I’m sorry fellas but 25 rifles and carbines were requested by and made for the Cavalry and Infantry in 1926. In 1928 a “Board of Officers to Recommend a Specific Caliber for the Future Development of the Semiautomatic Shoulder Rifle” met again and again recommended the .276 caliber. At this time the .30 caliber Garand was still experimental and ‘primer actuated’.
“On February 21, 1929, the Ordnance Department was ordered to discontinue development of a caliber .30 Garand because the .276 caliber had been approved.”
The Pederson and the Garand were running neck and neck.
In late 1929 resumption of the .30 caliber Garand was requested and a pilot model was authorized. Things were looking up for the Pederson and because it looked as if it would be adopted, Pederson went to England in 1930 to help tool up Vickers, Limited for his rifle.
By 1931 20 more .276 Garand rifles had been made and sent to the Infantry and Cavalry to be familiarize the troops with a field test. By April 1931 18 .276 Garands had been sent to Fort Benning as well.
The Board again recommended the .276 Garand over the .30 caliber after the field tests by the Infantry and the Cavalry.
In 1932 the .276 Garand, the .30 Garand and the .276 Pederson were again tested side-by-side. The Board recommended that the .276 caliber be the cartridge for the service rifle and that 125 Garands be manufactured in this caliber.
In February 1932 John B Shuman (Adjutant General) put in writing that the cartridge would be .30 caliber. Consequently, 80 semi-production .30 caliber Garands were produced. They were designated the T1E2 but by August the designation was changed to “U.S. Semiautomatic Rifle, Caliber .30, M1”.
Garand, himself, had had to change the semiautomatic system from ‘primer actuated’ to gas actuated due to the decision to crimp in the primers.
It looks as if no more than 70 or 75 .276 caliber Garands were made but you never know for sure. There might have been some additional .276 caliber Garands made up by special request.
I wonder how much the .276 caliber Garands are worth. Pederson, for all his influence didn’t get the contract but did succeed with his ‘Device’.
One further note: There is some question about the Garand being able to handle M1 ammunition. On April 2, 1940, the Chief of Infantry wrote to the Chief of Ordnance emphatically and at length denying that the change in ammunition had any relation to its use in the Garand rifle. The Garand was developed with the M1 ammunition but had no trouble at all with the M2 ammunition... according to the Chief of Staff.