Good morning,
I originally posted this on Shooters' a couple of days before it's demise. A friend was shooting his Garand with surplus Kynoch ammo and had the case head seperate at the extractor groove. Kinda like a cork blowing out of a wine bottle. Big surprise on his part. The gasses split the stock from stem to stern. Click on the link for the story and images. http://users.ev1.net/~printolive/garand.htm
Good luck and God Bless,
Randall in Houston

From looking at the photos one would think the rifle fired out of battery? Why else would the case be flared out as it is? This is a strange happenstance and I would hope you would keep us abreast of any new findings. Seldom see anything happen with an M1.
One further question - I may have missed this - was the round that failed a reload and if so, how many times had it been loaded?

That will leave a mark!

Wonder if this sort of thing has taken apart any vintage Springfields? I've heard old lots of brass were subject to "season cracks", is this type of thing evidence of that?

By Springfields I presume that you mean the 1903 series rifles, not the M1, which were largely produced at the Springfield Armory as well. The exact thing happened to a friend of mine with one of his M1's a while back, and as stated above it was an out of battery fire. The timing of the firing pin and it's notch at the rear of the bolt is critical in preventing this, but can be out of spec due to wear or poorly fitting parts.

As to the 1903 rifles, pretty hard to have a properly maintained and operated bolt gun fire out of battery. Brass failure, if it occurs, is always serious and can cause damage to the rifle and/or shooter. In the "olden days" some mercuric priming was used. Mercury causes brittleness in the brass, a chemical change which is irreversable, leading to eventual failure if re-used.

Tom F, your reply...
" The exact thing happened to a friend of mine with one of his M1's a while back, and as stated above it was an out of battery fire. The timing of the firing pin and it's notch at the rear of the bolt is critical in preventing this, but can be out of spec due to wear or poorly fitting parts." confuses me.
I always thought the M1 Garand's firing pin was "free floating" in the bolt, could you please explain the "timing of the firing pin" and end my ignorance?
Further, I would think that this particular failure was not a case of firing out of battery. The case, as stated failed at the extractor groove. If the bolt was locked in battery, it would have prevented the case head and web from blowing backward more than the excess headspace, if any, and the escaping gas was forced radially, explaining the flared end of the case.
Since it appears that the gas escaped "around" the web, it could be that Murphy was present at time of manufacture!
Regards Curley

[ 09-02-2003, 18:55: Message edited by: curley ]

Good morning,
They weren't reloads. They were Kynoch military surplus that were bought from SOG.
I thought that it might have been an out of battery firing at first, but the case was fully seated in the chamber. If it had been out of battery the case would have flared at the moment of ignition and would not have allowed full insertion into the chamber. There would have also been telltale signs in the shoulder neck area as it would have set the shoulder forward to some degree.
Randall in Houston

The firing pin in the M1 does rattle around in the bolt, but it has a right angle bend at the rear, which fits into a notch in the reciever, such that the pin cannot be driven forward till the bolt is rotated into battery. That is if everything is in proper order, the pin cannot mover forward to slam fire the weapon. If the parts are worn or out of spec, this changes the timing of the bolt/pin operation and a slam fire could happen. This would be more likely with commercial primers which are more sensitive than military ones, in general. Next time you dissasemble a M1, examine this feature and it will become more clear than I can explain. This would not be apparent from just examining a bolt not installed in the reciever.

Thanks, Tom F, I'm always eager to learn!
Regards, Curley