I am not sure about military style shooting,I thought they only allowed FMJ bullets, but I could be wrong, anyway FMJ is much cheaper for practice.
You have to be careful on which powder that you use because even tho it says it will work in a 30-06 from the reloading manual, the speed at which the bolt moves rearward and the parts affected by this have to be taken into consideration. Yes IMR 4350 will work in the M1 but for how long before the bolt and operating rod will break, not if they break but when. There are countless stories of people only buying factory stuff and the M1 breaks down in 100 rounds because the ammo was to hot and the pressure and speed curve was different than what was needed.
As far as I know these are the powders that one can reload in the M1:
IMR 3031
IMR 4895
IMR 4064
W748
AA2460
AA2520
AA2495
H4895
BLC-2
H335
RL-12
I have only tried IMR stuff because I was told only those three will work but I have found other sources that say the other ones will work also.
I buy 150 gr. FMJBT from Higginson's for 15.00/100 so that is about 1/2 of what hunting bullets would cost and I use these for practicing with.
My M1 loves IMR 3031 and my pet load is 46.5grn's. I don't have a chronograph but it is under what the official M2 loading would be as far as speed goes and this will effect the sight graduations slightly. I think I have to go 7 clicks up for 100 yards instead of 6 with the military ball ammo that I have but no big deal. This load is really mild on recoil and easy on the rifle and I can put all 8 rounds into 1 1/4" at 100 Meters.
My kids love shooting the M1 and I can go easily thru 150 rounds at a sitting no problem. I make sure to keep the spent brass separated from each other as to once fired, twice fired etc. I trim every case and look for the usual splits, nicks and chunks of brass missing. The M1 is hard on brass and you will find that it eats them up rather quickly. I go three reloadings, some people go as high as 5 reloadings from a case as long as everything is ok and then they go into my 30-06 bolt action only reloading box to be used in my other 30-06's. You can get once fired 30-06 from Ebay for reasonable prices as long as you stick to regular USPS for mailing and don't use UPS, they charge a brokerage fee on top of the price. Make sure that they are commercial brass and not military because of the crimped primers, this can be overcome with the pocket swagger but it is and extra step to the reloading process. When I was in the US last month I picked up 4000 once fired for 50 bucks, they are military but hey for the price I couldn't pass it up.
There is nothing like the sound of the Ping when the enbloc comes flying out and inevitable everyone at the range loves to shoot the M1. I have actually paid for some of my reloading stuff from people who are dying to try the M1, people are more than willing to pay 5 bucks for a pinger full of shells.
