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Just picked up a can of Greek HXP ammunition from CMP for my M1 Garand. I have no experience with this ammunition. The earliest headstamp I could find was 66. Mostly 73 and 77. I would love to know what experience people have had with this ammo. Is the stuff safe to shoot? Is it very accurate? Pretty good deal for 200 rounds for $98. Just some simple questions from a novice here. I do not reload or at least I don't yet. Any reloaders out their reloading this brass? Thanks for the replies.
I have shot a lot of the HXP over the years and have no complaints. It's reloadable.
Thanks Bill. I've never shot any of it and just wanted to hear from some others who have. Sure hard to beat for the price. Thinking about getting into reloading in the future. Thanks for your response.
HXP77 was issued by the CMP at Camp Perry a few years ago. Many M1903 shooters, including me, reported bolts were difficult to open. The ammo did not seem to be too hot, just caused the bolts to be difficult to open, a bad thing during rapid fire strings.
I can see how that would be a problem for that kind of shooting, Kirk. I was mainly concerned that it wouldn't damage my Garand as I've never fired any HXP. By the way, is there any commercial grade 30.06 which is to hot for the Garand and shouldn't be used. Remember, you're talking to a novice here.
Both Federal and Hornady sell loads for the Garand. The Federal is a military-style FMJ bullet Federal Premium - News Releases and the Hornady is a match bullet Hornady Manufacturing Company :: Ammunition :: Rifle :: Choose by Caliber :: 30-06 SPRG :: 30-06 Springfield 168 gr A-MAX® M1 Garand. The Civilian Marksmanship Program sells both plus M2 ball ammo - Greek HXP ammo that is boxer primed and reloadable. Civilian Marksmanship Program eStore
HXP ammo is generally excellent ammo - with the exception I mentioned. A second exception would be ammo that is corroded or otherwise deteriorated. See Related Sales
I've got 2 cans of the HXP 66. Shoots great, measured 2789fps, 10 feet from muzzle, 750' altitude and 85 degrees. Have not had a single problem with it yet. It's about 75+ fps faster than my HXP 72.
Seems plenty accurate for me, 8 shots, 1 hole at 30 yards, open sights. Haven't done much shooting past 85 yards (ma at local range). Brass is great for reloading too.
I haven't sorted through my 200rds yet but just spot checking it looks as if my oldest is 63 and the newest is 77. I plan on going through all of it. I'm just glad to know some more info abut HXP and from what I've heard so far, I'll be buying a few more cans of it. Thanks for everyone's reply.
Personaly I don't love it, nor do I hate it, it's just not my favorite stuff. It's available and it's out there and non-corrosive, so clean up is not as intense. So I use it. No reliabilty issues, functions all my rifles fine.
ww2farmer, if you don't mind me asking what is your favorite load for the M1 Garand?
I've never had any problems at all with the HXP. The price was good too.
I have fired many thousands of rounds of HXP and had no real issues. Its fine for your Garand
Well, all the positive comments from you guys does give me quite a bit more confidence when I finally get to take my M-1 to the range. Thanks.
We shot up a whole can at a Boy Scout event not one hic up. i have a can in reserve now.
I still have a can too gijills. Bought a bunch all at one time.
I think you should get an order in from the CMP dwpmusic. If you can't wait for it to shoot (and I understand) I'd buy a box or two of the commercial ammo suggested above that's supposed to be for M1's.
I'm going to buy at least another box of HXP from CMP. Possibly more. I would like to have it already in the clips but I think they're out of that right now. Of course, buying it loose like I did lets you take a good look at each round, which I've done, individually. Most of the can I bought is '71, some '73 and '74. The earliest is about '63. It all looks OK to me. I've had this M-1 for close to 30 years and it's never been shot very much since I've had it. I do mostly pistol shooting (Glock fanatic) but I've recently got a renewed interest in the Garand. As in, "why am I not shooting this rifle"? I would really love to take it to someone who knows M-1s and have them look at it. I used to know how to take it down but haven't done it since my early Army days back in 1965. That's what we had then before going to the M-14. So, I appreciate all the positive input on the HXP. Makes me not afraid to fire it. Thanks guys.
dwpmusic....My favorite ammo....some people won't like this, but it's just plain old WW2 M2 ball. I have tons of it loose, so I still shoot it. Yes it's corrosive, but I clean well after shooting and have never had any issues. It's not cheap or all over the place like it used to be, and the boxed/sealed up stuff is a collectors item, there is just something about shooting my 1943 M1 with orginal USGI WW2 ammo that I can't explain. Besides it's always been good accurate ammo too.
Thanks ww2farmer. Where can you get it and how much does it cost?
Excuse my ignorance. You're referring to the HXP as M2 Ball ammo, I presume. New to this so, again, excuse my ignorance. Trying to learn.
I have shot numerous years of HXP. Its good plinking ammo. Good source for durable brass given its price of about 55 cents/round. Accuracy is not great. Runs pretty hot compared to USGI M2.
I've seen a very similar problem at the range where I shoot. When we examined the Ammo and compared it to some that was working fine, we found that the case rim area, Extractor groove, was a lot thinner on the ones that caused that problem. You didn't need a magnifier to see it either, it was plain as day. They stopped shooting it the garands, and sold it to a couple of guys down there that were shooting 1903 Springfields. It seemed to work well for them all day long. So there must have been a reason for that. I can't recall what they finally said about it, just that the 1903 guys were glad to get it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirk
Like the others, I've used hundreds of HXP ... mostly 67/68 dated... in my Garands without any issues.
I have about 13,000 rounds of CMP Greek HXP at home and have been shooting it in 1903's and M1's for some time without incident. Have been saving the brass, too, with the intention to eventualy reload. I fired some American Eagle 30-06 ($25/box!) which the box showed as being loaded for the M1. With that ammo, at 1000 and 50 clicks up, I was all around an 18" steel plate, with a Win 1,277,XXX rifle with 12/49 SA barrel measuring 2 MW. I also bought a no name brand from Cheaper Than dirt....New made ammo stated for the M1. That ammo, atthe same 1000 yards, required an additional 5 clicks up. Bothe the No Name and American Eagle functioned without flaw.
Is it possible the ammo could have been older than stated? I had some old I think Pre WWII 30-06 that had a smaller extractor groove in it, unknown manufacture, It was just part of a colection of old stuff I had. I didn't save it, I thought I did, but cant find it to identify head stamps. If I can possibly run accross it again, I'll be sure to post it on here so we can see it, I must have misplaced it when we had our new harwood floors put in. I had to move to much stuff around, and have thus misplaced lots of things. It would be interesting to show you, and compare the known stuff that we all have.Quote:
Originally Posted by HILLBILLY-06
I THINK I FIGURED IT OUT... I have one LC 69 headstamp 30-06 cartridge. I Know that this round was for the M60 Machine gun. It is different than the other M1 garand Ammo I was talking about before, although I can't find my older ammo, this is an example of a different ectractor groove. It is Half as big as the HXP ammo that I have, and my AM90.
I just brought home two huge boxes of HXP ammo, in spam cans, clipped and on absolutely mint condition bandos, on mint condition clips, for 45 cents a round, nearly 2,000 rounds.
I'm a happy camper.
Brothers, rejoice with me.
If some of the ammo the cmp sells us for our garands is machine gun pull offs, maybe there's another type of discussion to take into account. I have seen different extractor grooves on some cases. I also remember reading somewhere, that when I was getting ammo for my AR-15, not to use the delinked S.A.W. ammo for it. Would something similar apply to .308/.30-06 as well?
I believe if I remember right, that they were mostly talking about once fired brass from the saw, and reloading for the AR-15/M-16. But it really didn't have anything to do with the extractor groove being slightly different, it was the brass case itself.
Here is a pic of two 30-06 cases and a different ectractor groove that I was talking about before, having trouble with M1 Garand on the thinner groove:
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...orgroove-1.jpg
Different extractor grooves can just be different lots of cases. Doesn't denote different ammo or better or worse ammo. The ammo for SAW and rifle are the same. Same manufacture and headstamp and all. You cant go mixing up cartriges for combat use. The belts could be broken down and used in rifles. Or the other way around.
The thin groove is GI spec 30-06 . When they developed the 7.62 / .308 they developed the wide groove to improve performance . After a period of time , people started using the wide groove in the 30-06 production to cut down on tooling costs. No problem , the wide groove caused no harm in 30-06 , but offered no atvantages as in the .308 because the guns were not made to the specs to take advantage of it. Now , along come people who see that changing the internal grooves in the enblock to fit the new groove would aid function or changing extractor specs would take advantage of the new groove change and implament them because all thier ammo is new groove. Later , these get onto the surplus market and end up in our hands and we try to mate new groove gun parts with old groove ammo , and mating problems pop up .
Chris
That's what I agree with 100%, and thanks... I have also just nuticed, that since I had both types, I would go out back in the woods and chamber each round that I have examples of on hand. "Guess what".... The wide groove chambers and eject's fine every time. The thin groove chambers, but feels like it locks my lugs very tight, and makes racking it back very difficult. "I had to really bump the op rod handle hard to release the lugs" and eject the thin groove case.Quote:
Originally Posted by emmagee1917
SO why does this happen? That's why I replied earlier in the forum, I had seen it happen before, but never tried it myself. Well I just tried tried it and I see what they were talking about... Any suggestions??? Or more to the point, can this damage our extractor, or anything else? Im just curious, and not trying to be difficult, so please put your heads together on this one and see if you can offer some suggestions.
Simple , the extractor is a beefier deep wide groove style and when trying to slip down into the narrow groove it bottoms out. This causes the extractor to stick a little high and it's prob'ly rubbing the reciever area it sets in when the bolt is closed.
Chris
I have shot thousands of rounds of HXP and it is good ammo. The brass is also very good and consistent for the most part. It is very heavy and lasts a long time. Some lots are more accurate than others. I had a bunch of 1962 HXP that seemed more accurate than some of my other lots. The worst as far as accuracy in my rifles was the 1973 HXP.
Save your brass.
I bought 4 cases of the Greek and 2 of the LC when they were less than a quarter a round. I've also shot several thou of both flavors thru M-1s and 03s. I never had a single issue with either brand. However, the HXP was in better physical condition, from being in sealed cans no doubt. It also has shown to be hotter as well as more accurate than the LC in my rifles. Brass seems to be good and beefy so reloading wouldn't worry me at all.
I think you can't go wrong with the CMP's US 30cal ammo. All the surplus is drying up and no more countries use that round for their main battle weapons any longer. Get all you can while you can !
Rick
I will add my range experience with the HXP in my Garand, '03, & '03A3. No problems with any of the rounds I have shot. Very accurate & no issues sticking. Currently have more on order from Orion 7. Little more expensive than CMP but they hand sort so I have had only 4 or 5 rnds that had dinged cases.
Leggett