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Old September 4, 2007, 06:42 PM   #12
Chris_B
Senior Member
 
Join Date: February 9, 2007
Posts: 3,101


Jim is on the money here

MachII- here is the en bloc clip for the M1 .30 Garand rifle. They quite literally "clip" the rounds together:



The follower is inside the rifle, in the internal magazine. When the rifle was designed, it was considered that an external magazine would introduce dirt and foreign matter into the rifle, although if you look closely at an M1 Garand and an M14, you will see that it is perhaps possible that John Garand anticipated a time in the near future in which external magazines were the norm

Looking into the M1 internal magazine, showing the follower to good advantage:



Here is how the rifle is loaded:



As you can see, this was not a design that was perfect, and while the Garand was the first semi-auto rifle to have widespread adoption by a major armed force (1936, US Army), the en bloc clip was abandoned in favor of external magazines, in for example the M1 .30 Carbine, which also saw service in WWII along with the Garand

All in all though, I find the Garand a wonderfully clever and robust rifle; it's also a pleasure to shoot. I think that the basic idea of the rolling bolt in the M1 was adopted by Kalashnikov, if that is an indication of John Garand's legacy in the world of firearms

I hope the above pics clear up the confusion with clips and magazines in an M1
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