My father carried one in WW2, as the sergeant of a machine gun unit. He let me fire it one time, when I was about 12...I never knew whether it was THE rifle that he used, or one that he purchased later..........that was the last time it was fired......before firing it, I always remember him taking a pencil, while the breech was open, and sticking it down in, and having it slam shut, explaining to me, that, it could have been my fingers. I surely thought that it was a hell of a weapon when I was 12, seeing what it did to the trees. Filling that magazine with what seemed at the time, to be excessively large cartriges. Hell of a weapon then, still hell of a weapon know.

You don't get Garand Thumb when you load it. It happens during sloppy manual of arms, or accidents while maintaining it.