Spingfield Armory Museum

[ol' Huff]

Recently my family went out to Massachusetts so my wife could attend the her college reunion. She attended Smuggy McSmugface, a small private school for women and I had zero interest in being there so I made lemonade and went to the Springfield Armory Museum. I'll post some pics with captions and then my general thoughts on the museum.


When the Army was developing what would become the .30-06 they did penetration testing. This is a .45-70 at 25' through a 4" piece of seasoned white oak at about 1200fps.

This is a .30-40 Krag under the same conditions at 2500fps.


What appeared to be the last BAR made under gov. contract by Colt. The plaque is hard to read but i think it says 2-8-18.


1917 #1 made by Westinghouse.



More to come

 

[KJQ6945]

 

[rob63]

Thanks, looking forward to more!

 

[Steel and wood]

That must have been a great trip.lookin forward to more

 

[ol' Huff]

IMG_1615 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
The forging and milling process for the hammer and trigger guard. Notice that the round stock for the hammer is a piece of hammer forged steel. Before it was milled it was bent. I thought this was particularly intelligent because it lays the grain of the metal in a fashion that the millwork is run with the grain instead of across it on the primary face.

IMG_1622 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
An Enfield 1851 that got struck by lightening. It warped the bayonet and barrel and blew the stock apart and shot the lock out the side. It was a Confederate piece. We know it was lightening because the sentry that was holding it lived!

IMG_1623 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1682 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
More Civil War stuff. The feller on the bottomw rifle was with the 63rd Indiana. On the very bottom of the stock under the date it said "Mattie be true"

IMG_1629 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1628 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
Early Garand development. In the beginning, Garand was tinkering with primer actuated rifles. It never quite worked right. This would have been the initial attempt at a gas operated version. The T3E2 was a completed model in .276 and blew away competition. This receiver would have been a predecessor to it.

IMG_1632 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
Speaking of the T3E2, this is a set of complete rifles highlighting the Garand's development. When you look at a .276 its hard not to think of the du jour efforts to find new cartridges for the AR15. Almost from the get go it was universally decided that the .223 was light for a battle rifle and as we look at where match shooting has taken us lately we see a forest of 6 mm and 6.5 mm offerings with excellent sectional density, BC, trajectories, and accuracy. In the hunting world the .270 is experiencing something of a renaissance as more states adopt rifle seasons for whitetail. So many things seem so knew to us but this brief glance at history shows a rifle designer with a penchant for match shooting that was well ahead of the curve.

 

[Thor]

Neat stuff, thanks for posting.

 

[Lumpy76]

Very cool!! If l ever had to go to that state this museum in now on my list of places to visit. Looking forward to more pics.

 

[rbhargan]

The museum is well worth the trip, we visited it a couple of years ago and were amazed at what all they had on display. On an unrelated note, the Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) Museum is nearby. While we did not have a chance to visit, it looked interesting. Supposedly, Geisel was inspired by the machines used in the factories that dominated the Springfield area.

 

[ol' Huff]

I wanted to wait for today to stick up my last post. Here goes.

IMG_1641 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
Model Shop receiver with tooling references.

IMG_1631 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
Numbers 1-80 were "model shop" Garands, meaning that they were built in some part by hand as the purpose was to develop the tooling needed for mass production.

IMG_1657 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
#81 was the first fully machine-made Garand. There is an interesting story in Duff's book that the Museum doesn't go into. The first ten production Garands were pulled and put out for inspection as many top brass arrived to see them. A virgin test-firing was arranged. They grabbed #81 and.....click. Everybody was shocked into silence. Garand laughed. He took it to his workbench and gauged it and it gauged in spec. Turned out they pulled the en clob from a batch of ammo that was known to be defective. They went back to the field, grabbed #87, threw in some good ammo, and boom.

IMG_1647 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1649 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1655 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
The numbers you see stamped on all the parts are drawing numbers. By that I mean the number that indicates what engineering blueprint shows the stock, tooling, and process for making that part. The process of stamping each part with a drawing number was given up after a time for efficiency.


IMG_1659 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1660 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1661 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1662 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
#s 100000, 2000000, 3000000, and 6084405 (the final one). 100,000 and 6084405 are plain jane Garands though the last one benefits from the updated elements. 2 mil and 3 mil, though, are particularly fine examples. Neither has any distinguishable milling chatter and have excellent finishes. Both are in presentation grade, hand finished stocks as one would expect. The figuring on 3mil is particularly appealing.




IMG_1642 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
Garand's experimental mods to make an M1 accept a DBM. AKA the beginning of the M14.


Now for something completely different.



IMG_1667 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1689 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1692 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
AR-15 #8. The barrel is thinner than even the "pencil profile" barrels of early Vietnam fame. It was smaller in diameter than my pinky. Notice the bolt release and stock.

IMG_1685 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1690 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
M16A1 for comparison on the barrel profile. Picture taken from same distance and angle. I jimmy around with a lot of old AR parts at the surplus store in Bedford. Mostly I just get a "meh" sensation but I will comment that this older Colt receiver was better milled out than most. The common parts where flashing or poor milling are seen were very clean and sharp.


IMG_1702 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
1911 #5

IMG_1699 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
Experimental 1911 made out of stamped steel

IMG_1671 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1693 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1694 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1695 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
IMG_1697 by andrewjhuffman, on Flickr
12 gauge, drum fed, select fire with 40mm rotary drum GL. Weighs less than a loaded M14

 

[Steel and wood]

This was great it is real important to see how things start the craftsmanship that goes into. The first of anything is the hardest then you can copy and paste it. This was true vision. Thanks

 

[SmileDocHill]

Huf, I like the way you kill time. That is my kind of trip.