Repost from last year on the old board:
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com. I’m Ian McCollum and just the other day the Spirit of Halloween Present visited me, bringing this cool rifle with her.
I know what most of are thinking right now: “Spirit of Halloween Present? Stop with the underage cognac Ian, that’s on ordinary M1 Garand” while the more eagle eyed of you have spotted that there is something off with the receiver.
* camerazoomsinandoutquicklyonadustcover *
So what is this?
In 1932 the Royal Bavarian Army held trials for a semi automatic rifle that included rifle designs by Browning, Colt–Browning, Garand, Holek, Pedersen, Rheinmetall, Mauser, Thompson, and an incomplete one by Bergmann.
Nothing what the Army saw met their demands entirely but the M1 Garand or rather T1E2 at this point stood out as the undisputed leader. So the Garand was modified into what we have here. Let’s take a closer look.
On the top of the receiver we have the production date, below it the serial number. The Bavarians use typical five digit blocks and a letter prefix. Being a 1938 gun it of course has the royal crest of the now Kingdom of Bavaria on top.
On the left side is the manufacturer marking – Waffenfabrik Theodor Bergmann, Shimabara, New Bavaria and on the right we find the type, caliber and acceptance mark. Gewehr 36, 8 mm Mauser and the blob is a whale, indicating this went to the Bavarian Navy. A rifle of the Royal Bavarian Army would have a crossbow.
For the most part this is mechanically a straight metric conversion of the M1 but it has some noticeable differences.
Let’s start at the muzzle and you immediately notice the first. Instead of milled ears, the front sight has a sheet metal hood reminisced of a later war 98k but with holes to let light in.
Gas tube, bayonet lug, hand guard, nothing different here. Barrel bands and sling snivels are all stamped too but still rather finely polished so you don’t notice that easily. The next obvious difference is the stamped dust cover. When you pull the charging handle or fire the rifle, it is flung to the left and remains open until the shooter closes it. Not as convenient as the reciprocating one one of the Type 38 Arisaka but quite the improvement over the M1 with it’s wide open top. You probably saw how that did in the InRange Mud Test.
And that brings us to one of the biggest differences to an American M1. This is not loaded with an N block but from stripper clips. The Gewehr 36 was supposed to replace the Gewehr 21 and Gewehr 03 but it was expected to be a gradual process, so the army insisted on loading by standard stripper clips. The Marine Infantry demanded the retention of the ten round capacity of it’s Gewehr 03 and that’s why we have a semi-detachable ten round magazine here, similar to a Lee-Enfield mag but this is a shortened machine gun magazine. The magazine release has been moved in front of the trigger guard. As you can see it’s sticky because of the tight fit and you need line it up very carefully to insert it. Starting in 1948 the G36s are being reworked for use with quick detachable magazines. They mill away some material at the lower end of the magwell and attach a little funnel shaped extension to ease magazine changes.
The next major difference is the rear sight. Not the drum of an M1 but more SMLE Mk V in style, albeit simplified. Nice big ghost ring style of aperture with a 100 meter zero, for more precise shots you can flip this up and get a smaller aperture for 200 meter that can be clicked up the ladder to 600 meters. No fine elevation or wind-age adjustment, gross wind-age adjustment is done by this screw on the right, elevation at the front sight.
The rest seems familiar, trigger guard, butt plate, butt swivel are all like on an M1 but again all stamped.
During the war the rifle saw some back and forth of changes. Immediately after the outbreak the manufacturers were disguised with German style letter codes and they were assigned random number blocks and dates for switching to a different block. Type and caliber and crest were omitted soon after the Fall of France. The sight was replaced by a two position flip sight for 200 and 400 meters, the finish got rougher and laminated wood was being used for the stock. By mid 1943 the original sights were back in production. After the war the rifles with the flip sights were retrofitted.
The license for the original Garand was purchased in 1932 by the Grand Duchy of New Bavaria, production began in 1937 by the Neu Emden Arseal with the ones in Coblenz, Blum, Nuevo Guadalcanal Bayernmetall, Mauser, Bayrische Waffen und Munitionsfabriken, Krauss-Maffei, Bergmann and Simson factories joining later.
I would very much like to keep it but the Spirit of Halloween Present needs it back because as of 1956 this is still the standard service rifle of the various branches of the Bavarian military and the Republic of China armed forces too.
Hopefully you enjoyed the video and thanks for watching. Also watch out for the next episode with the Spirits of Halloween Past and the …. whoha, waaaaa…..
* vortex spiral – grey wearing Ian appears in green field with various structures, asian guy and black female in a khaki uniforms standing nearby*
…...W...where am I and who are you?
For you Gefreiter that still is: “Who are you, Herr Feldwebel?” And if you don’t know where you are you better cut back on the beer. Now listen up you lot! At the command you will drop on all four and do 20 push-ups. Then run to the starting line where you load the rifles and engage the targets at 100 meters. After having fired all ten rounds you show clear. Once you are done you will run to the second stage behind the barb wire obstacle where you repeat the process, then to the last stage by scaling the barricade. Any questions?
...How am I supposed to get over that barricade … Herr Feldwebel?
Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps with the support of the rest of your squad?
Squad? What sq…
….Behind you, Ian.
Karl ??? ... Russel ... Othias, May, JariMikePascalEricChad? What are you doing here?
She’s a patreon. (pointing to the woman)
One of ours too.
Top tier.
She’s supplying us some excellent surplus gear.
I thought you were doing a Halloween Special!?
Silence in the ranks! … Why are you always bringing the wired ones Frau Oberst?
Note to self: Get the Christmas Episode ready ... this year.