line soldiers and apparently weapon techs, samples sent back to the U.S. and even some factory production of some 18" barrels but they never went into mass production. They say a few did actually see service use near the end of the war but I've never seen proof and these were probably the hack job "in theater" cut downs.

From what I read, the U.S. Proving/design teams could never get the weapon to cycle or function reliably with the short barrel while still performing to a high enough standard as a battle rifle.

Any short barreled Garand you find in this country with a less than 18.5" barrel would just be some hack job impersonation of a the experimental T26 and would result in it being a restricted firearm.

The more recent "reproductions" from the U.S. are actually 18.25" barreled if I'm not mistaken, which would make them restricted up here if any ever were imported.

That being said you may find M1's up here in Canada with chopped down barrels and gas systems to 18.5" with modified stocks, maybe even done by competent gunsmiths. Seeing some of the monstrosities that people create in their sheds out of other great rifles would lead me to believe it has been done for sure :(
 
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There are repro "tanker" bits out here in Canada. I got a tanker op rod and barrel in 308 (that has extra barrel meat in front of the cylinder lock to the point of it exceeding the restricted length) off EE last year or so; although, I don't have it set up as a true tanker.... ...running a BM-59 folding stock and gas cyl w/ bipod which in turn allows me to run a bm-59 muzzle brake that hides the extra snout (had to straighten op rod for lower gas cyl bore). That being said, there are also BM-59 barrels and op rods that will have a slightly different distance between back of gas cyl and receiver face than tanker out there. I'm not using a front handguard and am currently waiting for different front band to make it look bit more polished, so no pics right now.

The only part that gets hurt during my garden shed experiment is Garand follower rod, of which there is currently an excess of NOS. The italians did spend some time on their version and by all reports, it does have some functionality.

R
 
Brewster20 said:
OK, thanks for the info. PS where on the rifle would one find the "T-26" marking ?
Thanks again
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There is not much info available on the actual arsenal produced and tested 2 or 3 rifles that actually were assemebled for testing by Springfield.

As far as anyone knows any and all of the ones that were chopped/converted to a carbine length done in theater by the Pacific Warfare Board were eventually converted back after the end of the war.

The ones that were done up by Springfield for testing all rest currently in US government museums. There has never been a documented one ever in Private hands/colldection so as to the markings and where they would be, only the currator at the Springfield Arms Museum would be able to get that info lol

There is no good detailed information regarding markings for them that I have seen. All this info that I have is from my friends awesome book B Canfield's Complete guide to the M1 Garand and the M1 Carbine.

Also of note the book said another reason they were never approved is because of the ridiculous and excessive muzzle blast and flash lol An 18" barrel and a .30-06 cartridge, no 5hit eh? :D Even the Mosin M44 has a 20 1/4" barrel!
 
I have one done by smith enterprises pre-2001, when they were still working on garands. It's awesome, runs great. It has a custom 18.5" barrel so it's NR.
 
Muzzle blast from 308 garand w/ 18.5+ bbl and brake is very similar to 308 M14 w/ 18.5 bbl and brake; however, less so with tricomp.
R
 
Check out the "Mini G" , google is your friend ;)
Don't think the guy exports but the "tanker" type garand is live and well in Andy's shop down south.
 
Most of the tankers built in Canada were made by gun smiths. I know the guy that built them. All had 18.6" barrels.
 
Rebel Rouser said:
Most of the tankers built in Canada were made by gun smiths. I know the guy that built them. All had 18.6" barrels.
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I think that cutting the splines for the gas cylinder might be the trickiest part of converting a M-1 barrel to carbine length.
 
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