surplus garand ammo?

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hey everybody, if you shoot a garand, you know they eat ammo and it aint cheap! I am a huge fan of buying surplus ammo as I do for my SKS as it is alot cheaper, and I have been looking for a long time for surplus garand ammo in canada to no avail... so I have finally decided to bother everybody online to see if they know where I can get some.


PS: I do not have an adjustable gas plug nor do I want one for my rifle.
PPS: I am looking into reloading, but the price of a setup and lack of space is holding me off for now, but i do collect my casings!
 
Canada used to have a huge supply of surplus .30-'06; it was what we ran in the Brownings.

But Canada is a Free Country, thought Trudeau, in which the people cannot be trusted to operate firearms.

So all that surplus .30-'06 ammo was sold to the USA. The Americans loved it; it was the best ammo most of them had seen in years.

Last surplus '06 I saw was that Lake City 1969 stuff which supposedly was sold here from 'Nam. It was really nice stuff, sold here for 25 to 50 cents a shot. The supply is LONG exhausted. Nice brass, though.

You should really do a lot more than just THINK about loading your own: try DOING it. You already have brass, so you have the most expensive single component. Equipment (if you go Lee) will set you back only between $150 and $300, depending on your choices.

You can load your own Match grade stuff for about 60 cents a shot, which is much cheaper than surplus, today. Try the original military load: 150-grain bullet, 48 to 50 grains of IMR-4895. If you are really cheap (like me) you can load your own 180 gas-check cast bullets with 13 grains of Red Dot and have a mild load that costs a dime a shot, gas-check included, although you will have to hand-cycle the rifle; the load doesn't produce enough pressure for cycling.

Have fun!
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I started reloading in an appartment in the tiny kitchen it had. Everything was modular so I could set up and tear down. You can't afford to buy Federal .30 cal for the M1 all the time. Reloading is a one time outlay of capitol and you have the tools for life.

I don't know why you're dead set against an adjustable gas plug, Pocketfisherman makes one, and it's affordable and works correctly. Then you shoot Wal-Mart buck a round civvie ammo and no worries from the sky-is-falling crowd. I've never used an adjustable plug myself, and never had problems. But that's just me. And only for 40 years. Maybe others have different FIRST HAND info??

You will need to get set up in reloading. Once you do you're there. Then you start saving. Providing you buy components wisely...

PM me if you want to chat more about this. I'm in Victoria, I'll give you a phone number and we can yak.
 
I run CMP Garand Matches in Texas where we provide ammo. The last batch I got for match issue was Greek HXP pulled off machine gun belts. They are starting to open up to using Garands rebarreled to 7.62 Nato in the Garand matches, so I suspect the supply of 30-06 is getting thin. If you don't go the route of the adjustable gas plug (Not match legal yet) then you have to limit you hand loads to 150-170 grain bullets at 2600-2750 fps. Garands are picky. Strange as this seems John Garand was more concerned with producing a reliable service rifle than he was with the future needs of reloaders. Also it is best to use a hard primer. The Federal 34 is to be prefered to all others. IMR 4895 is the best powder though Varget runs a close second.
 
The CHEAPER lines of .30-06 are manufactured closest to military spec. Usually these are 150-grain loadings.

I believe that Winchester even loads white-box stuff FOR the Garand: .30 M2 Ball.

Flat-base 150 bullet, 48 grains of 4895. Sixty cents a shot, even in Canada.

Biggest problems I have seen on Garands are:
1. battering damage from firing the rifle improperly lubricated. There are EIGHT grease points on a Garand; are you greasing them?
2. FTF and battering damage from overheating the rifle, cooking the recoil spring and then expecting the poor thing to work properly after it has lost its temper. Replace.

Apart from that, they are dandy rifles, if a bit heavy.

browningautorifle is 100% on the reloading equipment. I just did a batch of 8x57 on the tooling I bought in 1965. Next up: making a batch of Largo on some tooling I picked up in 1967. The stuff LASTS if you take care of it, same as a rifle. Next after that: making up a batch of .43 Mauser Smokeless loads for my Kar. '71.... and doing it to proper pressure levels, too. You can DO that if you roll your own. If you don't, you are at the minimal mercy of the manufacturers, distributors and shopkeepers, all of whom are out to make the biggest profit they can get away with. (Thank Gawd for competition!)
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Unfortunately reloading is the most cost effective way of feeding your Garand. A few years back I had a job where I was 350 miles from home and had to rent a bachelor apartment, even in that cramped space I managed to reload. All my kit was modular designed to pack up and put away within minutes. You can do it.
 
SW28fan said:
I run CMP Garand Matches in Texas where we provide ammo. The last batch I got for match issue was Greek HXP pulled off machine gun belts. They are starting to open up to using Garands rebarreled to 7.62 Nato in the Garand matches, so I suspect the supply of 30-06 is getting thin. If you don't go the route of the adjustable gas plug (Not match legal yet) then you have to limit you hand loads to 150-170 grain bullets at 2600-2750 fps. Garands are picky. Strange as this seems John Garand was more concerned with producing a reliable service rifle than he was with the future needs of reloaders. Also it is best to use a hard primer. The Federal 34 is to be prefered to all others. IMR 4895 is the best powder though Varget runs a close second.
Click to expand...

We're in Canada. This is Texas and the US you're talking about...
 
Reloading is the way to go for Garands nowadays. Pay attention to the following when doing so;
-only use IMR4064, IMR4895 or H4895
-only use 150, 155, 165, 168gr bullets
-FL resize and keep cases trimmed below max OAL
-seat primers below flush with the casehead
-don't try to get more than 5 re-loading/firing cycles out of your cases

Folks may still find some of the S. Korean M2 ball ammo in circulation (PMC headstamp). Some lots are excellent while others use brass that will split longitudinally when fired. I shot some of the good stuff in a friends rifle that I had worked over for him down in Arizona and it was amazingly accurate for surplus ball ammo. I once picked up a bunch of the split brass on the Brandon, MB Wildlife Assn range and reported the lot numbers on the boxes to the old CSP forum where they kept a record of good and bad PMC lots.

Some of the best M2 ball was made right here in Canada. I shot a lot of it headstamped DA55 and DA62. We used to use it in the .30cal BMGs. The last bunch I got out of the system was 40 yrs ago when I was in 1PPCLI. The sub-caliber training device for the 106RCL used .30 cal tracer ammo which was only available by pulling apart belted 4B/1T MG ammo. The 106s got the tracers and yrs truly got the ball.;) I still use the brass for reloads and even have some unfired ammo which I shoot on special occasions. Up until 10-12 yrs ago you could get de-milled .30-06 Lake City match cases, and 172/173gr match bullets and they are excellent. I picked up a couple of thousand pieces of each at the time and am very happy that I did.
 
I got into reloading for my Garand recently for this very reason.I picked up a complete Lee system in the ee for $175.00 shipped,and researched for the best load for myself and came up with:
Imr 4895 47.5 grains
CCI 200 large rifle primers
Hornady 150 grain fmjbt
Mix of Winchester,Federal,Norma brass

I shoot 48-80 rounds at a time at the range and have had zero issues with this load .
Just my 2 cents to an up and coming reloader for a Garand.
If anyone has any comments on my rant please feel free to comment as knowledge is power! :)

P.S. I also bought Pocketfishermans adjustable plug kit(havnt tried it out yet)
 
That's a good load for a Garand. 48gr IMR4064 works very well with the same bullet. The Hornady 150gr FMJ is about the most accurate non-match FMJ bullet that I've found. It's sold in bulk too, which makes it pretty economical to shoot. Another good non-match .308 bullet which is very accurate is the Sierra 165gr HPBT. The bonus for this one is that it is a hunting bullet.

I run the Hornady 150gr FMJ at 3.280 OAL and the Sierra 165gr HPBT at 3.250. Either 46.5gr IMR4064 or 45.5gr IMR4895 work well with the Sierra bullet.
 
purple said:
That's a good load for a Garand. 48gr IMR4064 works very well with the same bullet. The Hornady 150gr FMJ is about the most accurate non-match FMJ bullet that I've found. It's sold in bulk too, which makes it pretty economical to shoot. Another good non-match .308 bullet which is very accurate is the Sierra 165gr HPBT. The bonus for this one is that it is a hunting bullet.

I run the Hornady 150gr FMJ at 3.280 OAL and the Sierra 165gr HPBT at 3.250. Either 46.5gr IMR4064 or 45.5gr IMR4895 work well with the Sierra bullet.
Click to expand...


Thx Purple i'll give that load a try!
 
smellie said:
Canada used to have a huge supply of surplus .30-'06; it was what we ran in the Brownings. But Canada is a Free Country, thought Trudeau, in which the people cannot be trusted to operate firearms. So all that surplus .30-'06 ammo was sold to the USA. The Americans loved it; it was the best ammo most of them had seen in years. Last surplus '06 I saw was that Lake City 1969 stuff which supposedly was sold here from 'Nam. It was really nice stuff, sold here for 25 to 50 cents a shot. The supply is LONG exhausted. Nice brass, though. You should really do a lot more than just THINK about loading your own: try DOING it. You already have brass, so you have the most expensive single component. Equipment (if you go Lee) will set you back only between $150 and $300, depending on your choices. You can load your own Match grade stuff for about 60 cents a shot, which is much cheaper than surplus, today. Try the original military load: 150-grain bullet, 48 to 50 grains of IMR-4895. If you are really cheap (like me) you can load your own 180 gas-check cast bullets with 13 grains of Red Dot and have a mild load that costs a dime a shot, gas-check included, although you will have to hand-cycle the rifle; the load doesn't produce enough pressure for cycling. Have fun! .
Click to expand...

Good one, I love it...

The last 30/06 I saw, came in bandoliers with six eigt round clips each.
It was lake city and sold for less than $10.00 more than 15 years ago.
Even the brass itself is very popular.
 
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