Old .30-06:

So where do most people get their garand ammo from? Everywhere I’ve checked online is sold out.

j8064 said:

Actually it's the pressure modern hunting ammo generates that can potentially damage a Garand action. With every round cycled, the op rod slams into the heel of the receiver. With over-pressure you risk bending the op rod or - even worse - cracking/breaking the receiver. There are other potential issues, but those two are foremost.

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What he said, 4350 for instance is too slow and can bend the op rod. 49 grs IMR 4895 for 150 gr bullet supposedly duplicates M2 round load. Your freeby rounds are fine..... in a bolt action and probably most all commercial semi autos chambered for it.

Batt816 said:

So where do most people get their garand ammo from? Everywhere I’ve checked online is sold out.

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The CMP may have some. Best bet is load your own...

j8064 said:

The CMP may have some. Best bet is load your own...

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I spend all of my money on guns, I can’t afford the equipment to reload!

j8064 said:

Actually it's the pressure modern hunting ammo generates that can potentially damage a Garand action. With every round cycled, the op rod slams into the heel of the receiver. With over-pressure you risk bending the op rod or - even worse - cracking/breaking the receiver. There are other potential issues, but those two are foremost.

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Yep, saw the Forgotten Weapons / In Range special where they used a Garand with M2 Ball and then hot modern loads and ran the slow-mo camera with measuring stripes. You can see what a difference there is.

Batt816 said:

So where do most people get their garand ammo from? Everywhere I’ve checked online is sold out.

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It ain't cheap, but it IS in stock (for now, until I buy more): https://www.ammogarand.com/30m1gaam.html

JamesDong said:

What he said, 4350 for instance is too slow and can bend the op rod. 49 grs IMR 4895 for 150 gr bullet supposedly duplicates M2 round load. Your freeby rounds are fine..... in a bolt action and probably most all commercial semi autos chambered for it.

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IMR 4895 is my go-to for my .308 and 8mm Mauser loads. I hear it's good for .303 Brit as well and had heard it was good for the M2 load for the Garand. Guess I'll be picking up more even though projectiles are hard to find right now.

Batt816 said:

So where do most people get their garand ammo from? Everywhere I’ve checked online is sold out.

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i bought mine when CMP had HXP. Now I reload it.

tallen702 said:

Yep, saw the Forgotten Weapons / In Range special where they used a Garand with M2 Ball and then hot modern loads and ran the slow-mo camera with measuring stripes. You can see what a difference there is.



It ain't cheap, but it IS in stock (for now, until I buy more): https://www.ammogarand.com/30m1gaam.html




IMR 4895 is my go-to for my .308 and 8mm Mauser loads. I hear it's good for .303 Brit as well and had heard it was good for the M2 load for the Garand. Guess I'll be picking up more even though projectiles are hard to find right now.

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That and 4064 are my go to powders for it, both work very well. Years ago I bought out a gun shops supply when they went under. I have plenty of powders and some I can only use in bolts but that's still OK by me, I like shooting my Springfields too!

Batt816 said:

So where do most people get their garand ammo from? Everywhere I’ve checked online is sold out.

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SGAmmo has plenty https://www.sgammo.com/product/30-0...rain-fmj-ammo-optimized-m1-garand-rifle-prvi-

I notice their price is up. Though everyone's is on all ammo. Just slower to adjust up on the less common calibers.

JamesDong said:

That and 4064 are my go to powders for it, both work very well. Years ago I bought out a gun shops supply when they went under. I have plenty of powders and some I can only use in bolts but that's still OK by me, I like shooting my Springfields too!

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I got Accurate 2495 powder for M1 garand reloading. Found a bunch of sources of load data and that it more or less equates to 4895. What I can find in several lists that have powder burn rates, 2495 is in between 4895 and 4064, but I think a little closer to 4895.

Also, come on Western Powder, you had to name your "4895 powder" something other than Accurate 4895?

Oh well.

Still have to work up a load.

Well, for what it's worth, I had my radiator cap go bad on me last night.... Hear me out, it's pertinent.

We drove down to the DQ in Germantown for some drive-thru Blizzard goodness when all the sudden my dashboard started lighting up like a Christmas tree having a grand-mal seizure. The engine was running fine, no misfires or anything, so we paid, got our blizzards, and pulled into a parking space. I grabbed my OBD-II reader from the trunk, plugged it in, and pulled the codes. Essentially it says the computer isn't getting a cold-temp reading from the sensor on the radiator. Weird right? So, I pop the hood, take a look, and sure enough there's a small amount of coolant that's splashed on part of the engine and near the battery tie-down. Not a ton, about 1/4c max. I figure from the pattern the radiator cap has gone bad and the system lost pressure giving the bad reading.
Let the car cool down a bit while eating our blizzards and head over to the auto parts store on Middlebrook near the Giant. Grab a new radiator cap and some shop rags to take the old one off just in case it's still hot. Well, it was hot, but the loss of pressure meant nothing boiled over on me which doubled up my suspicion of a bad cap. Put the new one on. Drove home, no issues.

Today I took it up to my usual oil change and repair shop and had them take a look. The concurred, topped up the coolant free of charge and told me to go run it on the highway for a half hour, if it didn't happen again, I was likely good and would save myself the $$$ for a pressure check. I was near Frederick, so I said "What the hell, I'll drive on over to Hafer's in Hagerstown. If it doesn't show an issue on that trip, I'm good!"

I grabbed two boxes of PPU M2 Ball, 2lbs of IMR 4895, 100 flat-base soft-point 150gr Hornady InterLock .308 projectiles, 200 .224 55gr FMJBT Sierra projectiles, and 200 small rifle primers.

And that my friends is how a DQ Blizzard wound up snagging me more Garand appropriate ammo and reloading components.

I'm going to try to make it over to Sterling sometime this weekend to see if I can nab one of those Savage .30-06 bolt guns on clearance.


Hafer's has PPU Garand ammo for $16.99/box. Lake City M2 Ball is ~$20 or so per box. They also had plenty of other ammo. No super cheap range-worthy .223/5.56 but you could still get some soft point and JHP for ~0.50/round in 50-packs. Plenty of surplus 8mm Mauser, some .303 Brit, etc. The store was PACKED Though. More people in there than I've ever seen before. They're limiting reloaders to 2 sleeves of primers (100/sleeve) per day.

Jackpot.
I would hit the interwebs and pick up a new Orion 7 op- rod spring And a decent sling for the triple play.
Then it’s all up and down with the press handle and a Dairy Queen pit stop at your pleasure.

Have you seen your M1 Garand action in action? Here it is a 1200 frames per second be sure to look at the last one which is full speed. And the one comparing the Garand with an AR15.
https://www.ingunowners.com/forums/break-room/360993-m1-garand-1200-frames-per-second.html

Garand..... what's NOT to love? I have more guns than I'll probably fire again but the M1 is my all time favorite. Tonight I shot 50 rounds 22 from my Ruger Mk 4, 30 from the 1939 Luger 42 and several with the SKS but there is nothing like the Garand.

JamesDong said:

Garand..... what's NOT to love? ...but there is nothing like the Garand.

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Absotively! The M1 Garand is the most magnificent rifle ever designed and made. It is sooo satisfying to shoot. It may be obsolete in modern military terms but that doesn't take away anything from its history and its capabilities otherwise.