Early in World War II it had become apparent that U.S. troops
needed a sniper rifle, but little time was devoted to developing
a version of the M1 Garand that could serve that purpose.
Production capability was devoted to producing enough infantry
Garands to supply the burgeoning U.S. Army and Marine Corps.
Accordingly, the M1903A4, a sniper variant of the M1903A3, was
developed as a stopgap, while the Marines used their own version
of the M1903A1 Springfield for sniping. The Ordnance
Department’s Experimental Division did, however, continue work
on a Garand sniping rifle. A major problem was the Garand’s
loading system, which used an eight-round en bloc clip loaded
from the top. As a result, a scope could not be mounted
conventionally above the receiver. The solution was to mount a
scope offset to the Garand’s left side, and an experimental
rifle, the M1E6, proved that a side-mounted scope would work.
The experimental M1E7 used the 2.2x Lyman Alaskan “M73” scope
and the Griffin & Howe side mount, the latter