Is anybody using Amaxes in a Garand?

[BsChoy]

I am having a hard time deciding on using 168 Amaxes ( of which I have over 200 or buying some run of the mill 150 flatbase Hornady's for my Garand. Anybody using the 168 grain variety and if so, what powder and charge weight do you recommend?

 

[Sunray]

I've never used A-Maxes, but 168 grain match bullets work extremely well with IMR4064. 45.0 to 50.0. There's no need for 'milspec' primers either. Regular large rifle primers will be fine.
You'll have to work up the load for your rifle though. No two rifles will shoot the same ammo the same way. Even two identical, consecutive serial numbered rifles.

 

[BsChoy]

thanks sunray

 

[rg1]

Check this site: http://www.alabamaservicerifleteam.com/id17.html
For your info, I bought some bulk 150gr Hornady fmj bullets (no. 3037) to shoot in my Garand and was disappointed to find out the cannelure is not in the right place to crimp in the 30-06 case. I suspect it would be correctly located to crimp in the .308 case. They do shoot very well in my rifle but they are not crimped.
Hornady's manual has data for the M1Garand using your 168 Amax bullet. Hornady's data shows 47.1 grains of IMR4895 as maximum, 47.2 grains of IMR4064 as maximum, and 46.4 grains of H4895 as maximum, all in the 2600fps range. Hornady overall length for the 168 A-max was 3.240" and they used Hornady brass and Winchester Large Rifle primers in their test.
The surplus military 150 fmj flat-base bullets are fine for plinking and are still reasonable priced and the cannelure is correct for the 30-06 case if you prefer to crimp.