POTD: 1940 Speed Loading – John Garand Patent En-Block Clip Loader
Sam.S 09.24.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a Garand clip loader from the 1940s. En-block clips, if you are not familiar are a peculiar shape to describe. Imagine a stamped metal box with two ends cut down the middle and curved in and one whole side open… tried my best. This neat old clip loader works a lot like a modern-day charging magazine loader in which rounds are stacked horizontally or vertically and basically shoved into a magazine. The en-block clips can be loaded by hand and with a little practice that can be loaded a lot like a double-stack magazine can be.
“Patented by John Garand in 1944, but actually used in production starting in 1935, the clip loader device was used to speed up the process of loading ammunition into the en-block M1-Clips used by Garand’s M1 rifle. Although an A-clip can be hand loaded, these devices greatly increase the speed and ease of the procedure. Extending up from the base is a guide slot, which holds a single stack of 30 caliber ammunition, which can be fed by hand, from 5-round 1903 stripper clips, or directly out of the arsenal cartons. At the base is a swiveling assembly to hold the empty clip, which is equipped with a spring loaded follower that steers the first cartridge into the proper position and a wood handled driver arm. In operation, the assembly is swiveled out and a clip is inserted. The driver arm is raised and swiveled back in, positioning it to drive 8 rounds into the clip, and on extraction of the assembly the follower spring ejects the loaded clip to restart the process. The device is mounted to a wooden base, and the item comes with a copy of an article written by Dick Conger, which discusses this specific loader.”
Lot 3795: Extra-Scarce Documented John Garand Patent Clip Loading Device f. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/55/3795/extrascarce-documented-john-garand-patent-clip-loading-device-f.
