Word: garand
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rubbed his hands over this report was a tall young Bostonian named Melvin Maynard Johnson Jr. Captain (Marine Corps Reserve) Johnson wants the Army to buy a semi-automatic rifle which he has designed. The Army has tested the Johnson rifle, says the Garand is better, has not published enough comparative data to prove or disprove its statement. "Ideal for combat and for battlefield firing," Major General Walter C. Short called the Garand last week, reporting its performance in Army maneuvers. Expert Ness rates the Johnson far above the Garand...
Last March a House subcommittee threshed out the Garand argument with the Army's Chief of Ordnance Charles M. Wesson. Cagey, capable Major General Wesson stood up for the Garand ("the best semi-automatic rifle ever considered by the Army"). When Congressmen wanted to know who originally sponsored the Garand, General Wesson passed the buck to the Infantry. He also confirmed a rumor which reflects more grave ly on Army bureaucrats than on their new rifle. In the fourth year (1939) of Garand tests, the Army discovered a de fect so serious that a new barrel...
...Garands are supposed to be rapid-fire guns, banging out (from clips of eight cartridges) 26 aimed shots a minute, many more shots if unaimed. Mr. Ness wrote: "When we fired [the Garand] very slowly, loading each cartridge into the chamber by hand, the oil started to bubble out ... in tiny specks after 40 shots to 60 shots fired in 25 to 35 minutes." In brief: fired at speed, the Garand would get so hot no soldier could hold...
...Army account, the Garand is accurate at ranges up to 600 yards (far enough for ordinary combat). N. R. A.'s Garand was disgracefully inaccurate at 600 yards and less. On a 600-yard target, with the gun locked in a bench vise, its shots at the end of 60 rounds were hitting six feet below the mark. Reason: ". . .The barrel . . . warped or buckled as it heated from our slow-fired shooting (only 130 shots in three hours...
...395th shot, the N. R. A. Garand began to falter. During the final rounds it broke down, so hopelessly fouled by carbon that it could not be used until it was dismantled, cleaned, lubricated, reassembled-a complicated job for a soldier under fire...