The M1 Garand was in the words of General Patton "The greatest battle implement ever devised". You must remember that in the early 1900's that no other governments were thinking of mass producing a self-loading service rifle. The idea to mass produced a self-loading rifle with interchangeable parts was beyond the realm of most governments with their decentralized armament manufactures. The design of a self loading rifle started as early as 1919 with several examples being produced in limited quantity. In 1929 the grandfather of the Garand rifle came to be. It's designer was a brilliant man named John Cantius Garand. His idea of a gas operated self-loading rifle remains one of the most accurate and reliable designs to this day. The first Garand rifle was chambered in .276 caliber, which was in favor with the military at its time of design. In 1932 it was decided to switch the caliber to the popular and already stockedpiled .30-06. 1936 marked the beginning of the end of all military bolt action service rifles. with the adoption of the "U.S. Semiautomatic Rifle, Caliber .30, M1". With the thoughts of another European war approaching production was stepped up. It was decided that the M1 was to be placed on a priority list for war production items. And Winchester expressed interest in receiving a production contract. Winchester received their contract in 1939 to produce the M1. World War Two produced over 4 million Garands.
http://www2.fwi.com/%7Efwalter/Garandpage.htm
A little history about the M-1 Garand is always a good thing.
