Winchester Arms M1 Garand

The first Semi-Automatic Rifle to be accepted as a standard issue rifle in any army in the world, the M1 Garand, so named after its inventor John C Garand (a Canadian working for the Springfield Armory). The M1 Garand served from 1936 right through the Second World War and the Korean War until 1957 when it was replaced with the M14. However due to shortages of the M14 and the early M16 Assault Rifles they served in the early part of the Vietnam War.

The original M1 Garand used gas tapped from the muzzle with a special extension but this was miserably unreliable and a new gas port system was developed and nearly all M1s were rebuilt and all new M1 Garands were made with this new system from 1939 onwards.