Loading The Garand Rifle And M1 Thumb

The M1 is a fine battle rifle. We can debate about its' alleged deficiencies, about pings, Enblocs, etc., characteristics that actually exist. An alleged deficiency that does not exist is getting one's thumb crushed while loading a full, 8 round clip into the magazine. The M1 has gotten a bad rap (pun intended) when it comes to loading.

It is physically impossible to crush one's thumb when loading a full, 8 round clip into the magazine of an M1 Rifle. Prove it to yourself. Field strip your rifle and remove the op rod spring. Next, open the bolt. Push an 8 round clip containing 8 dummy rounds into the magazine as far as you can. Push the op rod forward. Notice that the bolt cannot override the top round no matter how hard you try. Now look at the follower arm. It is stopped from further downward travel by the bottom of the notch in the bullet guide. The follower and the follower arm can travel no lower. That's one reason why you can't insert a full clip and chamber a 9th round (or your thumb). It is physically impossible.

Ok, let's try to defeat this design. Assemble the rifle minus the bullet guide so as to allow maximum follower arm travel. Reassemble your rifle. Notice that you still cannot override the top round when you insert a loaded clip. The follower is bottomed out on the trigger housing floorplate. Ok, let's remove the trigger housing. Maybe we can close the bolt over the loaded clip and then reassemble the trigger housing. Nope, doesn't work, unable to assemble the housing, not even close. It's impossible to latch the trigger guard. There's a big gap between the housing and the bedding of the stock.

M1 thumb is something that can only happen when carelessly handling an Empty rifle.

Now that you see that your thumb is totally safe during loading, go to the range and push that clip home without a care in the world. Your thumb is in no danger. That bolt will slam forward, pushing the first round into the chamber and your thumb up and out of the way. ( two objects cannot occupy the same space, or chamber, at the same time )

Hopefully, this information will relieve some of the apprehension many M1 owners experience when loading their rifles.

I had always heard that as long as you kept pressure on the top of the clip, the bolt could not go forward, so when you do release it, do so by vigorously removing your thumb/hand and getting back into firing position, quickly. As a left handed M1 user, I was also told it was even harder to chamber your thumb, due to angles and such. I'll try the experiment - sounds mechanically interesting. CC

I wrote up a quick article on M1 thumb [M1 Thumb]. I agree with the OP that it's almost impossible to pinch your thumb when loading a full clip.

Eric

A couple of similar threads on the same subject .. :)

Garand thumb

Enbloc thumb


Regards,
Doug

What you say is true , and the classic M1 thumb is from a partial filled clip or an empty rifle. However , I will still hold the op rod under my control because 1) I sometimes close the bolt on an empty chamber and lower the hammer , 2) I carry the truck gun with 7 rounds and hammer down on an empty chamber and , 3 ) most importantly , even though you can't chamber your thumb , the bolt can give your thumb a nasty whack as it goes by or even snag a thumbnail. The op-rod handle can also give your palm a whack while going on it's merry way , too.
Chris

Never got the thumb but I did do my index finger. Cleaning the rifle I had a bit of rag and was pushing it around with my finger while cleaning some grime off the follower, When ........wham....My finger throbbed like a toothache all night. Some days later the whole nail came off..