Blanks in my M1 Garand

[Farnorthdan]

Picked up a rather large lot of .30 caliber rounds for my garand this weekend from a local listing. Included in this lot are around 200 M2 black tip belted together, 50 M2 orange tip, around 300 M2 ball, and a ton of .30 cal blanks all on 5 round stripper clips.

I have a couple questions about this lot, first I've heard its ok to shoot the black tip (penetrator) round through the garand, does this sound correct. Second question is what the heck do I do with all these darn blanks, can I shoot them by simply loading them into enblocs and banging away (want to reload the cases) or do I need some kind of special adapter to fire them, I'm assuming with no bullet it wont cycle the op rod. Would be better to just remove the plug at the case mouth and dump out the charge, resize and use the unfired primer??? Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Reloadron]

As to firing blanks you may want to do a Google of "blank firing adapter m1 garand". Read several articles as the BFAs come in a few types and designs. You will need a blank firing adapter.

The black tipped stuff if older is corrosive, not really a bad thing but the rifle should be thoroughly cleaned if you shoot the stuff. What is it dated and who made it? Shooting it should not be an issue.

Ron

 

[MrCleanOK]

If you wanted to fire off the blanks, you could just load them up and cycle each one by hand. You are correct that without a ball in front of them or a blank firing adapter, they won't have enough oomph to cycle the action.

I don't reload, but if the cases are useful for reloading at all you'll have to trim quite a bit off of them. Blanks have extra long cases to ensure that they feed like live cartridges.

 

[WALKERs210]

The last time I shot blanks in the Garand was in 1966-67, while serving on funeral detail in the Navy. We loaded up rounds and manually worked action for each shot.

 

[rodinal220]

The M2 ammunition(30-06) was armour-piercing.We fired countless millions of it during WWII in all weapons in 06.

You need a BFA to fire the blanks.Each weapon is a little different with blanks.The restrict or hole needs to be "dialed in" and blanks are very dirty normally,so clean your weapon after firing them.

make sure they are just training blanks for making noise and cycling the action and not Grenade Launching blanks.



http://www.atlanticwallblanks.com/M-1-GARAND-BLANK-FIRE-ADAPTER_p_90.html

 

[USSR]

Picked up a rather large lot of .30 caliber rounds for my garand this weekend from a local listing. Included in this lot are around 200 M2 black tip belted together, 50 M2 orange tip, around 300 M2 ball, and a ton of .30 cal blanks all on 5 round stripper clips.

I have a couple questions about this lot, first I've heard its ok to shoot the black tip (penetrator) round through the garand, does this sound correct.

Correct, but depending upon the headstamp (maker and date), they may have corrosive primers which will mandate a complete cleaning of your Garand, which is a PITA. Most guys will restrict shooting corrosive ammo thru a boltgun, which is much easier to clean.

Don

 

[Farnorthdan]

Thanks for the info guys, head stamp on the black tip is TW53, does this mean it was made in 1953? corrosive?

 

[highorder]

TW53 is was made at the Twin Cities plant in 1953, and is the first noncorrosive production, according to the CMP.

http://www.odcmp.org/1101/USGI.pdf

 

[Roadking Rider]

I'm a weekly member of and honor guard at the local national Cemetery. Remove the gas plug and gas cylinder lock. Screw the adpt on the end of the barrel to original position of the gas return and replace gas plug. (Make tight) Be careful not to screw the adpt on as to move the gas return down the barrel past where it originally was. There is no shoulder stop on the adpt like on the Gas cylinder lock has so be careful. They do work great though and the average person doesn't even know there on the rifle.
http://www.m1garand.com/store/m1_garand_blank_firing_adapter.html

 

[rcmodel]

I would not recommend cutting of GI blanks to use for reloading standard pressure ammo.

There is no guarantee the blank cases where pressure rated for full power loads.
And some have a case cannulure right in the middle that may cause the case to break in two.

rc

 

[zxcvbob]

Did you load 3 rounds in the clip, so you'd get the "ping" at the end of the volley? Or load a full 8 (since they're blanks anyway) because it's easier and you *avoid* the ping?

I think the ping would be a nice touch. Some people might think it's distracting. What does an actual funeral detail think?

 

[Loc n Load]

Blank 06 brass

DO NOT RELOAD blank brass with bullets or normal pressure loads.....
I learned this the hard way back in the 70's...when a buddy of mine acquired a large amount of blank 06 brass....these had the cdbd wad in the end of them with crimp rings at the mouth.....we loaded these with .308 projectiles and shot several of them in his Ruger M-77 .....then one shot there was an enormous fireball that came back out from the rear of the bolt.....pitted his shooting glasses (which they saved his eyes)....the bolt could not be opened....we had to take it home, tap the bolt handle up with a large wooden mallet.....the brass cartridge case had split through the primer hole, the case head and the length of the case up to the mouth.....
Back then the NRA magazine had a monthly column called the " proof house" or something to that effect....I sent a photo to them along with a description of the incident.....and they published a rather lengthy lecture on why you should never load blank brass with bullets and to normal pressures.
As scary as that was....I had loaded a bunch of it and fired it thru one of Garands without mishap....but think what would have happened with a catastrophic case failure in a semi auto!
Blank brass is not manufactured or intended to serve as regular rifle brass.....it is not designed for anything approaching the PSI's that you encounter in ball ammo loads.
A. There was no permanent damage to the 77 - which speaks well of that rifle.
B. There was no permanent damage to my buddy - which speaks well of the rifle, sight protection and hearing protection.
C. And we learned something that we filed away as part of that all important "learning curve".

 

[22250Rem]

I spoke with a very knowledgable gunsmith who I personally know about blanks once because I had some cases that had been fired at a military funeral. His advice was "Do not attempt to reload or reuse them". I guess that it is indeed not intended to serve as regular rifle brass. He said that brass from a production lot that fails quality control checks is sometimes used for blank production if the defects are bad enough to rule out regular loading but not serious enough to eliminate being used for blanks. So the blanks are basically made from the "seconds" of the production run. Not good enough for full power loads but good enough for a one time only reduced load. So you have no real way of knowing if a fired blank case was one of those "good enough for a blank" caes or a "good enough for a bullet case".

 

[Loc n Load]

Blanks

That pretty well goes along with what I experienced.....we fired quite a few of them w/o mishap and then "BOOM"....NRA technical staff was very emphatic about NEVER using blank brass for any live rounds....and I second that motion.

 

[Farnorthdan]

Thanks for the heads up on the blanks guys, I guess I will just throw them out then, also great to know that the TW53 is not corrosive.

 

[chris in va]

Don't throw out the blanks, just fire them or see if someone else may want them. Heck, contact your local VFW and see if they know of a detail that may need them.

 

[AlexanderA]

1. GI .30 cal. blanks are quite valuable to reenactors since they're not currently available. Reenactors usually have to settle for hand-loaded blanks, which are not as desirable as GI blanks for consistent functioning of reenactment wapons, especially automatic weapons.

2. Unlike 7.62 NATO blanks, .30 cal. blanks are not longer than the cases for ball ammo. They have a double annular crimp to hold the cardboard wad in place. (A star crimp, and a longer case, means that it's a special blank for launching rifle grenades.)

3. What you do not want to do under any circumstances is load a bullet in a blank case without thoroughly discarding the blank powder. The filler for GI blanks is EC Blank Fire Powder, which was used in WWII interchangably with TNT for filling hand grenades. It will blow up your gun if loaded behind a bullet.

4. Even after dumping the powder, blank cases are not ideal for reloading as ball rounds. They were often made of substandard brass to begin with, and in any case the required neck sizing to remove the crimps will weaken the neck area.

 

[Sun Tzu warrior]

If you do fire the blanks, make sure you keep your muzzle pointed in a safe direction. A prank can turn very badly where blanks are concerned, the wad can still cause injury.

 

[Farnorthdan]

I went ahead and placed and ad in local AKlist (like Clist but allows guns/ammo). I will also try the local VFW as that's a great idea, I hate to throw them out but I definitely will not be using them for reloads,