.30-06 M2 Ball

[irishsquid]

I brought up this subject on the CMP forum a few years ago and never got a definitive answer so I thought I'd bring it up here.

I own an M1 Garand and an M1903. I use surplus M2 Ball in both (exclusively in the Garand).

I've used both Lake City (LC) and the Greek HXP. The Greek has always been far more accurate in both rifles. I've used different lots of both and it doesn't seem to matter. The Greek always comes up on top.

After thinking about it, I remembered that the LC is de-linked machinegun ammunition, while the HXP was manufactured specifically as rifle ammunition.

My question is this...

Was .30-06 M2 Ball for machineguns held to less stringent specifications than ammunition for rifles?

 

[FlyinBryan]

good question squid.

the only experience ive had with that de-linked stuff is i bought about 300rds of just the brass.

de-milled and de-linked like you mentioned.

i did notice that its quite a bit thicker walled, and heavier even than the hpx cmp stuff that i reload.

i checked the total capacity and found that when trimmed to 2.494 it holds over a full grain less of 4895, so i reduced my loads to compensate. im sending 147g fmjbt @2875-2900fps

it seems to be just as accurate for handloaders and i really like that it does not seem to stretch as much when subjected to firing and full length sizing.

wish i could help more with your original question, but hey, at least your thread gets bumped back to the top, lol.

bryan.