M1 Garand goes boom

She is pretty slightly-built, and is leaning back to counteract the 10# plus weight hanging out there in front of her. I have to note, as well, that for a Garand being operated by a gal, that is is not kicking up much of a fuss. Are these handloads, I wonder? Do we know anything about the actual circumstances?

tac

I`m betting a case load of pistol powder. That explosion sent hardwood in every outward direction for quite a distance...this is also why I don`t reload.
 
I`m betting a case load of pistol powder. That explosion sent hardwood in every outward direction for quite a distance...this is also why I don`t reload.

We can only speculate about the cause of this. She does get 6 shots off followed by a stoppage/malfunction then a kaboom. That's all we can see. BTW thousands of reloads tell me that there is nothing wrong about reloading for a Garand, as long as it's done correctly.
 
This has been up before, I even posted it once. The rifle fired out of battery with factory ammo. This is from the shooter.
I am the person this happened to. The 7th round jammed, which is nothing unusual for this gun. It happens all the time. That is why I didn't really hesitate to shoot the final round. We were using newer ammo, so we don't think that's the problem. My brother has been looking at his M1, and we noticed it will still fire with the chamber not fully closed. The chamber can be open up to 1/2" and the weapon will still fire. We think that's what happened.

I was very lucky with the outcome. I have lots of splinters and bruising, but nothing broken. My left hand took the brunt of the blow to my wrist and palm of my hand. Still pretty painful, but I will be fine. Thanks for the concern.
 
She was to polite when she close the bolt.

Bolt was not completely closed

Are Garands prone to firing 'out of battery'? Firing pin too long?
Shouldn't be able to happen.

I'll stick with my Mausers,Enfields and Mosins, thanks.
 
Scary stuff, but I still think it's a bit fishy that one misfires or whatever and the next goes boom. I'd like to blow the image up in high res and see if there was a bullet attached to that 7th round she manually removes. Seems like a case of someone who doesn't necessarily know what they were doing to me. There are too many signs of that for me to blame a very battle proven rifle. Factory ammo so was it Hornady M1 ammo or adjustable gas plug? Were they not actually hand loads and someone doesn't want to admit a mistake? Her shooting position suggests someone pretty new or a lack of proper instruction as well and no offence but stupid is as stupid does. Either that or it is as Purple suggests and the rifle was out of spec and was overlooked. She did say it jammed regularly. An M1 Garand should not jam. If it does the the lightbulb should at least flicker that something is wrong!
 
The chamber can be open up to 1/2" and the weapon will still fire

Jeez, I was of better opinion about Garand design. Wearing of locking mechnism should not allow firing, not vice versa. Well, nothing is perfect.
 
Yes and a Lee-Enfield can be fired without a bolt head and a Ross with the bolt head installed so only two of it's locking lugs are in battery. I think a representative from the Ross Rifle Company put it best:

"We consider this to be further evidence that there is a God, and that she occasionally vacuums the terminally stupid from the bottom of the gene pool."

It may be a rather negative outlook on it, but it is my opinion that most if not all incidents like this are caused by ignorance,negligence or a combination of both.
 
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Ross firing with improperly assembled bolt. 13:30 into the video.

The point is - any improperly maintained firearm can be as dangerous to the person behind it as anyone in front of it. Whatever the full story is around that Garand video, "Operator Error" appears to be a part of it. Good reminder that we need to keep apying attention to both maintenance and handling.

 
We can't see exactly what the shooter did or did not do after experiencing a stoppage, nor can we see closeup pictures of the parts afterwards, but it does hilite the need for familiarity and training before shooting. What she should have done on experiencing this malfunction was;

1. keep the weapon pointed downrange (she did this)
2. put the weapon on "safe"
3. open the action and lock it to the rear
4. remove mag or enbloc with all rounds
5. inspect chamber, bore, and action for obstructions or broken parts and remove/replace them before reloading and resuming shooting

In the case of the Garand an out of battery detonation or a slamfire can be caused by either faulty ammunition or by mechanical defects in the rifle. Apart from obvious mistakes, like using the wrong powder, too much powder or a split case, proper case preparation and priming are critical when reloading for the Garand. Cases should always be FL resized and trimmed to below max OAL. Primers must be seated slightly below flush with the case head to prevent their detonation as a result of impact by the bolt face or the floating firing pin during feeding and chambering. Mechanical causes in the rifle could include insufficient headspace, a worn receiver safety bridge, a worn tail on the firing pin, a broken firing pin which is stuck in the forward position or an excessively long firing pin.

For the fastidious reloader a good check on proper case sizing is to use the rifle itself as a gauge. To do this strip the rifle and bolt down to a point where the stripped bolt can be closed on resized cases by hand (no influence of op rod spring, ejector, extractor or firing pin) and then try all resized cases in the chamber before priming and reloading them. You want cases resized to a point where they will chamber and allow the bolt to close on each case with no perceptible resistance. A bit of a crush fit is OK in a bolt gun where you have the power of the bolt's camming action to close the bolt on a tight case. This is not the case in a Garand where the action relies on the power of the op rod spring alone to close the bolt. Cases can be overly large, both in terms of the base to shoulder dimension and/or the case diameter and either will prevent the bolt from closing freely on the chambered case. This is why necksizing is not recommended for a Garand/M14 type.

A couple of other precautions when loading/shooting a Garand. Always pull back the op rod with the hand in a palm down position which will avoid any tendency to pull the op rod handle up and possibly disengage it from the bolt lug. Also, check that the bolt is fully closed after loading the initial round from an enbloc. Sometimes the action can be a little sticky, even with a properly lubed rifle (this is mostly evident in a newly re-parkerized rifle or with new parts that haven't worn in a bit). A bolt that is not fully closed can be seated by bumping the op rod handle with the edge of your hand.
 
After resizing my brass for my gas operated rifles I check all cases in a Case length-Headspace Gauge.
I shows immediately if the shoulder got set back sufficiently and on the other end it shows if the case needs trimming,I have both 30-06 and .308.
For my bolt action rifles I usually only neck size,a lot easier on the brass.I keep all cases separate in clearly marked cans.
Never had any of my rifles fire out of battery.
 
Well she's fine, so i feel okay in saying that was the worst shooting stance I've ever seen.

Lack of upper body strength, I remember my youngest boy shooting an SKS like that. He's a skinny little guy; my gal's are made of stouter stock and they don't shoot with that stance. Time to hit the gym, I'd say.
 
Just looking through old M1 Garand threads as I have interest in getting one...is this "common"? Something you should be fearful or worried about or?
 
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