The American Springfield Rifle. The Springfield, or Model 1903 was a direct outgrowth of the Spanish-American War of 1898. U. S. ordinance experts recognized the superiority of the German-designed Mauser magazine rifles with which the Spanish were armed and studied them carefully. Over a period of time, a new design, the Model 1903 patterned unabashedly on the Mauser, was developed at the U. S. Government's Springfield Arsenal in Massachusetts. (The U. S. Government paid Germany for the use of certain Mauser design components.)

 

It was issued to American troops beginning in 1904. This rifle had a 24-inch barrel, some six inches shorter than the 1898 Krag (also known as the Krag-Jorgensen after its Norwegian inventors) -- the U. S. Army's first bolt action, smokeless powder rifle -- which it replaced.

 

The real improvements in the Springfield over the Krag were in the quality of the ammunition and in the ease of loading the new Springfield. The Model 1903 was loaded from a single five-round stripper clip rather than by dropping five separate loose rounds into the magazine as in the Krag. The ammunition was also modified from the round-nosed Krag and early Springfield .30-40 caliber cartridge with a rounded 220-grain bullet to a pointed 150-grain round known as the .30-'06 (thirty-ought-six) patterned again after the German-designed "spitzer" -- or pointed -- bullet. The "ought six" in the cartridge's name refers to the year the new round was adopted: 1906. The rimless .30-'06 cartridge survived as the standard in the U. S. Army through the Korean War.

 

The Springfield was replaced as the standard infantry rifle in 1936 by the semiautomatic Garand firing the same caliber round. But, the highly-accurate .30-'06 Springfield rifle Model 1903 with various modifications was in limited use in WWII (as a sniper rifle) and a generation later even in Vietnam.
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US Model 1917 Rifle
"American Enfield"

What about this other rifle called "The American Enfield"? The Model 1917, or The American Enfield, as it was popularly called, was two inches longer and nine tenths of a pound heavier than the Model 1903 Springfield rifle. But it was exceptionally strong. Some said it was the most rugged bolt action rifle ever manufactured. And, it remained in U. S. inventories until World War II when over a quarter of a million American Enfields were shipped to our allies under the Lead Lease Act.

The M1 Garand is a full blown combat rifle with maxiumum range of 3,200 meters and maximum effective range of 400 meters.....or the greatest distance at which the weapon can be expected to fire accurately to inflict casualties or damage. Fully loaded with 8-round en bloc clip, cleaning kit in butt stock, sling and with stock of dense GI issue wood the M1 weighed in at 11-1/4 lbs. The M1 came into production in 1936 using the .30-06 rifle cartridge.

The M1 was the designated service rifle of World War II and the Korean War for the United States Military. It was designed for semi-automatic fire using a spring steel clip containing 8 rounds. This is where the term "clip" originated. All other rifles used a detachable or fixed magazine.

 

The M1 Garand was designed for long range accuracy  i.e. battle zero was set for any target less than 200 yards It was the only rifle that had fully adjustable i.e. windage and elevation, rear sights.

The M1C, manufactured by Springfield Armory in late 1944-1945, mounted either a M81 or M82 scope, a T4 leather cheek pad, and an M2 flash hider.

The US Rifle M1 was the first semiautomatic rifle to be the standard small arm of the US Military, and the first semiautomatic rifle to be adopted by a major military power. It was the product of a genuine genius, John Cantius Garand. While the M1 Rifle was never officially referred to as the Garand, it is known by no other name so widely.

 

First adopted in 1936, the M1 Rifle served the US in World War II, Korea, a host of "police actions" and interventions, and, in the hands of allies, in the Vietnam War. Even there the US Army fielded accurized sniper M1 rifles even though the M1 had by that time been supplanted by the M14 and later the M16.

 

To many the M1 Rifle has a classic elegance and grace characteristic of a bygone era, when steel was forged in white heat and walnut was carefully shaped for both form and function. "There will never be again such a rifle, so brimming with the genius of an individual mind, so well constructed to outlive us all, so sculpted as to ask the hand to caress."

 

 

As a supplement to the Garand the M1 Carbine was developed. It was totally different design philosophy with a smaller, less powerful cartridge and an effective range of 300 yds max. It weighed almost exactly 1/2 that of the M1 Garand. In many ways you could think of the M1 Carbine as a moderately powerful, two-handed, long-barreled auto pistol with a shoulder stock.

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Note:I still own a Enfield,I sold my M1D Garand..because of the reason's listed above.Now I also have a M14A1 and a Remington M700,heavy barrel with ART2 scope.