practicality of larger calibers in M1

[roland beaver]

The barrel wall thickness on a .30 caliber M1 is only slightly more than adequate towards the muzzle, and I have seen many, many M1 barrels bulged from the vicinity of the gas port forward. As a matter of fact, a customer sent me a CMP rifle a couple of weeks ago that the spline cuts had been filed deeper to eliminate external bulging in that area so that the gas cylinder could be installed and removed without undue difficulty. That is a very mickey mouse way of dealing with a barrel that should have been scrapped.

I know that some have had M1 barrels rebored up to .35 Whelen, and perhaps new barrels have been made in calibers above .30; but I caution against it and personally would not expose myself to various risks involved.

By the way,the larger bullets of the .35 Whelen bulk up in the clip so that it will only accept 7 rounds. I haven't run that test with .338 bullets, but expect that the same situation would exist. Not necessarily a problem, but something to be aware of.

Roland

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[ltcboy]

I saw a scale .50bmg M1 Garand about 5 yrs ago. Clip was weird looking and held 5.

[DRB]

How about .458 magnum:

http://www.mccannindustries.com/rifl...458garand.html

[DJG]

I have re-barreled several in .308, which seem to me to have a "sharper" recoil. I have not yet done one in .270, but I shot one and was very impressed with it. Makes you think that Garand's original idea for a 7mm/.276 round was probably the best caliber - it held 10 rounds as I recall; however, the huge stocks of 30.06 ammo settled the caliber issue. dg

[RCS]

If the standard rifle had been adopted in 276 caliber what would have been done with the M1917A1 Browning and the long range 30M1 cartridge ? the
Army would not give that up for a 276 machine gun. The Browning M1918 BAR also in 30M1 cal plus any type of aircraft machine guns would not use
the 276 cal.

[roland beaver]

How about .458 magnum:

http://www.mccannindustries.com/rifl...458garand.html

Yes, I am also aware of the McCann .458, but please note that this involves a custom barrel manufactured to suitable dimensions and a custom gas system to fit the new barrel. This is quite different from increasing the bore size on a standard profile M1 barrel.

[roland beaver]

I have re-barreled several in .308, which seem to me to have a "sharper" recoil. I have not yet done one in .270, but I shot one and was very impressed with it. Makes you think that Garand's original idea for a 7mm/.276 round was probably the best caliber - it held 10 rounds as I recall; however, the huge stocks of 30.06 ammo settled the caliber issue. dg

Humm?? Seems to me that recoil of a .308 M1 is a bit softer than that of a .30-06, but I guess that is a subjective evaluation. I have built a number of M1's in .22-250, .243, .25-06, .270, .260 Rem, 7mm-08 and recoil is noticeably reduced in these chamberings. A .22-250 is really a lot of fun when shooting a string of rapid fire, and I used one in quite a few matches years ago in the NRA match rifle category.

The first customer I built a .22-250 for called a few weeks after he received his rifle to tell me that he had a problem with it. ---after a pause---he went on to say "I had you build that rifle for my wife--and now we're going to have to build another one". (putting another one in the budget was the only problem)

[goo]

http://www.mccannindustries.com/rifl...nd/458blk6.jpg

[goo]

[goo]

50 cal garand?5 round clip? not so sure...
...
http://l.yimg.com/g/images/spaceball.gif