Garand Recipes

[J.P.]

I'd like to hear what loads people have cooked up for their M1's. I'm using 46.5 grains of IMR 4895 with 155 Matchkings and A-max. I've been trying to find a gentle load thats still accurate, 42-46 grains shoots ok, but accuracy improves a little past 46. Anybody else?

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[Stevo]

What sort of accuracy are you getting with those loads? I've got a buddy who's looking for some good load info.

[J.P.]

Stevo, 46.5grns IMR 4895 and 155 SMK's is giving me consistent 2.5" 100 yd benched groups in my Breda with the best barrel. Thats an 8 shot group though, and typically 5 of 8 are in a nice 1.5" group. My nice IHC does about the same, my sewer pipe IHC prints groups that can't be measured with my calipers....but it shoots 4 inch groups with rem umc. I think a little more velocity would help accuracy, but I'm trying to find a nice light load. Just bought some hornady 168 HPBT will try 42- 44 grns of IMR 4895. As an aside, I also used H4895 for some of the loads I tested and results were identical to IMR.

[muzzle flash]

Your 46.5 gr. load is exactly my load although I use the 168 gr. bullet with the same results.

[Claven2]

I'd like to hear what loads people have cooked up for their M1's. I'm using 46.5 grains of IMR 4895 with 155 Matchkings and A-max. I've been trying to find a gentle load thats still accurate, 42-46 grains shoots ok, but accuracy improves a little past 46. Anybody else?

I always had luck with 48.5gr of H4895 over pulled surplus 147gr FMJ projectiles, or 150gr Hornady bulk .308 bullets in Lake City 1960's GI brass. CCI No.34 military primers.

[Brewster]

I use 45.5g IMR4064 with 168g FMJHPBT Hornandy or
43g WC735 with 165 g sp Hornady.

I get good results with either.

[Oddbawl]

Mine eats a steady diet of 48 gr IMR4895 behind 150gr bullets, I worked it up from 46gr, never any jams or problems, no indications of over pressure or stress on the action that I could see.

[J.P.]

Thanks, everyone. It has been a concern of mine to find a light load that will minimize wear in my 6 Garands. Reloading data for the M1 is all over the map. Just concidering a 150 grain bullet and IMR 4895, max loads published in reputable sources (with listings specifically for Garand loads) range from 46 to 51 grains. For "M2 ball duplicate" type loads I've read anywhere from 47 to 50 grains of IMR 4895. I'm happy with what I've come up with, it was good to hear what others are using. Thanks, Jeff

[Claven2]

JP: The original USGI loading was IMR4895 pushing a 147gr FMJ boat tail bullet with a non-serrated canelure. The reason the original powder load is all over the map is that the gov't bought their powder by the ton. Each ton was tested for ballistics at Lake City and the load adjusted accordingly to give a consistent muzzle velocity in a test rifle.

If you pull bullets from different batches, you'll find it's as much as +/- 4 grains difference.

Modern powder is produced more consistently, probably within +/- 1gr consistency. Either H4895 or IMR4895 can be used to very closely approximate the original GI loads. The "closest to GI" bullet out there is the Hornady 150rg FMJBT.

If you have a chrono, just decide what velicty you want and work up from 46gr of either 4895 powder until you hit your target bullet velocity. Should work like a charm, and is what most of us (myself included) did to develop their M1 loadings

4895 is THE powder for the Garand as it is what the rifle was designed to use.

I trust that helps a bit?

[buster]

good info,i'm currently trying to reload with the 155gr amax as well.i just tried a reload this weekend of 46gr imr4895,cci#34 with rp cases.they shot very well at 100m but really started to open up at 200m.i was a little leary to load up as my manual does not give garand specific loads.the rifle cycled well without hard recoil so i was happy with that.i'll have to try 46.5gr now.as far as velocity goes i'm guessing that 2700fps is about what the garand likes?would this be close to matching the sight elavation incraments?i've zeroed it for 200m as my local range is incramented in metres.