Springfield Armory Museum - Collection Record

U.S. RIFLE T44 .30 (T65E3) SN# 8
Manufactured by Remington, Ilion, N.Y. in 1951 and later redesigned at the Springfield Armory in 1953 - This was the "fine tuned" model T44 as prepared by Colonel Rayle and his team at the Springfield Armory for the Arctic trials of 1953. This was the rifle that put the United States back into the running against the FAL. Here there is a through bolt in the upper pistol grip, and the initial use of the stock liner, all in an attempt to reduce stock splitting when firing grenades from frozen ground. The small button-like object at the rear of the receiver is the attachment point of an internal fiber bolt buffer assembly, in use since 1951. The was the last of the long receiver T44 models, and featured Earle Harvey's pressure relief valve, built into the elongated gas plug. Select-fire. Equipped with 20-round T31 type detachable box magazine. Weapon weighs about 8 1/4 lbs.

Markings:
Receiver: U.S. RIFLE CAL..30 T44 8.
Magazine: 443.

Weapon transferred from R&D SPAR to the Museum on 24 August 1954.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES:
1JUL51 - 31DEC51 - "As on the T47 Rifle, development on the T44 and T44E1 is continuing. Pronged flash hiders and modified M4 Bayonet knives are being fabricated. Grenade Launchers of the new design to accept the new flash hider are completed.
The Armory is awaiting details of welding techniques developed by Remington Arms Company for assembly of the operating rod handles, tubes and caps. Ten (10) new operating rod assemblies are being fabricated. Action has been taken to procure parts for the ten (10) Remington rifles with the short barrels.
The remaining twenty rifles, fabricated by Remington Arms Co., have been received. These, in addition to the first ten, are being changed to include modifications on the feedway filler block, operating rod spring guide, receiver, connector and barrel. All of the rifles will have the prong type flash hider and new last round round bolt locks.
The remaining lot of the total of 350 magazines has been received and approximately half has been assembled. The magazine latch has been modified to permit easier assembling of magazine. A design study on the spring has been initiated due to present design inadequacies.
Spring calculations supplied by Dr. Maier were furnished to Wallace Barnes Co., of Bristol, Conn., and sample lots of these springs are to fabricated.
Springs of .060 diameter wire have been found to improve feeding when used in conjunction with the modified feeding lips.
Fifty magazines incorporating a 1/32 additional length in the feeding lips plus a 3/8 additional length in the tubes have been procured from the Bay State Tool and Machine Co.
The tube length has also been modified and tubes of the dimensions are in process of being made.
Design studies are being made in regard to dust covers, gas regulators and improved magazine latches. Discontinued use of the sprayed aluminum stock and the rubber coated handguard is recommended because of excessive heating during sustained firing.
After preliminary firing tests, the gas ports were opened to .075 to obtain the '2 o'clock' ejection. This gave a cycling rate of 650 to 750 rpm. On one experimental model, the gas was opened to .090 to overcome short recoil in the abuse tests. This increased the cycling rate to 750 - 775 rpm. Further tests are underway to find if a satisfactory result can be obtained in the abuse tests with a slower cycling rate and slide velocity."

Notes: "The T44 grew primarily out of the T20E2, which John Garand had developed during World War II as an automatic version of the M1, fitted with a twenty-round box magazine. The T20E2 never got into full production, although about one hundred were made. A connector had simply been added to transfer motion from the operating rod to trip the sear and get automatic fire, without needing to pull the trigger between each round. The gas system of the Garand is called the impingement type, in that gas from the barrel impinges on the operating rod piston, delivering all the energy atThe principle change in making the T44 out of the T20E2 was to lighten it and change the impingement gas system to the cut-off type. An intermediate rifle had been the T36, a T20E2 modified to fire the NATO cartridge. The T37 was similar to the T36, but had the gas trap moved back from the muzzle. A combination flash hider and recoil check was attached to the muzzle. Such recoil checks proved impractical to help reduce in a light rifle. They were either too fragile, or too heavy. Other changes had been incorporated in the T44, such as the use of the lightweight magazine from the Garand T31 rifle, use of a straight operating rod, and the application of a roller on the bolt. This last had been developed years before the M1 for better reliability under adverse conditions, but had never been incorporated into production rifles. Also, the T20E2 receivers used to make T44s had been modified with their filler blocks to allow for the shorter T65 NATO cartridge.
The funds and time to fabricate a proper receiver had never materialized. John Garand retired a month before I reported for duty, and he preferred playing checkers at Winchester Square to doing part time consultant at the Armory. The T44 was basically a Garand rifle, with Earle Harvey's T47 gas system. Later refinements were made by Lloyd Corbett, an engineer on Earle Harvey's rifle design group." - Rayle

"The T37B was redesignated the T44, and 30 firing models were produced by the Remington Arms Company. This was one of the Springfield Armory redesigned T44s sent to Big Delta, Alaska for the Arctic trials beginning December 8, 1953. It was during the Arctic trials when the FN started having problems in the cold, while this modified T44 performed so well that according to officials at Springfield the rifle picture had "completely changed." One problem encountered during the trials had to do with Harvey's gas bleed-off valve. In the cold it had sometimes stuck in the partly open position causing the rifle to lose power. It was decided to discard the idea, in favor of a manual shut-off built right into the gas block." - Stevens

LOAN HISTORY:
Army# 6864 - Loaned to Major Hoffman, Post Ordnance, Ft. Devins, Ma. from 15 May to 17 May 1959.
Army# 6864 - Loaned to Capt. Richard P. Jordan, First Battle Group, 220th Infantry 26th (Yankee) Inf. Div. Army Mass. Natl. Gd., 105 Arlington, Boston, Mass. from 4 November to 11 November 1959.
Army# 6864 - Loaned to Boston Ordnance District, Boston, Ma. from 17 February to 2 March 1960. At that time weapon was appraised at $250.
Army# 6864 - Loaned to Captain O.A. Patterson, Schenectady General Depot, Schenectady, NY. from 19 April to 27 May 1960.

References:
Ezell, Edward C. THE GREAT RIFLE CONTROVERSY. Stackpole Books. Harrisburg, Pa. 1984.
Rayle, Roy E. RANDOM SHOTS: EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF A WEAPONS DEVELOPER. Merriam Press. Burlington, Vt. 1997.
Stevens, Blake. U.S. RIFLE M14 FROM JOHN GARAND TO THE M21. 2nd Ed. Collector Grade Publications Inc. Toronto, Canada. 1991.

SA-MR11-2602 - Synopsis of Results of Tests of U.S. RIfle, Caliber .30, T44 ( 1 April 52 - 1 June 52) Second Partial, by S.D. Caloccia. Springfield, Ma., August 28, 1952.
SA-NM11-2601 - Notes of Development Type Material for the U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, T44, by Project Control Section, Research and Development DIvision. Springfield, Ma. May 8, 1952.
SA-NM11-2603 - Rifles, Caliber .30, T44 and T44E1, Notes on Development Type Materiel, by E.M. Harvey. Springfield, Ma., June 25, 1953.
SA-NM11-2603 - Rifles, Caliber .30, T44 and T44E1, supplement to SA-NM11-2603,

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