Captains1911, for decades, the Garand was shot most accurate when the shooter's cheek was well hard down on the stock. Best place was right behind the trigger hand's thumb as it wrapped over the pistol grip.
What this did was keep the shooter's head in the same place as the rifle recoiled. Otherwise, the thumb would bounce off the shooter's cheek and he'd end up with a bruise and sore spot.
This was standard procedures if sitting rapid fire as well as prone slow and rapid fire for competition. If one shot a "rattle-battle" match wherein you started in prone on the 600 yard line and would shoot 24 rounds from your M1 in 50 seconds. Good shots would put all of them inside about 12 to15 inches at that range. Keeping your cheek hard on the stock behind your thumb was critical to do this.
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