Thought this might be of interest to some of our Garand enthusiasts....
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/10/01/horrifying-experiment-garand-thumb/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
tk
Ow. #)
Only happened once when I was 10 years old and almost know everything.
I did it once. No way I would do it again on purpose. Could barely watch that. ???
:shootself:
Simple test-
If you give yourself Garand thumb intentionally on one thumb, and then go ahead and do it again to the other thumb, you Garand may be ready for a new op rod spring.
Or maybe a new operator....
(Now how do I make that GIF my new avatar?)
To learn the right way of doing something, you really don't need to watch someone do it the wrong way. The same method my father was taught in 1958, and my uncles were taught in 1943, still works. Press straight down with the thumb with the other four fingers in a knife hand against the bolt handle.
As Forest Gump might say, "Stupid is as stupid does..."
Agreed JMDavis,
I was very nervous using my Garand last weekend on an AQT, but the "knife hand" back of palm thing really does work. Although I will say it was a bit sore at the end of the day.
I also managed to stick a 2 round clip in wrong (if it can be done wrong, I will do it), on a transition I slammed the clip in when it was not inside the grooves, clip was just FWD of the bolt and the grooves it should ride in. YES, you can still get it to go inside, but it will not load a cartridge, nor will one be able to remove it without at a minimum removing the trigger group.
Was able to get the clip out, by removing trigger group and tapping follower back up with a non marring hammer.
Rifle is still good, clip is damaged. Small price to pay for my novice stupidity.
R/
Chris
It's hard to get your thumb in the way loading a clip. If the bolt is not pulled back to were it's caught by the bolt catch on the op rod and is hung on the follower then you have a bear trap ready to spring. This has most when cleaning or doing inspection arms. The inspecting officer will stick his thumb in the follower area to reflect light off his thumb nail to look down the barrel if the bolt is hung up on the follower the bolt will slam shut and delay the inspection to say the least.
I almost did it when I got mine but Mudcat gave me basic information on loading it. Believe me I've been loading it right ever since!!
Chris,
Give up on the 2 round clips, you can use the crossed rounds methods (which I have used in all of my cmp competitions and learned from Hawkeye in 2008). Or you can drop in the clip, seat two rounds and then drop the bolt. We do this overiding the round in CMP and then charge when we are on the grouind. But learning to avoid the 2 round clip will help alot. The one exception to this is left handers, maybe.
I've got to learn the crossed cartridge method. The two round clips technically work- but I've always found them frustrating to use.