The Japanese "Garand"....

[The Annoyed Man]

I ran across this on YouTube and thought I would share it with you Garand aficionados and gun trivia fans. It was the first I had ever heard of this rifle, although I'm not surprised. The Japanese would have been well aware of the superiority of the Garand, and they would have likely had plenty of opportunity to get their hands on representative samples off of battlefields. It's only natural to expect that they would try to reverse engineer an enemy's superior weapon and try to adapt it for their own use. Less than a hundred of these rifles were ever produced, but Japan was on the road to mass production if the war had lasted long enough, and things would have gotten that much tougher for our GIs.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=xUBvrCACNDQ[/youtube]

[ELB]

Didn't know that. I went to a website I discovered a couple days ago and found a little more information, plus a link to some additional pictures: http://www.forgottenweapons.com/japanes ... arand-copy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Annoyed Man]

Didn't know that. I went to a website I discovered a couple days ago and found a little more information, plus a link to some additional pictures: http://www.forgottenweapons.com/japanes ... arand-copy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's an interesting site. I just finished wasting.....I mean passed..... an hour reading about the Smith & Wesson Light Rifle Model 1940.

[MoJo]

The ten round magazine loaded by two five round strippers is an improvement over the Garand's en bloc clip system. Loose rounds could be inserted into the magazine and it can be "topped off" during a lull in fighting. the sights are not an improvement and sling swivel location in combat are, well they are, kind of, well unimportant. Back in the last century I had read about this rifle it's a good thing the Japanese didn't have time to mass produce this gun.

[ddurkof]

Thanks. That is great information.

[LongHairedRedneck]

Wow, neat stuff. That would have been a game changer if it had been developed eariler in the war.