M1 Garand 7.62 NATO Question- Commercial ammo

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BigMofoFrog

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I have recently picked up a very nice Danish contract Garand 7.62 (Tipo 2- 1/2 inch shorter than a 30-06). A little bit of research on the 7.62 vs. commercial .308 still has me wondering. 7.62 is pretty hard to find here in Canada. I've shot Hornady .308 HPBT 168gr Match and Rem UMC .308 150gr FMJ out of my Polytech M305 (M14) without much trouble. Looking up the ballistics for M80 ball (2750fps @146gr), both these are in the neighborhood in terms of muzzle velocity (2650/2700fps respectively).

What is everyone using for .308 commercial ammo in there 7.62 Garand? BTW I don't reload. I also have a Shuster adj. gas plug on its way.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
I'm shooting commercial .308 and my own handloads out of my .308 M1 Garand. Frankly I would be safe to SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) that like your Poly/ Norc M14, you will be able to shoot commercial in your Garand.

As always, wear safety glasses and hearing protection!

Feel free to send me 3 fired cases from both your M1 and M14 and I can measure/mic them. That will indicate the size of your chamber(s). PM me if you want to do this measurement. I've been providing this service over in the MBR Forum for the past 8 years. :D

:cheers:

Barney
 
ammo???

I am not an expert by any means;however,I have investigated this matter a fair bit. It is NOT the velocity of the ammunition that determines it's safety in the Garand, but rather the pressure curve of the ammunition. If you look into reloading for your Garand , you will quickly see that certain powders are good and others are bad, even if loaded to the same velocity. If you don't heed this I have been led to believe you risk bending your op rod. Think about the fun you will have replacing your 308 Garand op rod: this ol'guy who bought his first Garand , good grief 50 years ago,just givin my $0.02 worth.
 
MILSPEC ammo for the 7.62 round uses propellants which generate the correct gas port pressure to cycle the Garand action properly. These include IMR4895,IMR4064,H4895,BLC2 and W748. Commercial .308 Win ammo normally uses slower burning propellants which generate a higher velocity.

Military brass is also heavier and more durable than commercial .308 Win brass and it is best to use it for handloads. You may also want to check the headspace on your rifle (7.62 NATO chambers are longer than .308 Win).

I've built two of the Garand Tipo 2 rifles on Breda receivers and kept my headspace on the tighter side in the interest of longer case life for reloading. I use the .308 Win "no-go" gauge as a "go" gauge and the .308 Win "field" gauge as a "no-go" gauge in my 7.62 chambers.
 
I am no expert but the same applies to 30-06, if you are using loads with a higher velocity then was first used. You will need a gas plug, since I do not reload and only buy hunting loads, I need a gas plug which could be purchased from Epps and etc. Thus since I havent had anytime to run out there, I have not shot it since due to the risk of breaking something.
 
The variable gas systems from Schuster or Mccann are an assist when using commercial ammo in the Garand. I reload almost exclusively for both the 7.62 and .30-06 Garands and find that, in addition to compatibility with the rifle's gas system, IMR 4895 and 4064 offer the best accuracy with the 150,165 and 168gr bullets.
You will find discussions on 7.62mm headspace up the wazoo,but I always want to keep my 7.62 chambers within the .308 Win "field" limit-a safe precaution when using .308 Win ammo or brass for reloading. You can achieve this with the 7.62 Garand chambers thru selective bolt fitting.
 
Thanks guys for all of the great replies. What a wealth of information and its great that so many of you offered help. All good information as I didn't want to jump in blindly and cause damage to the rifle. I suppose a long term goal is to look at reloading. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for 7.62.

Thanks Hungry for the offer on headspacing. Good excuse to get a micrometer I suppose. I'll p.m. you when I build up the courage to fire the rifle- still a little cold here- at least on the days I have off.

My Shuster plug should be here shortly, so I may give that a go.
 
I wouldn't do it continuously without changing to an adjustable gas plug sometime, but it would probably be fine to run commercial ammo through it for a while.

After all, it IS a battle rifle.
 
Update...Ended up with two .308 Garands now and still have the M305, have about 500 rds of UMC 308 left and also just started reloading .308 for my bolt actions, lots of brass to use anyhow. With the .308 UMC FMJ, I used the gas plug and found I had to close the Schuster pretty much all the way to get it to cycle. Ended up selling it to someone with a 30-06 Garand. Turn out it wasn`t needed, go figure- guess I worried for nothing.
 
"...I don't reload..." You will be sooner or later. Shooting factory ammo, out of any rifle, gets expensive quickly.
Meanwhile, Federal loads a 150 grain FMJBT under their American Eagle brand and a Sierra 168 and 175 grain MatchKing under their Gold Medal brand. And a 165 grain BTSP Gameking under their Vital-Shok brand.
Hornady loads a 155 grain Match bullet and a 178 grain Superformance. Plus 150 grain SST's.
 
sunray said:
"...I don't reload..." You will be sooner or later. Shooting factory ammo, out of any rifle, gets expensive quickly.
Meanwhile, Federal loads a 150 grain FMJBT under their American Eagle brand and a Sierra 168 and 175 grain MatchKing under their Gold Medal brand. And a 165 grain BTSP Gameking under their Vital-Shok brand.
Hornady loads a 155 grain Match bullet and a 178 grain Superformance. Plus 150 grain SST's.
Click to expand...


My update post post right before yours says that I now do reload for my R700 bolt rifle (175gr SMK)... Held out as long as I could, but I did succumb. Your're right it was getting expensive- equipment cost aside its about 1/3 the price. Problem is I can't seem to reload fast enough. Ha Ha. Once I burn off the UMC FMJ I'll reload for the milsurps as well. Thanks for the info.
 
"...do reload for my R700...equipment cost aside..." Hi. Only got as far as 'I have two'. snicker. Reloading pays for itself in about 6 months, depending on how much you shoot. Speed is a matter of technique. Mostly involving the use of both hands when loading.
The only difference between reloading for a semi and a bolt action is that you must FL resize every time for a semi and watch the case lengths. Your 700 a .308 too? You can use the same brass in both rifles. Mark the case heads with a felt marker if you use the same bullets for both rifles though.
IMR4064 gives more consistent accuracy than IMR4895. Haven't ever used Varget myself(didn't exist when I started), but it'll do as well.
Your 175 grain MK's are fine. The rifle was designed to use .30 M1 ammo with its 174.5 grain bullet. 175's do better for distances past 600 yards. 168's are for up to there. 150's out to about 300. There are match grade 150's too. Mind you, match bullets aren't cheap. Honady 168's were over $300 per thousand the last time I looked. Hornady makes a 150 grain FMJ that'll do nicely for shooting because it's fun. Sierra makes a 150 grain FMJ Gameking too. Speer makes a 150 grain TMJ. Don't think I'd bother with those though. TMJ's use cast bullet data. Speer bullets, except for the 110 grain HP bullet they make for M1 carbines, aren't that great.
 
Great info. Thanks. When I saw the second Garand, I was weak and couldn't resist.

I had been shooting Hornady 168gr. match ammo and have been using my collection of Hornady match brass from that for the R700 (SS 5R Milspec .308) reloads- ~500 pieces. So far I've only used 4064, and seemed to get better accuracy out of the 175 vs. 168, so with the price of bullets so close between the two I stuck with the 175gr. I plan to use the Rem. brass from the UMC for the Garands and M305 when I finish shooting it off (total ~800 pieces). With the semi's I had assumed that I would have to FL resize as it gets pretty beat up. For the R700 I have FL resized the first batch, would I get much more life out of the brass by neck sizing only next time? Thanks again.

I'll try not to ask too many more reloading questions here and save them for the proper forum.
 
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