M1 Garand commercial ammo

[albertacowboy]

Every now and then someone has a question about suitable commercial .30-'06 ammo for the Garand. I checked this topic on the well-known US site CSP GUN TALK with Gus Fisher, who is a retired USMC armourer and currently services rifles for the National Match competitions at Camp Perry, Ohio. Gus's advice was to use the American Eagle FMJ 150-gr. load, which he has used frequently with no problems. His other preferred load was the Federal Gold Match 168-gr. FMJBT load, which was designed for the Garand but is very expensive. He had no opinion on the Remington-UMC or Winchester 150-gr. loads.

The crux of the matter here is the burning speed of the powder. I still have some PMC M2, which is an exact copy of the US military load for the Garand. The American Eagle, as well as the Winchester and UMC loads, equals the ballistics for those companies' 150-gr. hunting loads, which seem to use powder of the wrong burning speed for the Garand. However, Gus Fisher acknowledged that the American Eagle was a bit hotter than the military loads, but still caused no problems such as bent op rods, etc. He was unsure about this problem re the Winchester or UMC loads.

I would like to hear opinions on this question from other Garand shooters out there, especially non-reloaders like myself. Many people feel that there is no problem with any standard commercial 150-gr. load, but I prefer to err on the side of caution and stick with the American Eagle and Federal loads, and my dwindling stock of PMC.

All answers appreciated, and Merry Christmas from Alberta!

Information

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[NuJudge]

The US Civilian Marksmanship Program used to have it made up in special boxes just for their yearly Garand Match. I bought a lot of it so I could get really good zeros before leaving for Camp Perry. It was not particularly accurate, but I heard no complaints about it. It was much more accurate than late 1960's US GI Ball, and had no problems with duds. Comparing different lots produced in different years, my Garands put it within an inch or two of other years. I also shot it through several 1903 Springfield rifles, with no difficulty extracting it.

I saw this advertisement from Hornady yesterday:
Hornady

I am wondering if the US Civilian Marksmanship Program is going to use the Hornady stuff, instead of the Greek-made M2 ball that they have been using the past several years. The Greek stuff shot about the same as the Federal stuff, but I had severe trouble extracting the Greek stuff from manually-operated 1903 rifles. I had no extraction troubles in Garands with the Greek stuff, and no torn rims either.

Years ago I shot some commercial .30-'06 through a Garand. The ammo companies are trying for better ballistics than the cartridge gave in 1938, because this is a selling point. The only way to do that is to use powders that produce a longer pressure curve, which results in higher pressures at the gas port near the muzzle. It clearly did not like it: operation of the action was much more violent, brass thrown much harder & further. I won't do that again.

I have no experience with the PMC.

[moose fat]

This past summer I bought my first Garand and had the same concerns. I had been reading on various forums and heard about "Adjustable Gas Plugs" aka adjustable gas cylinder lock screws. There are two both available from Brownells, Shuster(sp.) and McCann(sp.).

I ended up with the Shuster. The shuster uses an allen headed plug and locking screw that can be adjusted easily if you use different loads. The McCann uses a set of perforated disks that that are changed to find the right amount of gas to operate the action, I think this would be good if one type of ammo was used.

I have been reloading for a couple of years and hunt. I started out with factory loads to get a base line with the Shuster plug. There is no one setting and so you just screw the plug in until the action works.

I use 180 gr Bronze Tip and Core-locked Remington factory ammo, no problems.
For reloding I'm settling on some flavor of 180 gr. bullet and H4895 or IMR4064.

[John Coleman]

Federal recommends against using their commercial American Eagle and Gold Metal ammunition in the Garand. CMP did contract Federal to load Garand spec ammo and Federal labeled it "American Eagle" and "Match". I know Gus Fisher and have been following the ammo for the Garand for a while.

The only commercial ammunition recommended for the Garand is the very expensive Hornady 168 grain match load. We can still buy mil surp M2 and match ammo in the US. In Canada I would think converting Garand's to 308 Winchester would be more popular.

Before the John C Garand matchs in the US that require 30-06, 308 Winchester conversions were very popular and the ammo is easier on the rifles.

Early pre ATK owned Federal American Eagle a30-05 was loaded with an unknown ball powder. The current production from ATK is loaded with more than 50 grains of RL-15. This is hot for the Garand. Early CMP contract American Eagle ammo was loaded in new Federal brass and bullets cannelured for 308 Winchester causing the cartridge to be shorter than minimum mil spec. This ammo was loaded with 47.5 grains of powder reported to be either RL-15 or commercial IMR-4895. Then CMP contracted Federal to load the ammo to "mil spec" not just milder than standard AE. This ammo was loaded in processed unfired Lake City late 1960's cases(taken from pulled down unfired M2 ammo). Using Sierra 150 grain FMJ loaded close to mil spec minmum 3.30" and one charge weighed 48.7 grains of new commercial IMR-4895 and new CCI #34 primer. The CMP match load was the 168 grain Sierra, 46.5 grains of IMR-4895, LC cases and CCI #4 primers. Many people complained they thought the 150 grain load was too hot. CMP requested that Federal make the 150 grain load milder but without specs. Federal decided to use the match charge weight of 46.5 grains of IMR-4895 behind the 150 grain Sierra FMJ for the mild load so both the 150 grain and 168 grain match loads had exactly the amount of powder, LC cases and CCI #34 primers. This was the last CMP contract AE and match ammo.

The Hornady match load uses the Sierra 168 grain bullet with Varget powder. This was the second most accurate powder. The most accurate powder was N-135 from Finland but cost and limited availability caused Hornady to go with Varget powder.

[Surp_Shooter]

On the Federal site under what's new they have a listing for American Eagle M1. It's a 150grn FMJ BT. Should be interesting to see how well it shoots.

[John Coleman]

The Federal ammunition looks to have been announced in Jan 2009 but nobody has seen any yet. You might get an adjustable gas valve for your Garand. This would allow adjusting the gas system but wouldn't make up for over sensitive primers. The two popular ones are the Mc Cann and the Schuster. The Mc Cann seeems most recommended for using commercial ammunition and the Schuster is for finer adjustments for fine tuning the gas system for accuracy. The idea is to start with the largest gas bleed and step down in gas bleed size until the action cycles. I have never used them as I handload. Years ago people used to drill out the gas plug but the steel is very hard and the required drill bit is very small.

[shotguntaz]

Federal now markets American Eagle ammo marked especially for the garand. I have shot a lot of it with no problems. More accurate than greek ammo in my CMP "special". The hornady match ammo for the garand I have found has the 168gr amax bullet. It is expensive at about $30.00 per 20. Have not tried it. I am planning to buy one box to try. If it works well then I may work up a reload to duplicate. Shouldn't be that difficult as we know they use varget. I may try the N150 if I can find it around here anywhere. The hornady loading manual states they got the best results with that powder. It has a section just for the m1 garand.

[AKA Hugh Uno]

most of the Yugo ammo, ESPECIALLY the Igman Red Box ammo is great stuff. Accurate and very mild shooting.

[browningautorifle]

Once again, I tell you all that here in Canada we knew nothing about this impending doom of firing hunting ammo through an M1 for years and years. Only in the past few years has this info come to light. Basicly with the start of these forums I would guess. Until then we shot all that came to hand. I never even HEARD of the detonation you suggest. Once again we rehash this subject here on the open forum. Maybe Badger would consider putting several of these threads up as a sticky to avoid doing this repeatedly. I see most of the regulars aren't even here this time. By the way, I don't know of anyone here who uses a Shuster or any other type of adjustable gas plug. Most M1 owners won't even know what you're talking about.

[TDH]

I reload so I don't buy commercial ammo but I do know what a Shuster plug is and they are made in Toledo Ohio which is about as far west of Camp Perry as I am east of there. And when it comes right down to it I don't mind the subject coming up over and over because it helps the newer shooters and refeshes the older ones now and then. Don't you think?"