Good vid on avoiding Garand thumb
- Thread starter REELDOC
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So, as some of y’all know I got me a Garand a few weeks back. Worked the action quite a bit, learned how to do it without snapping my finger. Took it to the range and had zero problems. Kinda thought “this Garand thumb thing must be kinda rare…”
Fast forward to last week, I hadn’t messed with the Garand since getting back from a hunting trip so wanted to look at it a bit before I put it up for a while. I pull it out of its case, pull the bolt back to show clear, go to sit down in my office chair, reach up to depress the follower a bit to release the bolt and WHAMMO! I didn’t have my hand on the bolt handle well enough and it rocked my left hand thumb. I made up a few choice words and sported a bit of a bruised fingernail and small blood blister.
Valuable lesson.
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Fast forward to last week, I hadn’t messed with the Garand since getting back from a hunting trip so wanted to look at it a bit before I put it up for a while. I pull it out of its case, pull the bolt back to show clear, go to sit down in my office chair, reach up to depress the follower a bit to release the bolt and WHAMMO! I didn’t have my hand on the bolt handle well enough and it rocked my left hand thumb. I made up a few choice words and sported a bit of a bruised fingernail and small blood blister.
Valuable lesson.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I was going to say that you avoid Garand Thumb by using two hands, but it sounds like you managed. Good job.
Next time hold the bolt back to take pressure off the follower before you release it and ride it down slow. If you're not loading it there's no reason to let the bolt fly.
I am not sure how (or if) anybody can get Garand thumb while loading the rifle with a full enbloc. It seems to me that the round getting stripped off the top of the clip is going to push your thumb up and out of the way rather than allowing your thumb to get crushed. Maybe you can catch the tip of your thumb a little, but not get the full on sledgehammer that you can get if you stick something in there when the action is empty. Everybody I know that has gotten their thumb caught in there did it manipulating an empty action with no rounds/clip involved. I know I am tempting fate by saying this, so I will knock on wood first [. . .] but having shot Garands for years, and put thousands of rounds downrange with them, I have never really come close to getting my thumb caught in there. But if I do, I already know how it is going to happen. I have a Garand drill rifle that I use frequently for dry fire practice. When practicing, I pull the bolt back just far enough to re-cock the action, then let the bolt/oprod slide back forward. Done correctly, the bolt does not completely clear the back of the follower. But every now and again, I will pull too far - enough that the bolt hangs on the back of the follower, but not all the way back such that the bolt actually locks to the rear. On that drill rifle, the follower is like a hair trigger on a mousetrap. If you so much as breathe on the follower with it under the load of the bolt and spring, the bolt is going home immediately. So when I pull it too far back, I have to put my thumb in there to depress the follower in order to free the bolt to move back forward. And like Booger above, if I ever fumble the charging handle at that moment, it is gonna bite me hard.
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Have yet to happen with the garand, i did get an empty clip hung up in the action once though ( I like to keep an empty in there in case i forget to bring them with me to the range). I've gotten the proverbial garand thumb from a mas49/56, nice old blood blistered blueberry thumb.
baltimoreed
Well-Known Member
OUCH!
Not sure how Mas thumb stacks up to Garand thumb, but I don't want that one either. I've heard anecdotally that Hakim thumb makes Garand thumb seem pleasurable in comparison.
The bolt on the mas is huge and sits a lot deeper than the garand, overbuilt is an understatement. Wish I had a picture but it was pretty gnarly for a couple weeks till the colour came back. Cut open some skin and all the grease and oil got in the cut- to add insult to injury.
