[SIGarmed]

I was wondering who has had luck with this type of round. I want to use a heavier round for hunting with an M1A, but I've heard negative stuff about using these in the M1A or Garand type actions.

Are 180gr rounds really trouble?

[7.62mm]

FWIW:

I use IMR 4064 (Sorry, I'm not at home so I can't give you the load or muzzle velocity) behind 175gr Sierra MatchKings for 600 yard NRA Highpower and Longrange shooting in my M1A. No problems.

Also made up some loads with 180 Sierra MatchKings for an M-1 Garand in 30-'06. It LOVED the stuff. No problems.

Never had any problems with the 173gr U. S. GI Match ammo in the M-1, either.

It is my understanding that 180 grain bullets are pretty much the limit for the M1A-M1 gas systems. The slow burning powders like WW 760 are taboo, also. The heavy bullets (190 grains and above) or the slow burning powders, or the combination, are prone to breaking the op rods on these weapons.

Summary: 180 gr bullets with one of the faster burning powders should be okay. As always, read the reloading manuals and start with the lighter powder charges and work your way up to muzzle velocities that will stay supersonic to 600 or 1,000 yards, if you are shooting competition.

I read a story once about the U.S. Army experimenting with the limits of the M-1 Garand's strength: They loaded a case full of IMR4895 or its equivalent, pressed a bullet into the case, loaded the gun with it and set it off. It wrecked the barrel, stock, bolt, and gas system, but the receiver was not visibly damaged!

If memory serves, they did this several times on several guns and never damaged the receivers. Of course, I would not want to use those receivers for anything but a paper weight, but there you have it.

Hope this helped,

Regards,

7.62mm

[dude]

I mentioned to my gunsmith that I had blasted a clip of 180g S&B .308 SPs through the custom Garand he built for me and he said that if I ever do it again he would take it back and beat me with the op-rod!!

..............as the rod would not be of much good after many more rounds of it

[SIGarmed]

The more I think about it the more I realize that I should just stick with 150-165gr rounds. I don't want to chance it. I really wanted to try the Nosler partition in 180gr for hogs through the M1A, but oh well.
Does anyone know where I can order these in 165gr factory loads? My local shops don't have them.

[Stinger]

Try Wally World.

Stinger

[El Rojo]

The 150gr. or 165 gr. ought to work fine with the .308 or .30-06 for hogs. As always shot placement is going to matter more than the bullet really. Heck, I took down a medium size hog with a Speer 125gr. TNT HP out of my Rem 700 VS in .308. It wasn't the greatest shot ever, it hit him more in the upper back and more toward the hind quarter than the front shoulder. He dropped like a rock. Then on another set of hogs, I shot the first one with the .30-06 using 150 gr. Sierra Spitzer Boat Tails. It was a good shot and the pig started rolling down the hill and screaming. Then my dad told me to shoot another one, so I did. This one I hit in the upper back over the front shoulder. It went rolling down the hill, but didn't look out for the count. We moved down the hill and I saw the first pig laying dead down below. We moved further down and my dad saw the other pig limping up the other side of the hill! My dad shot it with his 7mm mag, and we thought that was the end of that. Walked down to the other pig, then I walked up towards the 2nd pig. It was not walking back down the hill! I shot him in the head from about 10 yards. 3 minutes later he was still flopping around so I shot him one last time!

So was there really a point to all of that post? I don't know. Sometimes pigs go down easy, sometimes they don't. I guess the only thing we can conclude is it really is about shot placement. Why would a 125gr TNT HP varmint bullet take down a pig in one shot and it take 4 big game bullets to take down another? Shot placement.