Pete Keillor on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:14:12
-0500 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

He is talking about the rather distinctive "ting" the Garand makes
when it ejects the empty clip. This story has been going round and
round probably since the days that the Garand was accepted and makes
perfect sense - there you are in the middle of a fire fight - 50
people shooting guns, grenades exploding, machine guns blasting away
and you fire your last round and the rifle ejects the clip - Ting.

Immediately the enemy, hearing that noise, amid the sounds of battle,
and knowing that your rifle is empty leap to their feet and charge
your position as they now know that your weapon is empty.....

Hmm ... how likely are they to hear that with all the other
noise sources around you that you just described?

And in a battle, would there not be others near you who were not
yet empty?

And, given that you can load 8 rounds into a Garand faster then you
can load 7 into a colt 1911 you can see that the enemy has a plenty of
time to come and get you.

It doesn't take long to put a full magazine into the 1911 if you
aren't worried about saving the empty magazine -- or are you talking
about the time needed to fill an empty magazine?

It is only recently that the Army has decided that issuing the
line troops side arms is a good thing. I believe the practice is what
is called a "New York Speed loader" - also known as "having another
gun". Even on a bad day, it's faster than trying to clear a jam, or
reload a fresh magazine.

Did the Garand use a
stripper clip, or something which shoved into the underside of the
action?

Stripper, I think (don't own one).

"En Bloc" clip. Held eight rounds, the whole assembly was loaded
from the top. Quick, easy - but you could not "top off" the load. And
when the last round was fired, the "clip" made a little "ting" sound
as it is ejects from the rifle. Time to grab another clip and insert
the whole thing.
The advantage to the detachable box magazine,is that you can
detach it, "top off" and reload, giving you ten rounds plus the one in
the chamber. And, with practice, you can get fast at swapping out
magazines.

They were loaded through the open
bolt, not by a magazine.

That's basically the M14, a selective fire
Garand with box magazines.

I'd heard that savvy GI's (those still alive 3 days after delivery
from the repple depple) learned to save the empty clips and throw one
on the ground after firing a shot if they wanted to lure out the
opposition. That'd pretty quick make it a non-issue.

If they lived that long.
--
pyotr filipivich
We will drink no whiskey before its nine.
It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!