Greek ammo in my Garand

[aerod1]

Gander Mountain is selling some 150 gr. 30-06 ammo manufactured in Greece. It seems very inexpensive at $45.00 for 10 boxes. I think there are 20 rounds to the box. It is advertised as non corrosive.
Question:
Is this ammo safe for my M1 Garand? How is the quality? Any information on this ammo is appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[jefnvk]

Can't comment on it, but it is probably Olympic. As long as it is roughly loasded to M2 ball specs (which I don't know if it is or not), you should be good to go.

CMP has the cheapest '06, $48 for 240 rounds (12 boxes). I guess they have some commercial stuff now, too, for roughly the same price.

 

[Sunray]

"...seems very inexpensive..." If the price is right, buy it and clean as if it is corrosive. Match ammo it ain't, but if $45 for 200 rounds is a good price for you, buy it. Even if it is corrosive, it's not going to instantly ruin your rifle. No 150 grain bullet will damage your rifle.
The M-1, considering it's a first generation semi-auto battle rifle, is a very tough rifle. It's very difficult to break one. Despite what you've seen on-line. I've shot 220 grain bullets out of mine with no fuss or bother. It was designed to use 174.5 grain bullets not 150's. 165 or 175 grain match grade bullets seem to shoot best though. Mind you, I shoot handloads exclusively. Reloading makes the endless search for the best ammo price go away and you'd be using better ammo.

 

[heypete]

The CMP has some good, high-quality Greek stuff in now (HXP, I believe, is the headstamp). Heard some good things about it.

Olympic, while functional, is absolute crap. Dirty powder, horrible smell, occasionally misshaped casings preventing chambering in a bolt gun (before I had the Garand), massive fireball, and a huge PITA to clean. Not worth it.

The Korean M2 spec stuff is pretty darned good, and I highly recommend it.

 

[Swampy]

aerod,

(Same question... Same answer )

The Greek military surplus ammo, marked HXP, that the CMP is selling is M2 spec and is fine for the M1.

The Greek COMMERCIAL 30-06 ammo (Olympic brand??) is not M2 spec and is reported to be way too hot for the M1's gas system.

Make your choice accordingly....

Best regards,
Swampy

Garands forever

 

[Father Knows Best]

I can't comment on the quality of the ammo. I can say that $45 for 200 rounds doesn't sound like a bargain to me. Lake City from CMP is $192 for 960 rounds. That's $40/200 and you get very good U.S.-made non-corrosive ammo of known quality. In addition, it comes packed in four steel .30 cal ammo cans.

Another good option is Korean "PS" headstamp (Pu San Arsenal, I think, which was operated by PMC). I bought a bunch of it about a year ago, and I still see it out there. It's also non-corrosive, and generally sells for a little less than the Lake City stuff. I've had great success with it. Ammunitionstore.com has it for $42.95 for 200 rounds or $79.95 for 400 rounds.

 

[dscottw88]

CMP markets their greek surplus ammo as being non-corrosive and boxer primed. My question is has anyone tried reloading this brass? Is it good brass? How old is it? I want to get into reloading and was wondering if I should collect this stuff. Thanks!

 

[ftierson]

A blast from the past thread...

The short answer is that the Greek HXP .30 Cal. M2 ball ammo that the CMP is currently selling is great ammo, and the brass is excellent for reloading. And it comes packaged in Garand clips to boot.

The stuff that I've received from CMP has been dated from 1970 to 1978.

Get some while it's still available...

Forrest

 

[dmftoy1]

+1 on greek hxp from CMP!

Very nice brass, reloadable and shoots well in my Garand. (much better than I'm capable of holding)

My headstamps have been typically 68-72 but the bandoliers it came in are US mfg and are stamped 1956. (Thought that was interesting.)

 

[Fburgtx]

I'm not aware that CMP has any more Lake City. It sure isn't listed on their site! The only thing I've seen is Pyrkal HXP for $110/480 rounds.


Old Thread!!!!!!!!

 

[strat81]

Yes, HXP is fine for reloading. However, given current prices of HXP and reloading components, it doesn't make much sense to reload an M2 dupe.

 

[Rugerlvr]

Yeah, the CMP is busy selling off 60 Million rounds of the Pyrkal M2 ball. I just bought 1300 of it for $.26/rd.

 

[CU74]

CMP ran out of Lake City several months ago. (Fortuitously, I had received a case just before they announced they were out.)

My Garands shoot Greek HXP just fine, and reloads well also.

 

[NAK]

Just got 4 cans from CMP. They only charged my CC for shipping for 1 can.

I emailed em about the error...

 

[Bartkowski]

It is great ammo for the price.

The only problem with the ammo so far was with my friends garand. It ripped part of the base off upon extraction. I would buy as much as you can afford.

 

[Caipirinha]

Couldn't you just start a new thread rather than reply to a thread that's been dormant for 3 years?

 

[RockyMtnTactical]

Couldn't you just start a new thread rather than reply to a thread that's been dormant for 3 years?

Why should that matter?

It's based on the exact same topic. Why have 500 threads on the same topic? This combines the good information of yesteryear with the good information of today.

Should we start a new thread about the ACR every time someone wants to talk about it, or do we have to start a brand new ACR thread every week?

 

[JCMAG]

Why should that matter?

'Cause some goofs like me might not be checking the dates and read the whole terribly outdated thread...

I got pretty excited seeing them low ammo prices for Lake City from CMP.