Re : Canadian obsession with an American Rifle

Regardless of where or who made the M1 its an interesting gun and fun to shoot. I have two, one in 7.62 and one in 30-06.
The Americans have a law that does not allow "US Property" marked firearms from re-entering the US after they leave the country.
The US sent lots of M1 rifles and carbines to other countries as Foreign Aid, and they don't have many in country.
There lots in storeage in South Korea that would be nice pieces for collectors, but the US won't let them sell them.
 
Smellie; I get it. But for my milsurp collection to date, I haven't found a reason to handload. Mind you, the Ross likes them - my Pastor gave me some 174gr, I'm not sure the rest of the specs, and they do chamber better (its WWII brass) and they group nicely. As far as warming up a barrel ruins the good rifle, I'm not sure I agree - shouldn't semi-autos be designed to handle the heat?

SKS seems to; it shoots terribly with or without the heat-treatment. :p My SVT does just fine - subMOA is a moot point if I can't see the target at 100 yds, so I know it does very well at 50, hot or not. If warming up a semi wrecks it, wouldn't all the semis we get our hands on be ipso facto wrecked ?
 
Another funny oddity is that in the US you can get CMP garands for $500-600. If you want a SVT-40 or AG-42 be ready to pay up $1000, or over in some of the cases that I've seen. Now here in Canada it is the exact opposite. SVT's for $300 and AG's for $350-500 (depending on condition).
 
Jumping in kind of late in the discussion but as a guy who has been around a while I grew up watching WWII movies and of course they were almost all American made and about Americans. I wanted a Garand since I was young and ended up buying one 24 years ago and I still have it. To me it is superior to anything Canada ever issued to it's troops until the FN C1, which I would own as well if our government didn't like making stupid laws.
 
Smellie; I get it. But for my milsurp collection to date, I haven't found a reason to handload. Mind you, the Ross likes them - my Pastor gave me some 174gr, I'm not sure the rest of the specs, and they do chamber better (its WWII brass) and they group nicely. As far as warming up a barrel ruins the good rifle, I'm not sure I agree - shouldn't semi-autos be designed to handle the heat?

SKS seems to; it shoots terribly with or without the heat-treatment. :p My SVT does just fine - subMOA is a moot point if I can't see the target at 100 yds, so I know it does very well at 50, hot or not. If warming up a semi wrecks it, wouldn't all the semis we get our hands on be ipso facto wrecked ?

There is a very good reason these rifles were re barreled regularly. Many were FTRed and squirreled away by the Soviets after WWII.

I can tell you from first hand experience, the rifles being used in the field by third world troops don't look nearly as nice inside or out.

It's definitely a testament to their manufacturers how well these mass produced rifles function and how accurate they really are when treated properly.

What smellie is referring to, is the nitriting of the leade by quickly shooting off a magazine full of ammo as fast as you can. Especially several mags in a row. Might be fun but it will cause accuracy to deteriorate quickly if it becomes a habit and you shoot often.

The same thing will happen to a decent bolt action as well. Swede Mausers were rebarreled on a regular basis for sure and bore measurements were also taken on a regular basis and marked on the round disk on the right side of the butt.

This is nothing new and most match or bench rest shooters are familiar with such issues.

If you have a rifle that won't shoot well from a cold barrel, you have issues with the rifle somewhere that should be addressed.

I refuse to hunt with a rifle that won't shoot well from a cold barrel or on the first shot. Not to many game animals will let you take a couple of fouling/warming shots to let your barrel settle down. Men are even less inclined to let you keep shooting at them, while your barrel settles down.

Usually bedding issues somewhere.
 
Smellie; I get it. But for my milsurp collection to date, I haven't found a reason to handload. Mind you, the Ross likes them - my Pastor gave me some 174gr, I'm not sure the rest of the specs, and they do chamber better (its WWII brass) and they group nicely. As far as warming up a barrel ruins the good rifle, I'm not sure I agree - shouldn't semi-autos be designed to handle the heat?

SKS seems to; it shoots terribly with or without the heat-treatment. :p My SVT does just fine - subMOA is a moot point if I can't see the target at 100 yds, so I know it does very well at 50, hot or not. If warming up a semi wrecks it, wouldn't all the semis we get our hands on be ipso facto wrecked ?

when the barrel gets hot it wear down faster this is why alot of garands are rebarreled of corse have you ever looked at a lee enfield most have very worn throats because cordite ammo heats the barrel faster then a normal smokeless powder and with fast firing it makes it worse still dont think it has a effect look at alot of used MG barrels
 
I'm cheap so I'll stick with my SVT40s.

Other than the longer length and front heavy balance of the SVT; I fail to see what the Garand does that the SVT does not do better.
Higher capacity...check.
Full size battle round...tie there
Removeable magazine...check( can't even top up a Garand, nice...and what's the finger pinching thing again?)



Ability as far as a Sniper rifle...check ( without that silly offset scope mount)
Buy 3 SVT's for the price of 1 Garand...let me think about that a minute, OK I'll take the SVT40 with the cheap surplus ammo by the crate please.
And yes, the M-14 addressed many of the M1's fault's, undoubtably the M-14 is a better weapon than an SVT. But is the M1 better than an SVT?


If it is such a great firearm, how come I've never seen it used in 3 Gun matches in Canada or at least out West? In matches that I attended using the Garand I always managed to end up within the top quarter of the competitors, but the only Soviet firearm I ever seen used was an SKS. It was nice to have the guys there with SKS's, after all, somebody has to come last!
 
If it is such a great firearm, how come I've never seen it used in 3 Gun matches in Canada or at least out West? In matches that I attended using the Garand I always managed to end up within the top quarter of the competitors, but the only Soviet firearm I ever seen used was an SKS. It was nice to have the guys there with SKS's, after all, somebody has to come last!

LOL! I nearly choked on my lunch when I read that.
 
I have a Sako Finn M39, a full wood Maltby No4 Mk1 and an SVT-40. Truth be told I would trade them all for a Garand.

That's kinda sad... ;)

I thought prices were getting a little silly on the EE then I checked out an american website that rhymes with Mo Falter for milsurps (just picture shopping) and I near pooped in my pants. I can't imagine paying those prices. I'd much rather live up here and have to face ridiculous prices on Garands than face ridiculous prices for everything else.

Support your community; shop local. Actually meeting the present owner and seeing the gun before you buy it is invaluable. Prices are better and no shipping or tax.
 
FWIW there are unrefurbed brand spanking new M1's here in Newfoundland. Left over from the Americans. I have seen 2 with my own eyes. Both were Springfield, both were all-matching.
 
I believe that the big appeal of the Garand is that it was the pre-eminent infantry rifle of WW2 and the Korean War. Everything else, incl Mausers, Mosin-Nagants, Lee-Enfields, etc were refinements of 40-50 year old designs. These were all reliable and well proven bolt action rifles, but their firepower paled in comparison with the Garand. Firepower and reliability matter in combat and the Garand had no peer until it was replaced by the follow-on M14 (basically a Garand with a shorter action and detachable 20 rd box mag) and the FN FAL.

Too bad the US Army didn't devote the same degree of foresight and R&D effort into replacing the BAR prior to WW2. The BAR sucked as an LMG when compared to the later BREN and MG34 and MG42 designs. These advanced designs were the basis of firepower in the German and British and Commonwealth infantry in WW2 and did a lot to compensate for the firepower deficiencies of the Mauser and Lee-Enfield.

The Cdn Army was still saddled with the antiquated Lee-Enfield in Korea and had to compensate for this by issuing additional BRENs and even deplying the Vickers water cooled MMG which was tailor made for the positional warfare during the later part of the Korean War.
 
Czech fellow, former Olympic shooter, showed up at the Battle of the Bulge match at CFB Shilo a few years ago.

He had what he called, "just an old piece of sh*t Tokarev".

Nobody paid much attention.

When the match started, he fired 4 fast rounds at the 400 yard targets, one each, and unloaded, then used his pistol on the 175s.

Team went under the razor wire, over the berm and into new positions.

He fired 4 fast rounds, one at each 400-yard target, and unloaded, engaged the close targets with a pistol.

Nobody around here says anything bad about the old "piece of sh*t" Tokarevs.
 
...Firepower and reliability matter in combat and the Garand had no peer until it was replaced by the follow-on M14

Like smellie and a lot of others have said, what about the Tokarev?

Ten round mag (2 more rounds then the garand), detachable box mag, adjustable gas system, a mehcanism that doesn't eat thumbs for lunch, will shoot minute of German or Russian all day long.

The one I have shoots 2 MOA@100 with crummy 50 year old surplus ammo. If I was to shoot precision crafted hand loads I would be willing to bet it would shot 0.5 to 1 MOA.
 
i've got an h&r garand 3006 and have had it for years... got it for 400 bucks from ad hominem
- its as reliable as a bolt action ... since i love the movie the big red one, i just had to have this rifle
but i also wanted a g43... well, if i had to choose between the two, i'd keep my garand (despite the crazy price for a g43 )

much love for the m1 garand
 
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