The M-1 Garand rifle, "the greatest infantryman's rifle of the twentieth Century"
by Jack Corbett

in Iraq the M-14 is still being used in situations where its 22 caliber successors are deficient.  But sixty years ago, the main battle rifle of every major combatant during World War II was the bolt action although the German Army deployed large numbers of submachine guns in order to increase the short range firepower of its fighting men. The Russian Army by the second half of the war had nearly completely replaced its aging bolt action rifles with submachine guns which provided the Russian foot soldier with unprecedented short range firepower. In spite of our equipping our soldiers with a variety of small arms it was the M-1 which bore the brunt of most of the fighting. Weighing 9 pounds unloaded the M-1 fired eight shots of powerful 30-06 ammo as fast as a man could pull the trigger. It could be reloaded quickly from eight round clips, shoot through five or six men if they stood in a row and nearly always put a man down with just one shot. The M-1 was so accurate that it replaced the bolt action as a sniper's rifle and today it is still being used in 1,000 yard matches. Ask any World War II or Korean War veteran who had actually seen combat what weapon he'd choose and you will see his eyes glisten over as he replies, "The M-1 Garand." Firing one for the first time would be firing a legend while reliving a piece of our History. Luckily I had new recruit, Skie along, one of the prettiest girls to ever dance on a St Louis Metro East stage,. Her assignment would be to handle the submachine gun.  

New recruit Skie had just turned twenty two days before we hit the Belleville, Illinois shooting range. A quick witted willowy five foot six blonde, I had seen her dance enough to find her to be a splendid physical specimen. Her first weapon would be the new H & K MP-5 which represents the current state of the art in submachine guns, which is rapidly replacing the Uzi in police and special forces world wide.

In my hands the MP-5 was short and light, feeling like a finely crafted German toy with the precision of a BMW. In the front room of the gun range, Jim, a police officer, who moonlights working at the gun range with another police officer, briefed us on how to operate both the MP-5 and much larger and heavier M-1. Taking one look at the 30-06 ammo I brought with me, Jim shook his head and told me I couldn't use it since it was armor piercing and would go through the range's steel backstop. I ended up getting a good deal on some 30-06 ammo that wouldn't.

New recruit Skie took immediately to the MP-5 as she would to every weapon that she would wind up firing. Although inexperienced with guns Skie would later keep all her shots inside an area of a man's fist with my Python revolver at thirty-five feet. She moved the MP=5's three position selector lever from "safe" to semi auto. After putting all her shots in the man sized silhouette target's mid section I advised her to move the selector to full auto. "Aim at where the target's balls would be," I told her. Then just let the gun's recoil move your point of impact up into its chest area. It should do it without your having to do a thing since it's on full auto."

Her first two or three shots on full auto would have castrated a real man. Her first bursts put five our six 9 mm slugs into the target before she could release the trigger. The last shots hit the sihouette's right side which meant that she was allowing the recoil of the MP-5 to twist the gun to her right. I took the clip out and added a few rounds, then handed the gun back to her, telling her to let the MP-5 recoil upwards instead of up and to the right.

Now this raw recruit Skie's quite a gem and I'm not telling anybody where she lives. Catching on immediately she managed to keep all her shots centered on what she was aiming at. She got onto the gun's trigger, limiting her bursts to just three or four rounds, which is considered ideal in combat. But she kept hitting the silhouette where a man's balls would have been. The submachine gun's muzzle just wasn't climbing as much I had expected it to. "Forget shooting it in the testicles," I told her. Center on its belly or chest."

Her next bursts ripped into the silhouette's mid section. When the clip was empty, I hit the electronic target return button, which started to move the t-bar holding the target back towards us on a steel cable. In addition to the bullet holes in the silhoutte's mid section there were two in the middle of its head. "Why did you hit him in the head?" I asked her.

She gave me an impish smile and said: "Because I wanted to see if I could." (I'm still not telling any of you people how to find her because if she can handle a camera's shutter anything like she can handle a gun's trigger, I'm thinking of hiring her as my photographer's assistant).

That MP-5 was so cute that I had to take my turn with it. Firing it was like handling a vibrator. But I was saving the best for last--The M-1. Jeff Cooper, the gun writer and ex World War II Marine colonel, who is widely regarded as the founder of modern day defensive pistol technique and considered by many as "The gunner's guru" wrote that any self-respecting real American should have at least one M-1 in his closet. Now Cooper's not just any gun writer. The man's got a Master's in History from Stanford and is just as opinionated as he is brilliant. He has a low opinion of the submachine gun feeling that it is a spray and pray stop gap for troops that just don't know how to shoot.

I laid the rifle across the shelf in front of me on which we were putting our clips and spare ammo. I had sent the silhouette target all the way down to the end of the firing lane twenty-five years away. I then centered the M-1's iron sights just above and between the eyes. The rifles sights were great allowing for rapid target acquisition and pinpoint aiming when required. "Bam." The 30-06's thunderous report reverberated throughout the indoor range. I could feel the healthy nudge against my shoulder and momentarily lost my sight picture as the muzzle climbed upon recoil. But the rifle's great sights enabled me to quickly line up on my mark as I squeezed the trigger a second time. Had I been shooting a bolt action I would have had to work the gun's bolt to chamber another round which would have jerked the rifle to the left or right off my point of aim.

I kept shooting until the eight round clip ran empty. The gun's semi -automatic action allowed me to have to worry only about lowering the rifle slightly to get quickly back on target each time it recoiled Unlike most semi autos, the M-1 ejects its clip with a loud ping. In other guns you have to manually hit the ejector button to remove the clip. I then inserted another fully loaded clip into the rifle and handed my watch to special recruit Skie. "I took my time just to see how accurate this thing is," I told her. "I am now going to run off a clip into the target's chest area and I'm going to do it quickly. Time me."

I then pushed the electronic return button which started the target moving back towards us. "How fast was I?" I asked Skie as she studied my watch.

"Ten seconds. Maybe twelve," she replied.

There were eight 30 caliber holes exactly centered above the intersection of the eyes. 7 out of the 8 measured just 1.25 inches apart. My rapid fire sequence against the silhouette's chest put eight out of eight rounds in the killing zone. I wanted to shoot the M-1 again and again but Skie and I had pistols to shoot next. "Now that's a rifle," I thought. If an elephant were charging me, I would have eight chances to get one bullet right into its brain or just perforate its chest with rapid fire. That thing will do anything.