M-1 Garand, 7th round stoppage

General Firearms Other Semi-Automatic Rifles
1

Hello to all here.

I have a 1944 Garand, just over 2 mil ser number. Post war operating rod. I get 7th round stoppage occasionally, and load all my own rounds to M-1 specs based on a few books that list those specs. I have only fired 4 clips of period mil surp ammo, and most clips I have were gunstore bought. Any thoughts on this? I try to keep all the case bases flat in the clip but that does not always want to happen, and some mil surp ammo hass a few that are not flat to the clip base. New spring kit installed. The base of round 7 gets thrown up too far and wedges at the case bottleneck in the chamber against the bolt.

Appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

2

There is a repair to correct this and I forget what it is. There are some very knowledgeable folks over at http://m14tfl.com/upload/ who will be able to help you. Also http://www.jouster.com/forums/

A temporary fix is to correctly load the rounds in the clip- that is so that the top round is always to one side. I don’t recall if the top round in an 8 round clip is supposed to be to the left or right. This is done so the second to last round is to a certain side to reduce occurrences of the 7th round jam

3

1st round always goes on the side of the clip with the node or bump out. Bottom right. I will check over there now. Thanks.

4

Very early receivers were overmilled and needed to be depot repaired by welding, filing, and refinishing to repair this but by 1944 the receiver issue had been solved… The other thing that will cause this is if the ejector is proud of the bolt and it pushed the 7th round out of the clip to early causung it missfead…

B

5

Another resource http://forums.thecmp.org/

Buck is right. It’s very rare for a Garand receiver to not have been modified and the issue was only with very early rifles

6

From this site http://www.highspeedlane.net/m1garand/tm91275/page_14.htm

c. Worn Or Improperly Formed Follower. A worn or improperly formed follower may cock or bind in its slideways in the receiver and thus prevent it from forcing the cartridge upward to its proper position in front of the bolt. remove the follower and slide assembly and check angle of the follower as outlined in paragraph 21a. Replace a badly worn follower.

Although this isn’t specific to the 7th round problem

7

I am going to check the ejector and the follower tonight, but all internal parts are in great shape. Post war '46 or so retro build but no later service. Very nice rifle. Thanks again.

8

Where did you get the spring kit and who made it?

9

all the parts I have replaced on my M1 came from here

http://fulton-armory.com/m1garandparts.aspx

10

+1 on that.

I replaced all the springs in mine and she’s been a happy baby ever since :slight_smile:

11

Orion 7. Get all my Garand and Carbine parts from them.

m1garandrifle.com

Not sure the maker. New spring was a bit longer. Old spring was pretty polished from use.

Bolt closes much stronger now, loads round one easier, but still had stoppage twice yesterday.

12

Orion 7 makes good springs however if you have your old spring measure it, if it is between 19" and 20.25" put it back in your rifle and see if it still has the stoppages.

When you shoot what direction is your brass ejecting?

Here is a good reference for evaluating your used op rod spring for serviceability

http://www.nicolausassociates.com/PDF/M1GarandOpRodSpringLength.pdf.

13

I will measure spring tonight.

All rounds eject to about 1:00 and anywhere from 2-8 feet in front of me. Occasionally one will fly right or slightly back, but rare.

14

How do I tell the maker of the enbloc clip based on maker marks? Not sure if all mine are US GI or if some are import.