Cannot load a clip and not sure why

[Matty]

I bought an M1 Garand at auction. It is from 1943ish, and is nothing fancy. I gave it to a gunsmith who broke it down, cleaned and inspected it, and told me it was fine. I got a clip and 8 dummy rounds from what appears to be a reputable provider of dummy rounds, and they match the size of cartridge and bullet in the full clips that came with the gun. I can't get the clip into the magazine unless I really, really force it, and even then the round at the top does not align with the chamber. You can force it in, but it seems to me that it isn't supposed to be that hard to load a combat weapon.

I took it back to the gunsmith, who said he found an issue and corrected it. (I can't remember what he said in detail.) Whatever he did has made no difference. I have read plenty and watched many videos; many make it look very easy to load, and not one has said it takes tremendous force.

Is it my technique? Has anyone else suffered this problem? If so, how did you fix it? I thought it might be an issue with the clip, but it looks exactly like the clips on my live rounds. (I have not tried to load the live rounds because I am not certain the weapon is safe.)

Halp!

[Orlando]

I have found dummy rds cause more problems than do good in a Garand. Take it to the range and try loading live rds, report back if still having issues

[lapriester]

Or maybe the follower is in backwards? Even Gunsmiths do that occasionally. Hell, I do it occasionally. Did it have this problem before he disassembled and re-assembled it? If not, simply put, he did something wrong when he assembled it. Also, as Bill said, off sized dummy rounds are often a problem since they stretch open the enbloc when loaded and cause difficulty when trying to load a full clip into the rifle.

The long, narrow end of the follower should be pointed rearward.

Also, poor quality enblocs such as you get at Gunshows that are made in China will almost always cause the problem you are describing. They are made of soft recycle steel from, probably, 1950 era beer cans or worse, LOL. Some years of Greek enblocs have also been known for it too.

I'm not entirely sure but installing the op rod catch in such a way that the hook isn't over the clip latch arm might also cause this problem. Also very easy to do if you are not all that familiar with M1 assembly....like perhaps your Gunsmith.

[Charles Maillet]

Did you solve your problems with the Clio issue

[RED]

I'm 74 years old and after 55 years of Garand experience, I never had a M-1 thumb until last week! (LOL) The problem you are describing is maybe because you are loading the clip incorrectly (there is a right and wrong way) or are not vigorous enough when you force the clip into the magazine. Either way odds are 99.999999% that you are doing something wrong.

[HALOJM]

Use Scoth Brite or steel wool to scrub down the back edges of the clip, that slides in the slot, to remove the rough coating. Make sure all the rounds are seated to the back of the clip. Bang the back of the clip on a hard surface to seat. GIs used to bang the bullet points against the stock to seat them. Used to routinely find stocks with those dents, but I think they have atritted out of circulation. Bad clips - get original GI springfield clips. Some after-market clips ate real tight, you can 'spring' them by pulling the front apart some.

Red - sorry about your thumb; you'll get a new nail in about 5 months.

[Charles Maillet]

Had one my rifles had that issue cut the spring to 19 inches problem solved

[MRusan]

Give this a try:
Pull back the Op rod and lock open the action.
Put the EMPTY clip in.
Load the 8 dummy rounds one at a time until the clip is full starting with the left side (not critical, but the "standard" clip loading is this way so the top round is on the right side when complete).
Push the now loaded clip down until the bolt decides to slide home using proper technique to avoid "Garand Thumb".
Hopefully, it will properly load the clip up and chamber the way it should.
You should be able to manually cycle the rounds or lock the action open and hit the clip ejection button to pop it out.
Hope this helps.