M14 Forum

lowprone

As a youngster I watched my father compete in the 1959 NRA National Trophy Match and
was very impressed with the spectacle.
For those of you familiar with the National Infantry Trophy Team Match of present day, the
sudden and continuous staccato of multiple teams engaging the green silhouette target is
most impressive, especially to a 9 tear old.

In those days many if not most service team competitors were WW2 and Korean War veterans. They carried these rifles with a familiarity I would not see again for another 20
years. The reloads were performed by feel and were flawless. The scores were equally
impressive.

Those matches were fired with the M1 Garand, and I do not believe you can find another
rifle of the wood and steel era that was as accurate, powerful, and reliable as the M1.
You can attain the lowest and most stable prone position possible with a M1.

To reiterate the formentioned saying " A competent rifleman armed with a M1 Garand is a
formidable opponent " .

bd111

Rattle Battle was an event to remember in the M14 era as well. I missed the 03's and A3's (a REAL good U.S. rifle), but I'm sure they went bang with authority, too.

IC2(SS)19Z50C5

Exactly!!!!....

It was always so satisfying to see your target come up after firing at 600 yards and seeing that your coach called the wind correctly and that your E sil was more than “squared” with many white spotters. I never was a swing shooter, but always had all my shots centered up… Man I miss those days…

PS, Many Thanks lowprone for posting your story about seeing the 1959 National Trophy Match!!!!

lowprone

Truthfully all I remember is being there and having my Mother say look there is your Father
and pointing to 300 or so people.
I went to Perry as a junior in 66-67 and many times since then and kinda took a little liberty
in my description of his performance, but he still remembers the day and can recount the
minutest details while holding his Type 2 NM Garand that he still owns to this day.

PhillipM

I betcha didn't know there was some video of Perry in 1959! Maury Krupp of M1 fame posted this link on another forum, it gives me warm fuzzys.

Gus Fisher

Wow, except for the cars and the tan jackets of THE Marine Corps Rifle Team (we had OD green jackets with the Marine Corps patch on the back) this REALLY reminds me of the first year I was at Camp Perry with THE Marine Corps Rifle Team as the Junior Armorer in 1975. Thanks for bringing back a lot of great memories!!

B 2/75

Gus, same thoughts over here. I attended 1st time in 1976, on the 5th Army Junior's program. We shot what we thought were pretty hot scores, after having practiced for two months at Camp Forsyth's KD range at Ft. Riley, KS.

I was amazed by everything we saw.