Category Archives: John C. Garand

Make it a Dirt Dance Floor Again: York Riflemen’s Spring Garand and Service Rifle Match 

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York’s spring double-header is one of my favorite matches of the year. It starts with a Garand match, followed by a NRA 50 round match. It’s a reduced 200 yard match with pits.

The Garand match was fun, I shot uncharacteristically fast in slow prone but still managed a decent score. I kept raising my zero in slow prone and then, surprise, I blew my rapid prone group out the top.
 I pulled it back in off-hand and posted an 89  which I was very happy with.

We shot a 500 agg right after the Garand Match. Still happy with myself for shooting well off-hand with the Garand I did decent with my A4 off-hand too. A few 8s in off-hand but I posted a pair of 98s in rapids and didn’t shoot a 9 in slow prone until round 13!

I manage to come in second in the 500 agg with a 484 just a point short of High Master!

CMP Filipino Garands: “Rough Shape” 

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During the 2016 Small Arms Firing School at Camp Butner, a representative from CMP shared with the class that they had secured 86000 Garands from the Philippines, many in “rough shape” within the next year or so. He also went on to say they would run out of Garands in the next year or so likely before they had more.

Fast forward a year or so, CMP Garands are not “gone” but they have slowed to a trickle. Gone are the days of piles of Garands at the Eastern and Western games, as in the header.

Over the summer, things started to look grim for the Filipino Garands when, the Obama administration ordered the DoD to stop the transfer of these Garands.

Fast forward another 6 months, with the Obama admin gone, the path seems to be clear for CMP to receive these Garands. Currently they are still in the Philippines per CMP, who will cover shipping, Which means it could be some time until they are in the sales pipeline.

So what does this mean.

  1. Yes, if things go well it looks like there will be at least some new Garands coming to CMP. Don’t expect it to be 86000 Garands still packed in cosmo. There is a good chance most of them are in poor condition.
  2.  No there are still not going to be $220 Korean Garands. Yes they were banned via executive order by Obama and that could at least legally be reversed by the Trump Admin. Even if that were to happen they will not be less than $1000 and they will not be going to CMP.
  3. Even with no Garands that doesn’t mean doom for the CMP. CMP’s mission is not to sell Garands at a discounted price so everyone can have a subsidized Garand. Sales are a fundraiser which supports their mission of promoting marksmanship.

 

 

 

Armistice Day Match at KFGA

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It’s a tradition at my club to shoot WWI rifles at the November CMP match. 

I brought along my Rock Island 1903 and my Old Eddystone 1917. 

I shot the 1917 first. The 17 and I haven’t always gotten along. However I was able to focus on that tiny front sight due to some suprisingly good light. Slow prone went well. In both rapid and off hand I was low. I either moved the sight or changed my cheek weld but it happens. I’m happy I kept them in a group off hand. That had been an issue for me at Perry this summer.

I rarely shoot my Rock Island 1903. Not that there is anything wrong with it, in fact it’s nice to shoot as it has USMC sights and a nice smooth action. 

Anyway, excuses aside, I did okay with that old rifle. I had some trouble remembering how the windage worked and bounced back and fourth across the target in slow prone. Four MOA per 1/4 turn is a little delicate.
I haven’t been happy with my offhand with the wood guns all season, but I managed to post one of my better off hand scores with this rifle. It turns out trigger control is important!

2016 D-Day Match at CMP Talladgea Marksmanship Park 

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We had so much fun at the inaugural D-Day match at  Talladega last year we flew back down. This time for both the Garand match and the EIC.

It really is a great range to shoot at. This time around there was less fanfare as the range had been open for a year. The Friday before we were about to check our zeroes and get a little practice on Range 1.

Saturday was the Garand match, I did really well in prone. However that’s where it stopped, as I seem to have forgotten how  to offhand with the Garand.

My  buddy remembered how to do all three stages right and brought himself home a gold medal! Most impressively he shot a 98 in rapid prone after his clip latch gave out and ejected his eight round clip about five rounds too soon.

On the upside I didn’t leave empty-handed as my name was picked to win a nice DuPage stock. I’m going use this for a match grade garand with a heavy barrel.


Sunday was EIC. Which was what we came down to Alabama to shoot.

I was a little soggy office and dropped more points than normal in rapid. However I was able to post one of my better 600 yards scores and beat my personal EIC best by one point. While that was not good enough for points I’m happy with my score, I’m making progress in learning some things.

CMP put on a great event. A games match and an EIC the same weekend really make the trip worthwhile and without pit duty an entire EIC match takes less than an hour. Which leaves lots of time for relaxing afterwards!

Electronic Targets: reliable but not infallible.


There was some drama last year around the KTS targets. It was much less of an issue this year. While there were several challenges, only in one case that I am aware of did the shooter win.

The new rules for electronic targets seem a bit harsh to me. If a shooter challenges and loses they will lose 3 points as opposed to the typical cash fee. I am in the “pro electronic target” camp but let’s be honest they are not infallible and risking 3 points is an awful hard choice to make with no information other then your shot calls.

Personally I’d like to see CMP back off on this one and apply the same challenge rules that have applied to paper targets for years to electronic targets.
PS If anyone from CMP reads this my wife would like me to ask if maybe next year you could sell hotdogs and snacks durring the day 🙂