Special 30-06 ammo for Garands?

Hitzy said:
If you do load for it, make sure not to fill the case with pistol powder by mistake....:)
garandkboom.jpg
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:eek:Damn! That's Gotta Hurt!

Hope you walked away alright from that one!
 
I have a Danish Garand and just got the McCann gas plug for it. This system works very well and shows the difference between M2 ammo and the current 150-grain hunting or FMJ rounds from Remington, Federal, or Winchester. The McCann system uses a replacement gas plug with 5 insert screws, which are bored through in different diameters. The procedure is to try different jets until the action just cycles, and that is then the jet to use for that ammo.

With my rifle, I tried a couple of shots first with no screw in the plug, and thus all of the gas being released through the open plug. As expected, there was no action movement after the shot, and manual use of the op rod was necessary to eject the fired case and chamber a fresh round. This sequence was true for both M2 and modern ammo.
This is great if you want to minimize wear on hard-to-obtain parts.

With the widest-aperture screw mounted in the plug, the action would cycle normally for the winchester Power Points and the Remington softpoints, all 150-grain. This should be the same for Remington UMC and Winchester white box, which have the same ballistics. It also worked for Federal regular American Eagle 150's, which have the same ballistics as their 150-grain hunting ammo. This last round has been recommended to me by Gus Fisher, the M1 guru on www.jouster.com; Gus was unsure about the 150-grain ammo from other companies. The M2 ball I use, which is PMC 150-grain 3006C and no longer available, would not cycle the action with the McCann jet in place, but it cycled normally using the original mil-spec gas plug. That is why I think there is a significant difference between the M2 load and the current 150-grain commercial loads.

Federal has a new American Eagle load specifically for the Garand, but nobody in Edmonton seems to be able to get any of it. Both Federal and Hornady also make a 168-grain match load for the Garand; these work fine but are very expensive.

In short, my plan is to use the McCann system for commercial 150-grain ammo, and the original gas plug for the PMC M2 ammo I have. With the McCann plug in place, the commercial ammo's recoil feels identical to the normal PMC recoil with the original gas plug.
 
albertacowboy said:
I have a Danish Garand and just got the McCann gas plug for it. This system works very well and shows the difference between M2 ammo and the current 150-grain hunting or FMJ rounds from Remington, Federal, or Winchester. The McCann system uses a replacement gas plug with 5 insert screws, which are bored through in different diameters. The procedure is to try different jets until the action just cycles, and that is then the jet to use for that ammo.

With my rifle, I tried a couple of shots first with no screw in the plug, and thus all of the gas being released through the open plug. As expected, there was no action movement after the shot, and manual use of the op rod was necessary to eject the fired case and chamber a fresh round. This sequence was true for both M2 and modern ammo.
This is great if you want to minimize wear on hard-to-obtain parts.

With the widest-aperture screw mounted in the plug, the action would cycle normally for the winchester Power Points and the Remington softpoints, all 150-grain. This should be the same for Remington UMC and Winchester white box, which have the same ballistics. It also worked for Federal regular American Eagle 150's, which have the same ballistics as their 150-grain hunting ammo. This last round has been recommended to me by Gus Fisher, the M1 guru on www.jouster.com; Gus was unsure about the 150-grain ammo from other companies. The M2 ball I use, which is PMC 150-grain 3006C and no longer available, would not cycle the action with the McCann jet in place, but it cycled normally using the original mil-spec gas plug. That is why I think there is a significant difference between the M2 load and the current 150-grain commercial loads.

Federal has a new American Eagle load specifically for the Garand, but nobody in Edmonton seems to be able to get any of it. Both Federal and Hornady also make a 168-grain match load for the Garand; these work fine but are very expensive.

In short, my plan is to use the McCann system for commercial 150-grain ammo, and the original gas plug for the PMC M2 ammo I have. With the McCann plug in place, the commercial ammo's recoil feels identical to the normal PMC recoil with the original gas plug.
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Thanks for the very informative post..on the correct use of the McCann gas plug,..i have a McCann plug for my 54 H&R M1,..and i bought mine for the very same reason as you did,.to be able to use commercial 150 grain ammo..i just got my M1 and was able to buy a supply of "Samson" 30 calibre M2 made BY ISRAELI Military Industries at a gunshow...this is very good ammo, and my M1 loves this ammo...but once its gone im going to use the McCann plug
 
X Westie, thanks for the reply. It's always nice to get a friendly second opinion. I'm thinking that I'll shoot the commercial ammo for the most part, and just hang onto the PMC since it's no longer available. I would also like to try the new American Eagle M2 made for the Garand; P&D is trying to get some but getting any FMJ military ammo across the border right now is very uncertain.

That 54 H&R must be a real beauty. Which size aperture screw does your rifle like for the McCann plug, which, by the way for other Garand shooters, is available from Ellwood Epps in Orillia?
 
"...guy was at the Orangeville gun shows..." Might have. I saw it at several Woodstock shows. Not recently though.
"...using 220 grain hunting rounds..." Some wrong with the rifle. 220 grain Silvertips did nothing to my rifle. Blew a ground hog into next week and part of the week after.
Before there was an Internet, everybody used commercial ammo with no trouble. There wasn't anything else. Never seen nor heard of an M1 damaged by the ammo.
J.C. took blue pill loads up to 120,000PSI. The left locking lug cracked. The same rifle with no parts changed, including the bolt with the cracked lug, went on to fire a further 5,000 rounds of U.S. service ammo with out any more damage.
 
Stay away from Federal Premium in your Garand! I picked some up a few years back and chronoed it, it came out over 3,000 fps. A diet of that stuff will do damage after a while.
 
"...Federal Premium in your Garand..." The Federal M1 ammo is marketed under their 'American Eagle' brand name. Apparently not available up here yet.
 
albertacowboy said:
Both Federal and Hornady also make a 168-grain match load for the Garand; these work fine but are very expensive.
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Any details on the specs for this load? Same powder as with the 150gr stuff? Any muzzle velocity info? This is a boat tail bullet, I assume? I plan to handload as much as possible to duplicate the M2 specs but details on a match load instead would be great.

Thanks,
Mark
 
The Federal Gold Match load propels a 168-grain Sierra Matchking bullet at 2700 fps, for a muzzle energy of 2719 ft-lb. Gus Fisher told me that this load was actually designed for the Garand in the National Matches. P&D has a few boxes and it is significantly higher than regular ammo, about $40.00 per box. It felt identical in my Garand, with the original gas plug, to regular PMC M2 ball, whereas the American Eagle 150-grain regular FMJ load felt a small bit hotter in recoil. This AE load was also recommended by Gus Fisher, although he said it was a bit warm. Note that this AE load is not their new AE3006M1 load, which I have not yet seen in Edmonton. Gus would not comment on the UMC or Winchester FMJ loads, which like the AE have a mv of about 2900 fps.The Hornady load, marked "M1 Garand", has identical ballistics to the Federal Gold Match load.. I haven't seen this load in Edmonton at all yet.

I still think the McCann adjustable plug from Ellwood Epps is a great deal. It cost me about $70.00, took about 4 weeks to come from Brownells via Epps, and enables me to shoot Canadian Tire 150-grain hunting ammo with no damage to my rifle. When I want to be authentic, I'll use the original gas plug and a few rounds of my hoarded PMC M2 ball.
 
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