Commercially available Hunting ammo for Garand?

[ziadel]

does any company make a load that is suitable for the garand's gas system?

bear season is a coming.


worse comes to worse, can I just get someone to use a bullet puller, take the bullet off of a M2 ball round and load a hunting type bullet in its place?

 

[ocabj]

The only way to know if the ammo is Garand gas system safe is to call the ammo manufacturer. You pretty much need something in the IMR4895 burn range to be safe.

Yes, you could pull the bullet of surplus M2 and replace the bullet with a hunting bullet of the same weight (150-152gr).

 

[ziadel]

Winchester seems to only be interested in receiving email questions from Dealers

I'll go talk to the boys at my shop tomorrow, mebbe one of them will be nice enough to reload some M2 ball with some Fail Safe bullets...

 

[Onmilo]

If you can find some Winchester 165 grain power soft point ammunition in your area, it will do the job and not ruin your M1 as long as you are using the latest production parts in the rifle.

I don't recommend shooting any M1 rifle with an uncut operating rod and a saw cut gas cylinder in place with any kind of ammunition.
The rifle may be "All correct" and in my eyes it is probably all unsafe.

 

[nextjoe]

I'd be a bit concerned about swapping the bullets out for Fail Safes without reducing the powder charge at all. Fail Safes tend to generate a bit more pressure, like Barnes X bullets.

 

[mustanger98]

ziadel:

worse comes to worse, can I just get someone to use a bullet puller, take the bullet off of a M2 ball round and load a hunting type bullet in its place?

Do you handload? You could, according to what I put together reading the Hornady 5th Edition manual- both sections of '06 and M1 Garand; there's numbers that cross up there; you just have to keep the bullet weights within safe range for the powder- you could take a charge of 42-50grs IMR 4895 under a 150gr SP or BTSP and run it between 2400-2800fps. I have some 165gr SPs loaded to run 2500fps with IMR 4895 too.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Just how much softpoint ammo will you shoot in your Garand? If you're shooting M2 Ball, you only need to confirm zero and then a round or two for your deer -- you'd probalby shoot less than 10 rounds of commercial ammo a year.

I load my own with 150 to 165 grain softpoint bullets, and use Hodgdon's recommended starting load for either H4895 or IMR 4895 or 4064. These are all safe and proven loads.