Garand T20

About the Garand T20

The Garand T20 is an experimental American select-fire battle rifle developed by John Garand at the Springfield Armory during 1944-1945 as a fully-automatic-capable evolution of the M1 Garand. Chambered in .30-06 Springfield, it used a slightly lengthened receiver, fed from detachable 20-round Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) magazines, and added a fire selector and bolt hold-open device. In automatic mode it cycled at roughly 700 rounds per minute. The most refined variant, the T20E2, was approved for limited procurement in May 1945, but the end of World War II cut the order to 100 examples and the program was terminated in March 1948, with its lessons feeding directly into the later T44 and M14.

Designed by John Garand himself, the T20 answered a wartime call to give the GI the firepower of the BAR in a rifle-sized package. Had the war in the Pacific continued, the T20E2 was slated for mass production; its premature cancellation left the door open for the M14 a decade later.

Garand T20 specifications

Full-automatic fire was achieved through a connector assembly actuated by the operating-rod handle. The receiver was machined and tapped on the left side for a scope mount and retained M1-pattern grenade-launcher hardware. The T20 is a direct conceptual ancestor of the M14.