Spade Cooley
Moderator
An Army Vet told me that when he fought in the Phillipines during WW II, some of the men adapted the BAR Mag to the Springfield bolt action rifle. Dit this happen? I wonder if anyone tried to put one in a Garand, M-1?
BAR Mags. in 03 Springfields
- Thread starter Spade Cooley
- Start date
Jim Watson
New member
Late in WW II, Springfield and Remington were working on the next generation of service rifle, based on the M1 with selective fire and larger magazine capacity. The T20 and T22 series started out using BAR magazines but the later versions had their own design.
Yeah, some guy named "Garand" was the first. The BAR mag didn't work out in full-auto, though; too much friction of the first round against the bottom of the bolt.
There have been more-or-less successful attempts to adapt the M14 mag to a .308 Garand:
—but perhaps the most successful adaptation of the Garand to a box magazine (albeit a proprietary one) was the BM 59:
In closing, the M14 became workable when Garand finished it up at Mathewson Tool with the T31 mag of his own design.
Regards,
Walt
Weren't there 20 round mags adapted to the 1903 during WWI, or was that just the G98 Mauser?
I did read an article in American Rifleman about a special Air Service version of the 1903 made during WWI. It definitely had a 20 round mag and abbreviated handguards. I don't believe any made it to Europe though, although a bunch served in Panama. I suppose it's certainly possible some of those could have made it to the Philippines. Seems like a perfect weapon to send over to freedom fighters during the Japanese occupation.
It's also possible some enterprising and talented soul cobbled something up. I've read quite a few interesting stories of small arms (and vehicles, ships and aircraft) being adapted in the field during WWII. That was a long war in far off places with many men who had a strong "can do" attitude and a lot of leeway in how they did it.