Garand Ammo

[Citadel99]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking about buying a case of the Korean surplus ammo from Midway to shoot and then reload. I don't any brass right now for 30-06. Would I be beter off buying new brass and reloading or getting the Korean stuff, shooting it, and then reloading?

Mark

 

[stans]

deleted

 

[J Calhoun]

Is the Korean stuff boxer primed? If it is berdan primed, it won't be worth the effort and expense to reload. If it is boxer and uses the common military crimped primers, it may not be worthy the efort either. New '06 brass is cheap and easy to find.

I use mostly new bought Remington brass in my M1, M1903, M1917. I also have several hulls that I picked up at the range or were given to me. All of them work well enough.

 

[Penman]

When you do work up a load for your Garand, make sure the burning rate of the powder isn't too slow. The slower powders stress the Garand action. some of the loading manuals used to indicate which powders were suitable.

 

[Citadel99]

Thanks for the input. I was leaning towards starting off with new brass anyhow. Think I will. Unless I'm deployed I'll be able to get started in Jan/Feb when I move out to Fort Bragg. Can't wait.

Mark

 

[Publicola]

You'll come off cheaper buying the Korean stuff & then using the brass. A couple of things though:

The Korean stuff comes in two forms. KA & PS. KA is corrosive & it comes in clips &/or bandoleers. PS is non-corrosive & comes in boxes. So stick with the PS unless you like cleaning out corrosives from your Garand. But both are boxer primed & reloadable.

Also remember to reduce the powder charge 1 to 2 grains when loading mil-surp brass. It's thicker & has less internal volume so it generates higher pressures when loaded like a commercial case.

On reloading for the Garand:

stick with IMR 4064 or Imr 4895 or powders with burn rates in between those. This is to prevent excessive gas port pressure from damaging your op rod.

& stick with bullets between 147 & 178 grains. Anything heavier will adversely affect the gas port pressure & possibly damage your op rod. You can go lighter than 147 grains from what I'm told, but I have no experience with that. (Hell, I generally stick with 168 gr BTHP's or 165 grain SST's so I can't say i've loaded anything in the 170's or 150's - the 165/168 grain bullets are more than adequate for my needs)

Try the CCI No. 34 large rifle primers. They have a mil-spec sensitivity & reduce the chance of slam or out of battery fries. They also are magnum equivilent so watch the recipes you use. Barring that be shy of federal, as they're more sensitive than the other brands & thus more susceptible to that free floating firing pin setting them off upon chambering.

You'll have to get a special decapper to knock out the mil-surp primers & a special tool to route out the crimp left in the brass. It's a $10 investment or so & absolutely necessary if you want to reload mil-surp brass.

Uniform the primer pockets. You only have to do it once per case but you should do it. This squares the bottom of the primer pocket & allows the primer to seat a little deeper than otherwise. Ideally you want the primers .003 below flush. Again this is to prevent slam fires or out of battery fires.

Buy a cartridge headspace gauge & use it. You want to full length resize your brass. This is for reliable feeding as well as preventing the slam/out of battery fires.

If you can't adjust your full length sizing die enough to get the cartridge to fit in the cartridge headspace gauge, then go to a small base sizing die.

Everything else should be just like loading '06 for a bolt action. Reloading for a gas operated semi is more involved because they're not as forgiving as a bolt action. You simply cannot get away with some of the thing you get away with when loading for manually operated bolts. With a garand you have gas port pressure to think of, as well as a free floating firing pin & a lot of energy acting on the bolt to make it work. So you have to take a few extra steps to make sure you won't damage the Garand &/or yourself.

Also because of the full length sizing & the violent action of the Garand, expect case life to be short. I usually toss my brass after the 2nd or 3rd reload. You're chamber may be slightly smaller than mine & you might be able to use the brass longer, but I wouldn't count on more than 4 firings per case (including the initial firing of mil-surp bullet & powder).

But yeah, it comes out a little cheaper to buy the mil-surp & then reuse the cases. It's not a great deal cheaper but every little bit helps & the brass is thicker & thus might last 1 reloading more than the commercial stuff.

 

[Citadel99]

Publicola,

Thanks for the info.

Mark

 

[PDshooter]

Yep!
That's the powder i use...4895!
Surplus 147gr bullets

 

[Khornet]

I'll second Publicola

with one quibble: special decapper not needed in my experience. I've always used my standard RCBS dies with no decapping problems.

I've used a fair bit of the Korean PS stuff, and it's good.

That said, taking the crimp out of the primer pockets is a real PITA. I have a C-H primer pocket swager, which helps a lot, but I still need to touch up those pockets. So I favor getting a bunch of one-fired commercial brass to get started.

However, the current AIM Surplus deal of 400 PS rounds for 79.95 is cheaper than I can handload....so I bought some more.

 

[Ed]

I finally got around to sorting brass and starting reloading the Korean ammo yesterday. Started looking at it and uh-oh, about 75% was KA. As I cleaned the rifle as soon as I finished shooting every time there have never been any problems but that brass is a pain to uncrimp. The PS stuff to me was easy as can be in fact the ps 74 was like no crimp at all. The PS 75 did have one. That said, Is there some reason why I can't fit the uniformer in the KA brass? is the primer hole smaller?

 

[GooseGestapo]

C-99;
Ditto what Publicola said; but a couple of add ons;

Try to get you about 200 Federal '06 cases for match use. My brother used to shoot AF matches for AF-TAC Com team (w/m16's) and NRA highpower with his NM Garand. He did the "treatment" on numerous cases, and said that in retrospect, he'd been just as well off just using the Federal "as is", too include neck-turning. He picked up a few at local "sight-in" areas, and I sent him a "care-package" of about 400 I picked up at a local range back about '95, and now he has a lifetime supply.

Also, my brother say's try the Sierra 125spt for the 200yd rapid-fire. Adjust the powder charge to get best accuracy to get proper functions and best accuracy. He shellacked the Montana State NRA Master champ back one year in the '80's at their state championship in the 200yd event. (But of course, the Krieger barreled AR-15 w/ 80gr Berger VLD's "stomped" him at the 600yd line !!

BTW: Varget and RL-15 along with the '4895's are the best. My brother says he's "retro" like the gun, so he uses the IMR-4064 with good effect!!

Try the Sierra, Nosler, and Hornady 168's, and use the best in your gunfor the long lines. (due to throating, some guns have preference. My brothers gun does not, so, whoever's the best price when he needs more.

Good luck!

 

[WyrTwister]

Join the CMP & order some of the American ammo , it is reloadable .


God bless
wyr