Safe commercial ammo for a .308 Garand?

[Beardy.91]

Hi, a friend of mine gave me ammo he's fired through his M1A, saying it'd be okay to fire in my Italian Garand. It's HSM 168gr HPBT, and Federal power shok 150 gr soft points. Can anyone help shed light on this? I'd appreciate it.

 

[purple]

While similar, the Garand is a different rifle than the M1A/M14. One of the main functional differences concerns the gas system and the operating rod. If you use an adjustable gas plug it is possible to shoot a variety of commercial ammo in a .308 or 7.62 Garand. The issue isn't breech pressure. It concerns the pressure pulse at the gas port to cycle the action reliably and without damage to the operating rod. This is why military ammo for a Garand uses a specific propellant with a certain burn rate which produces the correct pressure pulse. If you handload you can replicate military ammo by using bullets in the 150-168gr range and one of the following propellants; IMR3031, IMR4895, IMR4064 or H4895. If I was to shoot commercial ammo with an adjustable gas plug I would stick to 150, 165 or 168gr bullets.

 

[LUTNIT]

308 ammo tends not to be loaded with the slower, almost-magnum-style powders that some 30-06 is loaded with to squeak those extra few fps out of them. Chances are factory 308 in the 150-168gr range are going to be loaded with powders in the burn-rate range suitable for a Garand. It's not a guarantee but is far more likely than factory 30-06.

I've heard many bad reports about steel cased Russian 308 causing all sorts of problems in several models of semi's so I'd stick to US made ammo.

I'd invest in an adjustable gas plug like purple mentioned.