Garand proto-types

[butlersrangers]

Col. Townsend Whelen shooting a pretty 'Foxy' looking Garand in .276 cal.

[psteinmayer]

Amazing! Interesting differences from what became the final design. I'd love to show up at the National Garand Match with that one!

[reincarnated]

If it was a .276 with original bullets, you would not reliably hit your hat at 100 yards.

[psteinmayer]

Why is that? Is .276 a known inaccurate bullet?

[reincarnated]

You can read about it in Hatcher's Notebook. The bullet design had no parallel surfaces to allow it to stabilize on its way down the bore. Hatcher has a detailed drawing.

Ness: Practical Dope on the Big Bores: When they reloaded the cases with regular 7 mm 139 grain bullets, the rifles were quite accurate.