Now that I have been there and done that, commercial ammo of any kind is a waste of time and money for a Garand. The rifle loves handloads tailored to it. Its such a beautiful thing it would be worth twice the money a box, even though a dirt cheap Lee 50th kit will pay for itself in how much you save on ammo in a very short period of time, especially if you buy M1 match ammo, like Hornady's at $38.99 a box of 20. If you get a safe load going your rifle will shoot much much better (my last batch I ended up at about 1.6MOA off sandbags shooting 300m), recoil is minimal and the cost is much lower. They don't take up that much room and several ppl on here could show you pictures of their compact reloading set ups. I'd go for it. If you could afford the rifle, with the price of them and factory ammo these days you can afford to reload for it. And trust me, they deserve it, and the reward is well worth the time and money both.
My thoughts on the 125gr: I'd wonder if it wouldn't cause cycling issues. Would the cartridges OAL be short and cause it to jam? would it have enough power to cycle the action? And also how fast would it shoot? Ppl seem to get pretty wound up about shooting a Garand over 3000fps, not sure the exact reason but maybe it causes too much pressure spike at the gas port causing the op rod bending problem? Someone who actually has a clue will chime in I'm sure
