GCA Article On M1 Clip

[Mark in Rochester]

Respected military historians such as Chris McNab, who pens the “Weapons Check” column for Military History Quarterly, embrace the story. “The sound of the clip ejecting could be a useful auditory alert for an enemy that his opponent’s gun was empty,” McNab wrote in A History of the World in 100 Weapons.

So does William Atwater, former director of the U.S. Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center and a Marine combat veteran. During a Military Channel documentary detailing the characteristics of the M-1, Atwater said American soldiers even carried empty clips to throw on the ground in an effort to lure their German and Japanese enemies out into the open.

And if family history means anything, my father and an uncle – one a veteran of the U.S. Army during World War II, the other a veteran of the Marine Corps during the same war and the Korean War – both told me the same stories.

The M-1 was an amazing rifle, they said, but that ping could get you in trouble

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[ROCK]

The M-1 was an amazing rifle, they said, but that ping could get you in trouble

Possibly a problem in a couple of situations during close contact. Visuals could be a problem too. The locked back slide of a 1911 could be a visual indication of an empty weapon if seen by the enemy, but I've never heard any mention of that. The raised toggle bolt of the Pederson rifle would have been very obvious to an opponent if that rifle had been adopted.