When the US military adopted 7.62mm NATO, the Army considered converting M1 Garands to the new caliber, and decided it wasn’t worthwhile. For them, Garands in .30-06 were perfectly suitable for training, and a large supply of .30-06 ammunition was still on hand. For the Navy, however, the calculation was different. The Navy knew it was a relatively low priority for new M14 rifles but wanted ammunition commonality with the new standard – so they decided to convert about 30,000 Garands to 7.62mm NATO.
These conversions were initially don by simply pressing a chamber bushing into place (plus adding a spacer block in the magazine and slightly opening up the gas port). Conversions were done by American Machine & Foundry (AMF) and Harrington & Richardson (H&R) under the designation Mk2 Mod0. Unfortunately, the chamber bushings often came loose. Eventually the Navy gave up and bought a batch of new 7.62x51mm barrels from Springfield in 1965 and 1966, and changed the conversion program to a full barrel replacement – designated Mk2 Mod1.
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