Garand Not Feeding

[lrs]

I shot my Garand over the weekend with my step father. 
He is a former Command Sargeant Major, pretty distinguished military career.
At one time he was a bayonet instructor, with the M1 Garand. 
He can still give a pretty convincing lecture that will get your attention.

OK, we were experiencing a feeding problem.
It would eject fine, but it fed properly maybe 1 in 5 shots.
I purchased the ammo a year ago, came in a box of #192 rounds, all loaded in garand clips.  I think it was Greek.
I've had this rifle 20 years and it's never done this before.
Stepdad closely examined the clips and thought the fault might be with the clips.  The sides that angle in seemed to angle in more steeply than anything he remembered.  I was inclined to agree, but I don't have anything here at the house to compare it to.

In addition, the spring that closes the action seems to have weakened just a tad.  I think it is called a recoil operating spring. 
Could that have had anything to do with the ejection problems ?

[Kmrere42]

Hi,

Sometimes the old springs just won't do anymore.  Contact Wolf gun springs and order a new one. 

Yes, if the action is not closing properly because of a weak spring then feeding will be off.  Ejection also might be affected but not extraction.


BTW. If you can find them,  Rem Bronze point bullets in the 150gr wt work beautifully for hunting with the Garand and do not get buggered up in the feeding cycle.



Paul

[jpuke]

I've shot hundreds of rounds of the Greek HXP ammo and never had a problem with feeding.  My guesses would be:
1. The op rod spring might be weak like you mentioned and isn't kicking the next round up fast enough to get in the bolt's way and be fed.
2. The gas cylinder might be out of spec and is only kicking the op rod back far enough to eject the spent case but not far enough to catch the next fresh cartridge.  That HXP ammo has plenty of punch to it so it would have to be bleeding a lot of gas to not cycle the action. 

I've never had a problem with the Greek clips and that's where I picked up the vast majority of the ones I shoot with.

I'd look at the spring first.  I like everything I've gotten from www.m1garand.com - they're an outfit somewhere on Long Island I think and they've sent me nothing but the best parts.  I also got my rifle from them, they're a great resource. 

[AtlLaw]

I've shot hundreds of rounds of the Greek HXP ammo and never had a problem with feeding.

+1 !!  That Greek ammo is GREAT stuff!  I seriously doubt it or the clips are the problem.

My guesses would be:
1. The op rod spring might be weak like you mentioned and isn't kicking the next round up fast enough to get in the bolt's way and be fed.

Now I believe that, from the dawn of time until the manufacture of Garand look-a-like receivers began, you know, National Ordinance, Century, crap like that, 99.999% of Garand action cycling malfunctions, not including the 7th round stopages, were caused by worn op rod springs.   

[mcwoodduck]

Could be the spring.
But I am goning to guess the Greek ammo. 
I had some a while back and I think I ended up taking it out of the clips cleaning each round there was a wax or some thing on the rounds  that was holding them to the clips or each other and reloading the rounds in the clips.
If you think it is the spring a box of new 30-06 will tell you. 

[lrs]

I think I'll give it another try this weekend with some different ammo.  The last time I took it out, there were no problems.
However, it is the original spring, as far as I know.
I checked the serial #, the gun was mfg by Springfield in Jan 1943.  I suppose a spring COULD wear out after 67 years.

[lrs]

Let me add this about the rifle.
When I got it, in 1992, it was beat all to hell.  It was painted black of all things, but a lot of the black was wearing out enough so that I could see the stock itself was made out of a breath-taking piece of walnut.  I mean burl, curly figure, etc.  So I re-finished it, and had it re-parkerized.  I glass-bedded the stock as well.  That was a little tricky, but I did it.  On the advice of a friend, I took a .308 bullet with me to the gun show.  Many garands had shot out barrels.  If the .308 bullet could be inserted more than about halfway, the barrel was shot out.  This rifle had a good barrel.
My step father told me the black color was used by paratroopers in WWll, and could account for it's black color when I bought it.  It obviously had seen some rough use.
If I had it to do over, I would have left it the way it was.
Still, it is one good looking Garand.
If this gun could talk I'm sure it would have many stories it could tell.