How Come During WWII Soldiers carried their Rifles with the barrels pointed up, and today they carrying them with the muzzle pointed down?

 

I saw this on Quora, I was working a lot of Overtime and went straight from work to a social event with my wife, so I didn't have the time to work on anything big.

All good answers. But it really comes down to this. An M1 Garand weighs 11.6 lbs (5.3 kg) fully loaded. It has a 24 in barrel and overall length of 43.5 in. It has a fixed wooden stock and iron sights.

An M4 carbine weighs 7.5 lbs fully loaded, with a 14in barrel and a length of 33in with the buttstock fully extended. Even with all the stuff we have on it nowadays, it might weigh as much as an M1.

Also, the way we now carry our rifles (at the low-ready) means less time is spent bringing the weapon up into an actionable position. Much of this is because the buttstock of the rifle rests in your shoulder. Also, the muzzle is constantly pointed in a safe direction (in the air, what goes up must come down). With the lighter weight rifles of today, the low ready makes more sense in most situations.

Now the high ready that most the G.I.s used in WW2-vietnam makes more sense for heavier/longer weapons. It means less fatigue on the shooters muscles, and is faster bringing a heavy weapon to action. The buttstock doesn’t naturally rest in your shoulder, but with a long rifle, this makes sense.

WHen I was in the U.S Army in the 1980's and Early 1990's, we carried our rifles the way the Vietnam War Soldier carried them.  The "Patrol Ready" I believed it was called, kinda like this,

although when I was just walking around, unless I was explicitly to carrying it slung, I would carry it kinda like this like this guy did with the M-14, but I would carry mine around the end of the handguards and the slipring, for both the A1 version and the A2 version I had.  I found it easy to carry it.  I never carried it by the "carry handle".