30-06 question

[EC1]

Were there any US military rifles (Garands not BARs) made with detachable magazines in 30-06 caliber, or were they all .308?

 

[2000GM]

BAR is all I can think of. Although if I remember correctly the Garand was originally designed to have a detatchable magazine, but the Military told Mr. G they didn't want it because of "liability" (just another item for soldiers to have to keep track of and take care of, not to mention teaching them to use)

Some of the later bolt-action sniper rifles (Model 70, Remington 700)maybe? Not sure if they had detatchable box mags or loaded from the top.

 

[1903Collector]

There was a version of the 1903 rifle called the air service rifle that had a detatchable box magazine but that did not go far. I was also thinking of the Johnson rifle but not sure if the caliber was 30.06.

 

[jacobtowne]

The Johnson is .30-'06, but the mag. is non-removable rotary. The rifle was used mainly by Marine Raider and paratroop units in the Pacific early in the war.

JT

 

[KMaurer]

There had been some work starting before WWII to modify the M1 Garand to accept a detachable box magazine in place of the en block clips, and to allow the possibility of select fire. Nothing really happened until after the war, when John Garand came up with the T20, which adapted his original design to accept the detachable magazines from the BAR. As development work continued, Earle Harvey and others at Springfield Armory came up with a different design, the T25, using a shortened version of the .30-06, which ended up becoming the .308/7.62x51. More work resulted in the T44, which eventually became the M14. So the answer to the question is that there was indeed a US military rifle in .30-06 with a detachable magazine (T20), but it was never issued.

Ken

 

[EC1]

Thanks for your replies. The information was appreciated.

 

[calsdad]

There had been some work starting before WWII to modify the M1 Garand to accept a detachable box magazine in place of the en block clips, and to allow the possibility of select fire. Nothing really happened until after the war, when John Garand came up with the T20, which adapted his original design to accept the detachable magazines from the BAR. As development work continued, Earle Harvey and others at Springfield Armory came up with a different design, the T25, using a shortened version of the .30-06, which ended up becoming the .308/7.62x51. More work resulted in the T44, which eventually became the M14. So the answer to the question is that there was indeed a US military rifle in .30-06 with a detachable magazine (T20), but it was never issued.

Ken

Beretta made a version of the Garand after the war called a BM59. It came with a detachable magazine - but it was chambered in 7.62x51.

There are people out there who have converted Garands to use the BAR box magazine - the CMP forums make occasional mention of this and I have seen rifles with this conversion for sale here and there.