Reloading M1 Garand with Hornady .308 150g FMJ

[Bruce McAskill]

The 150 gr. flat based bullet goes back to WW1 time frame. During the 1920's the military decided that they needed a heavier bullet for use in the machineguns as was the thinking in Europe at that time. So they came out with the Bullet M1. 173 grs. Then along comes Garand and his new rifle which the military likes. But it's in 7mm and not 30-06 which Douglas MacArthur didn't like so he had the rifle redesigned for use with the 30-06. But it did not do well with the heavier bullet as the pressure curve was wrong so they went back to the 150 gr. flat base and IMR 4895 became the powder for the 30-06. This became the M2 round that became the standard for WW2 and beyond.

[TankerDon]

Der Jagr, when I bought the Hornady measuring gauges I also got the OAL gauge to set bullet jump to the lands. Although I don't have anything in 30-06 yet, I picked up the case for that caliber as my buddy picked up a nice '03 Rock Island and is starting to load of it. If it would help and your ever down this way feel free to stop by and do some measuring and grab a sample batch of these Magtech's for a comparison test against the Hornady's.

[Der Jagar]

TankerDon: Sounds good-thanks. I do get in your area quite often. Have a daughter not to far north of ya and one to the south. Stop in at Bobs Guitar and Blains Fleet in Cedar Falls once in a while. I'm only about an hour drive of your 10-20. I'll PM ya my tele # when I plan to make a trip and if ya wanna pbx me we can set a meet. Thank you- Der Jagar (that handle in English goes back some 47 years ago given to me on a raccoon hunt by a first time hunter that was with my hunting group that was astounded by a difficult 22 rifle shot on a raccoon between the eyes)

[browningautorifle]

a difficult 22 rifle shot on a raccoon between the eyes

I used to hunt them when I was a kid back in southern Ontario Canada...and those shots were mandatory by the licence holder.

[Ex Crab]

Yet more handloads for my Garand, this time 150 grn FMJs sat on 48.0 and 48.5 grns of N140.
All the bullets were seated to the bottom of the cannelure and not crimped. The 48 grn loads spread all over the place, the 48.5 loads were better. Next time I'll try 49.0 and 49.5 grns.
Below is the result for the 48.5 grns. The targets are full of 22 cal holes as I reckon I can use targets from 22 shooting for larger calibres later.

[no4mk1t]

A well set up M1 should be able to shoot like this at 100yds with well prepared handloads. I realize everyone wants to stretch their reloading budget by buying cheap bullets, but if accuracy is a goal, you really need to use better bullets than FMJ.

This rifle has not been accurized with glass bedding or any of the procedures used on NM M1's. It has however been tuned to be legal for CMP Garand matches. There are two threads in this sub forum on this, one to tune the trigger, and one for the rest of the rifle. Everything in them is within the ability of the moderately skilled gun tinkerer.

[no4mk1t]

The 150 gr. flat based bullet goes back to WW1 time frame. During the 1920's the military decided that they needed a heavier bullet for use in the machineguns as was the thinking in Europe at that time. So they came out with the Bullet M1. 173 grs. Then along comes Garand and his new rifle which the military likes. But it's in 7mm and not 30-06 which Douglas MacArthur didn't like so he had the rifle redesigned for use with the 30-06. But it did not do well with the heavier bullet as the pressure curve was wrong so they went back to the 150 gr. flat base and IMR 4895 became the powder for the 30-06. This became the M2 round that became the standard for WW2 and beyond.

Bruce, sorry to disagree in part with this.
You are correct in that M1906 ammunition with the 150gr. cupro nickle bullet was issue during WW1. As long range machine gunnery was a prominent thing in The Great War, the Ordnance Dept. designed the 173gr. bullet in the early 20's to equal the French and British boat tail ammo in its ability to achieve greater range for long range machine gun barrages that proved essential in that war. This was designated as "Ball M1" The M1 rifle was designed to fire this ammunition from the beginning as this was the issue ammo at the time of the M1's adoption. M2 Ball with the same bullet as used in WW1, just copper jacketed was adopted to mitigate the issue of units with limited range facilities. The Ball M1 ammo had a max range of 5500 yds. and it was escaping the impact area of shorter NG ranges.
The M1 can easily handle the 173gr. bullet. This is evidenced by the fact that M72 National Match ammo is loaded with this exact same bullet. If you went to Camp Perry back in the day, this is what you were issued.
MacArthur was Chief of Staff at the time. He foresaw that WW2 was coming and did not think that having a rifle that took different ammo than the MG was a good thing for the small ballistic advantage offered by the 7mm.
This and more is documented in Hatcher's Book of the M1.