Recommended ammo to use in the M1 Garand?
- Thread starter Rylan
- Start date
antiqueguy
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- windsor ontario
your best bet is to reload then you can control what you feed your gun
Usually people will say "150-grain" ammunition, but b/c of variations in loadings, that sometimes may not tell the entire story.
This site was interesting, at least to me (I've never used the "ported gas screw lock", and I've no comment on it - I just liked the graphs):
http://www.garandgear.com/m1-garand-ammunition
This site was interesting, at least to me (I've never used the "ported gas screw lock", and I've no comment on it - I just liked the graphs):
http://www.garandgear.com/m1-garand-ammunition
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
What cyclone said. It's not so much the bullet weight. Powder choice has a lot more to do with this. An improper pressure curve can bend your operating rod forthwith. Some of the best performing 30-06 match ammo came in 173 gr weight, and was used by US military snipers in SE Asia right until 1966 or thereabouts. There is definitely out there, 150 gr commercial ammo that will also wreck your Garand op rod equally as fast.
30-06 M1 Garands require handload formulas that imitate 1936ish ballistic technology.
A few Garand friendly powders that come to mind right now:
IMR 4064, IMR 4895, IMR 3031
There are others too, this is by all means an incomplete list.
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Just like Brutus says! No slow burning powders, especially with heavy long bullets!
A lot of reloading manuals used to have two sections for reloading the 30-06, one for M1 Garands and similar semi autos and the other for everything else!
A lot of reloading manuals used to have two sections for reloading the 30-06, one for M1 Garands and similar semi autos and the other for everything else!
- Location
- Georgetown Ontario
Federal American Eagle is not Garand safe! They make a specific load just for the M1 Garand and it will say so on the box (see pic in post #11) if it doesn't have that on the box it's not Garand compatible. Unless you install a adjustable gas plug.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
^I would agree with this on American Eagle. A while back I called Federal's ammunition division regarding this very same subject. You look at the velocity and it's almost 100 fps higher then recommended Garand velocities.
Their most senior people confirmed, that this AE 150 gr FMJ, was not Garand safe at that time. (2002)
Cocked&Locked
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- S. Ontario
quoted for relevance! It's more about powder burn rate then projectile weight.
Never once in 40 years have I ever seen nor heard of any 150 gr commercial ammo damaging any rifle until there was an Internet. Despite unproven Internet reports. Literally millions of rounds of commercial hunting ammo has been fired out of M1 Rifles for eons with zero damage.
JC demonstrated, more like proved critics wrong, the strength of the rifle with up to 120,000 PSI blue pill loads(70,000 psi being a standard BP load). The only damage was a cracked left locking lug. The same rifle went on to be fired, with no parts changed or damaged, using a further 5,000 rounds of standard service ammo.
Hand load formulas that imitate 1936ish ballistic technology that get called .30 M2 ammo. No such thing as .30 M2 ammo until 1940. The rifle was designed to use and all testing was done with .30 M1 ammo with its 174.5 grain bullet at 2640 FPS. Later upped to 2800 fps to match the ballistics of .30 AP ammo with its 168 grain bullet. Any ammo in that range(2600 to 2800 fps) will be fine.
JC demonstrated, more like proved critics wrong, the strength of the rifle with up to 120,000 PSI blue pill loads(70,000 psi being a standard BP load). The only damage was a cracked left locking lug. The same rifle went on to be fired, with no parts changed or damaged, using a further 5,000 rounds of standard service ammo.
Hand load formulas that imitate 1936ish ballistic technology that get called .30 M2 ammo. No such thing as .30 M2 ammo until 1940. The rifle was designed to use and all testing was done with .30 M1 ammo with its 174.5 grain bullet at 2640 FPS. Later upped to 2800 fps to match the ballistics of .30 AP ammo with its 168 grain bullet. Any ammo in that range(2600 to 2800 fps) will be fine.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
^Sunray, if you feel you must push the limits on surplus rifles made during the WWII era, please feel free to go right ahead against many popular opinions expressed here. Government funded research is not available to most of us here. And I suspect most of us do not feel like testing our Garand rifles to the point of destruction either. Mimicking M1 versus M2 handload arguments are pretty meaningless, because most here would refer to the latest reloading manuals with a separate chapter on handloads for the 30-06 caliber M1 rifle. That is what I would suggest to others.
Most importantly you completely left out powder choice in your most recent post. A mark of the true amateur perhaps? Cadets might listen to you if they are so inclined.
have a nice day now
Most importantly you completely left out powder choice in your most recent post. A mark of the true amateur perhaps? Cadets might listen to you if they are so inclined.
have a nice day now
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This is an often asked question. The only ammo that is recommended for the M1 Garand includes the following;
1. US MILSPEC M2 150-152gr ball ammo or 168gr AP ammo. Some of this has been produced for militaries other than the US including Greece, Denmark, Korea and even Canada. The Danish, Canadian (DA stamp) and Greek (HXP stamp) military ball ammo is all good with a special nod to the Danish ammo for accuracy. Unfortunately sources of this surplus ammo have pretty much dried up. There are caveats on using the Korean ammo as some lots include cases which split on firing. I used to have a list of bad lots of the Korean, PSA stamp ammo, but I don't think that there is much of it in circulation any more. I found the "good" lots of PSA ammo to be very accurate as well.
2. Commercial Garand specific ammo produced by both American Eagle and Hornady. Boxes are labelled to indicate compatibility with the M1 Garand. SFRC sell both of these loads. I've also seen the American Eagle Garand specific ammo being sold by P&D.
3. Handloads featuring 150-168gr bullets using any of IMR4895, H4895 and IMR4064. IMR3031 works as well and is particularly good in a .308/7.62mm Garand. There are specific caveats on handloading for the Garand.
A Garand is a .30-06, but suitable ammo includes the specified propellants which have the correct burn rates to generate the proper gas port pressure pulse to operate the rifle safely and reliably. Most commercial .30-06 ammo is loaded with slower burning propellants in the interests of higher velocity. These propellants do not generate the proper gas port pressure for the Garand and ammo which is loaded with them could damage the rifle, the op rod in particular. Some people choose to use standard commercial ammo with a commercially produced adjustable gas cylinder screw.
The best bets for shooting are to use the 2 commercial Garand specific loads or to shoot handloads using 150-168gr bullets and any of IMR 4895, H4895 and IMR4064.
1. US MILSPEC M2 150-152gr ball ammo or 168gr AP ammo. Some of this has been produced for militaries other than the US including Greece, Denmark, Korea and even Canada. The Danish, Canadian (DA stamp) and Greek (HXP stamp) military ball ammo is all good with a special nod to the Danish ammo for accuracy. Unfortunately sources of this surplus ammo have pretty much dried up. There are caveats on using the Korean ammo as some lots include cases which split on firing. I used to have a list of bad lots of the Korean, PSA stamp ammo, but I don't think that there is much of it in circulation any more. I found the "good" lots of PSA ammo to be very accurate as well.
2. Commercial Garand specific ammo produced by both American Eagle and Hornady. Boxes are labelled to indicate compatibility with the M1 Garand. SFRC sell both of these loads. I've also seen the American Eagle Garand specific ammo being sold by P&D.
3. Handloads featuring 150-168gr bullets using any of IMR4895, H4895 and IMR4064. IMR3031 works as well and is particularly good in a .308/7.62mm Garand. There are specific caveats on handloading for the Garand.
A Garand is a .30-06, but suitable ammo includes the specified propellants which have the correct burn rates to generate the proper gas port pressure pulse to operate the rifle safely and reliably. Most commercial .30-06 ammo is loaded with slower burning propellants in the interests of higher velocity. These propellants do not generate the proper gas port pressure for the Garand and ammo which is loaded with them could damage the rifle, the op rod in particular. Some people choose to use standard commercial ammo with a commercially produced adjustable gas cylinder screw.
The best bets for shooting are to use the 2 commercial Garand specific loads or to shoot handloads using 150-168gr bullets and any of IMR 4895, H4895 and IMR4064.
This begs the question of why IMR4895 was selected as the MILSPEC propellant for US military .30-06 ammo, both ball and AP. I think that the answer is pretty self-evident; because it generates the correct gas port pressure pulse to cycle the M1 Garand reliably and safely. Plus it is accurate to boot. We don't know anything about anecdotal claims concerning millions of rounds of commercial ammo fired in Garands, but we do know about millions of rounds of MILSPEC ammo being used in them.
I started a thread a while back looking at the how similar American Eagle red box and American Eagle for the M1 Garand were with regards to their pressure curve. I typically use the AE for the M1 Garand because it is available and not that much more expensive but I still think there isn't that much difference between the two.
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...-the-M1-Garand-What-s-difference-Is-there-any
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/foru...-the-M1-Garand-What-s-difference-Is-there-any
