peashooter85:The T3 M1 Garand in .276 PedersenAfter the failure of his early semi automatic blowback

peashooter85:The T3 M1 Garand in .276 PedersenAfter the failure of his early semi automatic blowback designs in the early 1920’s, John Garand went back to the drawing board.  This time he created a gas operated design that would become the modern M1 Garand.  Chambered in .30 Springfield (.30-06) it was a semi-automatic rifle fed from an 8 round en bloc clip.  It was accurate, it was powerful, and unlike most semi-automatic designs before it,it was reliable!John Garand submitted his T1 M1 in 1926.  After testing alongside various different designs from around the world, the Ordnance Committeee was very impressed with the design.But the story of the M1 would not end there.  The M1’s biggest competitor was the Pederson Rifle created by John Pederson.  The Committee loved the rifles small caliber high velocity .276 Pederson cartridge.  It was all the rage and Ordnance planners loved the idea of soldiers being able to carry more ammunition.  The .276 Pederson became a fad amoung military and civilian shooters, which gave Pederson a great advantage.  The Ordnance Committee requested that Garand come up with a new rifle that used the .276 Pederson.The T3 M1 was the same basic M1 design except it was chambered for the new .276 Pederson.  Indeed the cartridge did have its advantages as the T3 M1 had a ten round magazine rather than the T1’s .30 caliber eight round magazine.  John Garand was able to create only one prototype in 1929 just in time for the second round of tests.  While at first the Pederson Rifle was favored to win, the design was rejected on the grounds that it needed special greased cartridges to enable proper feeding.  The Ordnance Committee believed that the grease could attract dirt and compromise its functioning.  The M1 moved on the the next round of testing.Then in 1932 Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur decided that the military would not adopt the .276 Pederson cartridge.  The military already had large stocks of .30-06 ammunition on hand, and many of the more conservative military leaders did not want to abandon the caliber which had been used since 1906.  The .276 fad ended swiftly.  In 1933 the .30cal M1 Garand was accepted for the final phase of testing.  Ovr the next three years the design was modified to correct various function problems, and to make it more practical for real world use.  Finally in 1936, the US .30cal M1 Garand was adopted as the standard service rifle of the military. -- source link

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