John C. Garand's Rare Sniper Rifle: the M1D

While I was growing up, my love affair with the M1 Garand formed while watching war movies and the TV show “Combat!” It was a special day when I received my surplus Garand via registered mail from the Office of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship—forerunner to the Civilian Marksmanship Program—during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

It led me to a thirst for the sniper version. Even though ODCM and CMP continued their sales of rebuilt and surplus M1 Garands, original M1 sniper models remained very rare and beyond my means. However, the path to a sniper version became easier once almost every part had been faithfully reproduced.

Had the M1 Garand been designed for a detachable box magazine, conversion to a sniper model would have been measurably simplified. That the base rifle and its eight-shot top-loading clip worked so well is a testament to John C. Garand and Springfield Armory.

The M1 Garand was definitely the best rifle appearing at the worst of times, giving our U.S. infantry unprecedented firepower against opponents still using arms designed in the 19th century. More than 5.5 million were made over its relatively brief production life from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, although the sniper versions served in some National Guard units well into the 1990s. But no thought of adding a telescopic sight to the M1 was ever considered at the beginning.

History

Army high command had developed an oddly intense loathing for sniping between World Wars I and II—to the degree that no plans were made for a sniper rifle. All despite our historical record of sharpshooting going back to the American Revolution, when riflemen had a telling effect against British smoothbores, and the equally telling effect of telescopic sighted rifles on both sides of our Civil War. The Army took an M1903 sniper rifle into World War I, and the Marines a slightly different version. All sides employed snipers, and their value should have been written in stone.

The Army scrapped its sniper rifles in 1925, but the Marines kept theirs. Of course, even had someone been interested in reviving the sniper program, there was little money, thanks to the Great Depression. So the M1 Garand infantry rifle was the priority.

World War II quickly showed the need for snipers, and our Army was forced to make do on the fly. The quickest path was topping the venerable M1903 rifles with off-the-shelf commercial scopes and mounts. Fitting a scope to the M1 Garand took some doing, and it never delivered the desired results.

Force-fitting a telescopic sight on the M1 was really a fool’s errand, but that’s what the military leadership wanted, so Springfield Armory took on this unenviable task. After six false starts, two systems proved satisfactory. Springfield Armory’s first choice—the simpler M1D, designed by John Garand himself—was eschewed in favor of the M1C, using mounts by Griffin & Howe. The harder-to-build M1C would serve from late World War II through Korea while the M1D cooled its heels until Vietnam, by which time it was obsolete.

Odd Mounting

The biggest problem with the M1 is the necessity of mounting the scope an inch or so to the left of the bore line, to accommodate the top-loading clip. The rifle can be zeroed at only one distance. At close ranges, the bullet impacts a little to the right. Beyond the zero point, the bullet impacts to the left—increasingly so as the range increases. The rifle also required a cheekpiece so the shooter’s eye was in the right place.

The inaccuracy of standard ball ammo exacerbated the point-of-impact disparity. Army testing proved the M2 ball was not sufficiently accurate beyond 800 yards, and in fact accuracy was barely adequate at half that distance.

The biggest benefit of John Garand’s M1D design was that, unlike the M1C, the rifle could be chosen for accuracy from the start, and the M1D mechanism was simple enough that it could be built or repaired by any armorer with access to a lathe. He could pull and lathe-turn the barrel until the scope collar could be fitted, leveled and staked in place. The stake pin was set in place, and the base peened over to retain it. The scope ring’s large thumb screw locked the mount to the rifle. The handguard was shortened, and the conversion complete.

After World War II, Springfield Armory quietly declared the simpler M1D the future sniper rifle, using the new 7/8-inch M84 2.2X scope, which had been designed and tested but never put into production. However, when the Korean War began, there was no time to produce the M1D, so the M1C with its 2.5X Lyman Alaskan along with the M1903A4 sniper rifles were cleaned up and sent to war.

Recreating a Legend

As much as I’d love to have an original M1D Garand sniper, how much shooting do I want to do with a rifle costing in the high four figures? I found a better path when Sarco offered the M84 scope, rings and barrel mount on sale for less than the scope alone.

The CMP’s custom shop manager told me a Criterion M1D barrel was on hand, and the price installed was $1,450 on an original Expert Grade M1 receiver. Everything else—cheek rest, flash hider, sling, scope and rings—came from Sarco for $600 more.

My first step was to clean, lube and zero the iron sights while awaiting the rest of the parts. The M1 has a non-adjustable two-stage trigger. Take-up on the CMP M1D’s first pull measured 2.5 pounds, and it broke cleanly at 5.25 pounds, which is delightful for a military trigger. The first 48 rounds ran with zero malfunctions, with eight-shot groups in the four-inch range but five-shot groups in the 2.5- to three-inch range. It was a fortuitous start.

All the pieces fit together in a way that would make Springfield Armory and CMP proud. I’m rarely this lucky. The only bit of fussing was with the rings and base. The scope ring has a large thumb wheel to tighten it onto the rifle. Next to the wheel is a small spring-loaded post that engages with detents behind the wheel to lock it in place. But this post extended out the back of the base and prevented the scope from tightening properly. Careful use of a Dremel shortened the post until the base locked tightly against the block.

Working Out The Kinks

The leather cheek rest was very stiff and dry and needed several applications of Fiebing’s Aussie Leather Conditioner to soften it. Oddly, the proper No. 7 brass wood screws to attach it to the stock are no longer available, and only No. 6 and 8 screws can be had. I chose 3/4-inch No. 8s.

It seems everyone has their own ideas about fitting and lacing the cheekpiece, and even the ordnance manual changed the process over the years. The cheek rest has three felt pads underneath to adjust the fit to the individual’s face, and the fit is perfect for me as is. The scope’s sight picture is a little too far forward for bench work but perfect when prone.

The M2 flash hider was too tight. Originally, some M2s were too loose and negatively influenced accuracy, so the fact that mine was too tight was a good start. Thinking perhaps it was the thickness of the Parkerizing, I ran a cotton swab with oil around the barrel and the inside of the M2 and rotated it gently until it fit snugly, and the latch tightened securely over the bayonet lug. Weighing 7.4 ounces, the M2 lowered point of impact a good inch at 100 yards.

I shot two match loads and one ball load through the rifle: Black Hills 168-grain MatchKing, Hornady 168-grain ELD Match and Prvi Partisan M2 150-grain ball. The best eight-shot groups with match ammo always had five or six close ones in the two-inch range and an overall group in the 3.5-inch range. The ball ammo delivered five-inch groups, with four or five inside three inches.

Let It Cool

The most important thing I learned was to let the gun cool thoroughly between groups. Eight shots heats everything up, and giving it 20 minutes to cool paid dividends, not only in accuracy but with groups landing in the same place.

Performance of the M84 repro riflescope is not going to warm anyone’s heart by today’s standards. Magnification is a paltry 2.2X for a 27-foot field of view at 100 yards. The windage and elevation knobs have coarse one m.o.a. click values, and the square post reticle subtends a beefy three m.o.a. at 100 yards.

One nice touch, though, is that the elevation drum has graduated hash marks for the drop of the M2 ammunition, and there is enough adjustment to compensate for base and ring alignment issues. The turrets can be set to zero after sighting in, but this requires special tools. A sliding sun shade at the front is complemented by a rubber eye shade at the rear.

The scope’s sliding sun shade flew off while I was firing the first clip. Sarco sent a new, heavier spring. It’s better, but it still comes loose after a couple of clips. Replacement sun shades are offered for originals, so this might not be an unusual occurrence. Also, the ring system interferes with getting the big thumb wheel tight enough, and retightening was a constant chore.

Barrel Considerations

One interesting aside on the M84 riflescope. The issue scope came without covers. The sniper was supposed to remove the scope and carry it in the M65 web case for protection from the weather.

The biggest drawback to the Garand is that it must be cleaned from the muzzle. Because M1 ammo was loaded with corrosive primers until after the Korean War, the rifles required frequent and full disassembly for cleaning. Because of this, many M1s show erosion at the muzzle as well as the throat. Savvy buyers use a throat and muzzle gauge, available from outfits such as Brownells, to measure erosion at those two points.

If you’re interested in an M1D or M1D project gun, barrels are key. There were never many M1C or M1D rifles originally made, and many went to our allies around the world. Springfield Armory made somewhere around 12,000 spare M1D barrels, and many of those went to Israel with the rifles, and the barrels subsequently were sold as surplus.

Those barrels will have the correct codes and dates, and if the conversion is done well, it will be hard to discern an original from a home-built rifle. The qualities that made the M1D so easy to build and repair also make it easy to replicate. To be fair, many of these were put together because original sniper rifles weren’t available, but parts were. Today, there are excellent reproductions of the M1C and M1D systems, and the values between an original, an obvious repro like mine and one “faked” by unscrupulous fellows are vast.

Calling All Collectors

While the Garand and its .30-06 were replaced by the M14 and its 7.62x51 in the late 1950s, the M1D was one of the few available choices for a sniper rifle at the start of the Vietnam War. That makes it an interesting and unique choice for the collector or surplus aficionado.

One last bit of good news. The CMP is having brand new Garand receivers forged and machined here in the U.S.A. to continue John C. Garand’s legacy. The first rifles with these new receivers should be available soon.

---