Stingray was spotting for me as I tried to hit the reduced silhouette 250 yards up the hill. I was getting closer with each shot but, wow - that rifle is heavy. I finished one clip (ping!) and just couldn't do anymore. It's a good thing we weren't depending on petite women with wimpy little noodle arms to win World War II or else we'd all be goosestepping and roasting schintzel over the crematoriums.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Get off my lawn.
Well, I finally did it. I shot a Garand. Not well, but I did shoot it.
Stingray was spotting for me as I tried to hit the reduced silhouette 250 yards up the hill. I was getting closer with each shot but, wow - that rifle is heavy. I finished one clip (ping!) and just couldn't do anymore. It's a good thing we weren't depending on petite women with wimpy little noodle arms to win World War II or else we'd all be goosestepping and roasting schintzel over the crematoriums.
Stingray was spotting for me as I tried to hit the reduced silhouette 250 yards up the hill. I was getting closer with each shot but, wow - that rifle is heavy. I finished one clip (ping!) and just couldn't do anymore. It's a good thing we weren't depending on petite women with wimpy little noodle arms to win World War II or else we'd all be goosestepping and roasting schintzel over the crematoriums.
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31 comments:
bang,bang,bang,bang,bang,bang,bang,bang ping. Oh god that's fun! :)
Welcome to The Fellowship Of The Ping!
No worries, Breda. They'd have made you do enough puchups and carry that 9 pounds around with you for weeks. Your arms would have been just fine defending our country after that.
And your form looks just fine, too.
(Plus I'm envious. I've never had the opportunity to shoot one. Yet.)
Maybe give an M1 carbine a try next time. It's a lot lighter and has less recoil. The drop on .30 carbine is only about 12" at 250 yards.
Terminal performance is not going to be great from the .30 carbine round at that distance but it will ring a silhouette.
I'd bet you could shoot one all day without getting tired.
Joe
I am so very jealous. I've been wanting to shoot one for a long time.
Very nice. Welcome again to the .30 community. Any fool can shoot an AR or an AK (and many do) but the creme of the crop will always be found behine a US Rifle .30, M1.
They would have just assigned you and all the other petite women with wimpy little noodle arms to mounted .50 BMG's. You'd have been fine.
Did you get "Garand Thumb?" Inquiring minds want to know!
Envious. Want to shoot a Garand soooo bad.
Each time a Garand is shot, the sky's open up and sun shines down on the shooter as God looks down in approval for the way things are supposed to be done.
Just sayin'!
With respect, women were shooting rifles as heavy as the Garand on the Eastern Front. Not all of them looked as though they could out-pull a mule.
I am confident that you could do it as well, if you had to.
The Mosin Nagants on the Eastern front were lighter than the M1 Garand. There is a reason why we moved away from the heavy battle rifles of the past, it was the weight of the weapon, weight of the ammo, and battlefield ranges.
"I finished one clip (ping!)"
The word is "magazine"! oh, wait...DOH! :P
And Breda was smiling too :-) EB is correct, women were shooting an killing many a German soldier with M-1s and equivilents on the Eastern Front. When your life is on the line, it's amazing how strong you become...
I gotta say it. That one fine a... bu... rifle
You need a sling. M1s are heavy, yes, but proper application of the leather sling and you'd be able to shoot all day... well, at least until your shoulder starts throbbing. Archive.org has an original training vid that shows the cool details: http://www.archive.org/details/Rifle_Marksmanship_with_M1_Rifle_Part_1
Breda,
If they had got hold of you to help defend the country they would have had the answer for the arms too, as many a recruit from those days can tell you.
You did your stretches, bends and stuff with the rifle in both hands. Straight out to the front and hold, up over your head and curled to the back and hold, staight up in the air and hold, twist to the right and hold, twist to the left and hold.
Also that little thing known as bayonet drill, not only did you hold the rifle, you learned to parry and thrust with it, fencing with the rifle and bayonet insted of a fencing foil.
That is where the USMC Pugil Sticks came from! The ones later used on "reality game shows" like the American Gladiators.
Buckshot
Garand? There's a Garand? All I saw was camouflage britches... I'll have to look again.
Now try a Spingfield 1903.
Nice things about the Garand:
1. Never having to worry that the other guy will get back up after you hit him.
2. Never having to worry that your rifle will break if you have to use it as a club.
3. Never having to worry that the enemy might be out of effective range.
4. Never having to wonder if you just fired the last round in your clip. ;-P
And the best thing about a Garand:
Developing faster reflexes to avoid chambering your thumb.
I'll second John. Prone, you can't get your forearm vertical to better support the weight - but used properly the sling supports it for you.
Glad you had fun!
My first thought when I looked at the picture was "Someone's been to an Appleseed."
:)
Not to an Appleseed, no sling snugged, but good form. Recoil is important, shooting glove, sling and fine form all help ride the rifle, but the lady in the picture doesn't need help, she is the poster girl for getting out from under the anti-gun culture out there - why isn't everyone having that much fun?
Rock on, Breda!
Like I said at Tam's, to make things worse, I've got a couple lead bars in the ass-end of that thing to help soak up the punch from the '06 round. Our Tiniest Sniper did pretty damn well no matter how you slice it.
And no, she didn't get Garand thumb, and yes, I've since ponied up the ducats for a nice chunk of leather to attach to it.
Earl,
"Not to an Appleseed, no sling snugged, but good form."
She's been to an Appleseed all right. There's no sling on the rifle.
A Garand without a sling is like mashed potatoes without gravy.
Realistically? After completing basic training, and marching a few hundred miles, you would likely have about as much control (and strength) and all too many of the new recruits.
Experience, persistence, and repetition build up muscles, and endurance, and skill. As Joey Heatherton sang it, "Its not what you do, its the way that you do it!" Duty is a harsh mistress; I have no doubt you would have carried through.
Ah....Ping & Garand Thumb, and Sand Hill in Fort Benning Georgia. Such fond memories. I still have that Garand, and hope when my son gets it he will pass it to his son.
It goes to the range at least once a month.
See Ya
I'm a fairly small guy (5'7", 145) and I love shooting my Garand, but six clips (48 rounds) is about all the fun I want to have at any one range session.
The most fun I think I've had with my M1 was when THR member Odd Job visited from England and we shot my M1 and 1911. He still keeps an empty clip on his desk in London!
I think he enjoyed the 'ping' more than shooting the rifle. Every time he heard it, he said "Lovely" in that delightful South African accent. :)
"Each time a Garand is shot, the sky's open up and sun shines down on the shooter as God" So that's what washes out the sight picture contrast! Breda, maybe you should try my 8-Ball shortie: http://www.a-human-right.com/garand.html
Breda,
Yes, it's an awesome weapon. Brigid also just had her first try at an M1 Garand, as well as seeing the movie with the best line ever: Get Off My Lawn! Oh, wait, the name of the movie is Gran Torino. :-)
Up until four and a half years ago, I lived an a very anti-gun state. Moved further south to a much more gun friendly state in 2005 and have been making up for lost time ever since.
The M1 Garand was the first rifle I bought, and it's still my favorite, by far. If you want one, get one soon. From what I can tell, the prices aren't going down.
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