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M14 Garand
- Thread starter BigRich
- Start date
I suspect you could adapt M14 mags to a Garand if you are willing to reb-barrel and chamber for .308 instead of 30-06. Otherwise you will be looking for BAR mags or the like.
I believe John Garand devised a detachable magazine system originally, but the Army (mistakenly, as it turned out) was too afraid of people losing them and wanted the clip-fed fixed magazine instead. As a result, soldiers would take every momentary lull in the action to pop out partially exhausted clips and put full ones in. I am told battlefields were strewn with unfired 30-06 rounds as a result. A detachable magazine could have been topped up from a stripper clip like the M14.
Take a look at an M14 or an M1A. You can begin to get some idea of what's ahead of you. You can easily defeat the existing magazine follower with a Dremel tool and cut-off wheel. Whittling out the trigger group's magazine floor plate will be more challenging. Working out the magazine well shims and fit and a magazine latch will be still more so.
You might try to see if any historic society has anything on the Garand design for detachable magazines? Starting from his drawings might make sense.
Good luck!
Nick
I believe John Garand devised a detachable magazine system originally, but the Army (mistakenly, as it turned out) was too afraid of people losing them and wanted the clip-fed fixed magazine instead. As a result, soldiers would take every momentary lull in the action to pop out partially exhausted clips and put full ones in. I am told battlefields were strewn with unfired 30-06 rounds as a result. A detachable magazine could have been topped up from a stripper clip like the M14.
Take a look at an M14 or an M1A. You can begin to get some idea of what's ahead of you. You can easily defeat the existing magazine follower with a Dremel tool and cut-off wheel. Whittling out the trigger group's magazine floor plate will be more challenging. Working out the magazine well shims and fit and a magazine latch will be still more so.
You might try to see if any historic society has anything on the Garand design for detachable magazines? Starting from his drawings might make sense.
Good luck!
Nick
I have seen several M1 rifles converted to use BAR or M14 magazines. The conversion requires a lot of work and good tools to work on that hard receiver. The BAR mag especially requires cutting away a lot of the inside of the M1 receiver and leaves it pretty weak, not a good idea. Worse, as a one-off, you will be working by cut and try and if you goof, you have a ruined receiver. If you go ahead, I wish you luck, but you might want to consider buying an M1A or an M14 clone receiver to start with. I think it might be cheaper in the long run, and will certainly be easier.
Jim
Jim
Hi, guys,
Sorry, I don't have any pics of those conversions as I never bought one or wanted one. Frankly, they were hacked up junk except for the ones made by Beretta and a very few other places. Many of the ones converted to 7.62 with M14 mags were cut-and-weld receivers made from scrapped receivers that had been cut in two and then bought by various companies and welded together.
The conversion is not easy, as I said, and I have seen probably a half dozen M1 receivers ruined by folks trying to do those conversions without really knowing what they were doing. It is not as easy as just putting on a new barrel and an M14 trigger housing.
BTW, Unclenick, the main army problem with a detachable magazine at that time (1930's) was the feeling that it would make the rifle too awkward and would require a big hole in the bottom of the rifle that would gather dirt. As it turned out, the M1 clip saved millions of cubic feet of cargo space that would have been required to ship the magazines; that may well have more than balanced the tendency you mention to fire off or eject rounds so a full clip could be loaded.
Jim
Sorry, I don't have any pics of those conversions as I never bought one or wanted one. Frankly, they were hacked up junk except for the ones made by Beretta and a very few other places. Many of the ones converted to 7.62 with M14 mags were cut-and-weld receivers made from scrapped receivers that had been cut in two and then bought by various companies and welded together.
The conversion is not easy, as I said, and I have seen probably a half dozen M1 receivers ruined by folks trying to do those conversions without really knowing what they were doing. It is not as easy as just putting on a new barrel and an M14 trigger housing.
BTW, Unclenick, the main army problem with a detachable magazine at that time (1930's) was the feeling that it would make the rifle too awkward and would require a big hole in the bottom of the rifle that would gather dirt. As it turned out, the M1 clip saved millions of cubic feet of cargo space that would have been required to ship the magazines; that may well have more than balanced the tendency you mention to fire off or eject rounds so a full clip could be loaded.
Jim