M1 Garand in 22-250

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gps

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What would it take to rebarrel an M1 Garand to 22-250? What changes would have to be made to the rifle? Any potential concerns with this idea?
 
It would definitley cost more than it'd be worth to do. Round AOL is shorter than .308. Nobody I'm aware of makes a barrel for it either. You'd likely have feeding problems, even IF the gas system was tuned to it and you worked up a proper load to function the action with enough power.

As mentioned above they have been chambered in .243 and 35 whelen. Garands were converted to 7.62 NAto (.308) of which a .243 is the same parent case necked down- and the .35 is just a .30-06 necked up. Same length cases, same head sized etc. Why not just build a .243?
 
Mechanically this would be possible, but at a prohibitive cost for a one of a kind project. You would first need to have a barrel custom made with the same exterior profile and dimensions as a Garand barrel. Boring, rifling and chambering for the .22-250 would be fairly straight forward. The barrel would need to have splineways milled to accept a Garand gas cylinder and an appropriately sized gas port drilled for functionality. The correct profile for the lower band is important. One of the main concerns would be to get the gas takeoff adjusted for correct functionality. Maybe one of the various adjustable gas cyl screws would work, maybe not.

Garands have been made for the .243 Win, .270 Win and .25-06, and no doubt others sharing the .30-06 casehead dimensions. They also function well in .308 Win using all of the standard original Garand parts, less the barrel, so the same would most likely be possible with a custom .22-250.

Personally I think that the .22-250 has it's best home in a heavy barreled bolt gun, but different strokes for different folks. I do know from experience that massed charges by angry gophers don't occur that often, so semi-auto firepower isn't really necessary in a varmint rifle. The other consideration is that semi-auto fire warms a barrel up pretty fast, especially with a high stepper like the .22-250. I've done a lot of varmint shooting with the more sedate .223 Rem and find that one of the biggest challenges is to discipline your firing rate so that the barrel doesn't get too hot.
 
The rim diameter is similar so there shouldn't be any issue with the bolt head/extraction. The overall length is about half an inch shorter than 308, which is in turn shorter than the original 30-06 so i'd be a little concerned about the length of travel before the tip gets into the bore, but it may be a non-issue. Figuring out how to cycle the action without destroying op rods might be a little tricky; however, i've got one of the pockerfisherman's adjustable gas plugs for my non-standard build.

These rifles have also been done in 6.5x55, 260 rem, 7x64, 8x57, 9.3x62 and 458mag (McCann), with a few of these barrels readily available, some even with the GI profile.
R
 
Found this on the CMP forum. Gives an idea of what's involved and cost.

I checked with several places, and finally was referred to Mr. Dave Sullivan by Krieger Armory. His reply to me speaks for itself, so I will attach it here. Looks like he is the go-to guy for this kind of thing. Enjoy.

"Thank you for your inquiry into one of the services that we provide.
A mention on the CMP web site would be nice, I do in fact compete at Perry every year at the CMP National Championships and I do shoot the Springfield and John Garand matches.
I can, have and do re-barrel M-1's in .280 and other long action calibers. .270, 6.5-06 and so on as well as M-14's in .260, 243 and such. And have built competitive M-1 and M1A's for highpower use for a long time. I do not however make drop in barrels, as mostly what I do is make them from blanks, fitted to individual receivers.That is, fully machined from a blank barrel with all locations such as the gas port locked in the center of the groove, and the spline cuts located so the sight/gas fixture is at the 12 c'clock when drawn up tightly.
Krieger refers people to me for calibers in the M-1 and M1A's in other than .30 because I have been doing them from balnks since the very first one on my own DCM M-1 in 1980. It is not profitable for them to do other calibers. They have sent me lots of people over the years because I do a very nice job and do it right. These and the M1A's are the hardest rifles to barrel up because of the criticle need for gas port location and spline cuts.
Thses are just a couple of the rifles that I build-up and barrel. I am pretty expansive in my work. I do 1000yrd bench rifles that go to Europe, Ruger #1's, octagon barrels, AR's(of course and I built my first one in 1979 as a NM rifle in 6x223), bolt rifles for numerous Palma team rifles, as well as what is now called tactical rifles and I still do some DA work on Colts and S&W's and the new era polymar frame autos.
But Back to the M-1's. I only will take one on to do a complete barreling job,from blank through testfireing. I have been asked to do short chamber/long shank, but don't, I just feel the need to do the whole job my self as it has to be done right.
I usually start at $475.00 plus the barrel which is about $315, this is in the white and testfired.
Please feel free to call with any questions that you may have 9am -6pm Tues -Sat
David S. Sullivan - Gunsmith
Westwind Rifles, Inc.
P.O. Box 261
640 Briggs St.
Erie, CO 80516
(303)828-3823
PS I do not have a web site at this time
Click to expand...
 
FWIW, IF you can get the gun into the states where wait times are less, a more realistic approach would be to get a shot-out M1 barrel re-bored to a larger caliber like .338-06 or .35 Whelen.
 
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