M1 Garand Loads?

[tdmoparguy]

What's the recipe to reload .30-06 for an M1 Garand?

 

[pdcrig]

I like using 46 to 48 grains of IMR4064 with a 168gr Sierra Matchking bullet. If you're using military bass go with the lower powder charge. I use CCI 200 primers and get good accuracy and reliability. It's important to full length size the cases as well.
If you've got more questions check any good reloading manual and it should have a Gas Gun reloading section.

 

[tdmoparguy]

Thanks man that's some good information.

 

[Jefpainthorse]

Make sure you use the hardest primers you can find...M1's are know to slam fire on soft commercial primers (esp if the firing pin hole is a bit out of spec)

Federal used to offer a mil spec primer...

 

[pdcrig]

Glad I could help. JefP has a good suggestion about the Mil primers. I've never used them and have never had trouble with the commercial primers. You may want to give them a try just to be on the safe side. I'm going to purchase some in the future and test them. I think Winchester, Federal, and CCI offer them but that may have changed. Shop around and you'll find what you need.

 

[criticalbass]

I suppose you know not to shoot commercial ammo in an M-1 unless it is specially loaded for the gun. Off the shelf ammo, according to my milsurp shooting friends, is too hot and can damage a Garand. CB

 

[gl89aw]

Does anyone know if this holds true to a WW2 vintage Johnson semi-auto, I have a friend that has one and has been shooting standard commercial ammo in it. Hate for him to damage it.

 

[KurtM]

Ahhh Well a Johnson M1941 is a rotory bolt, 10 round magazine 30-06 battle rifle. It was made by the Johnson Automatic Rifle company. It was tested and deployed by the U.S.M.C. durring WWII. Matter of fact the Johnson Rifle concept is well known today as the operating system found in the M-16 he had an 8 lug rotating bolt identical to the AR's. it was a short "recoil" operated system, much like the M-14 gas piston so standard 30-06 loads will be fine in the Johnson. I have been told by afficianados that it is best to stay under 180 grain bullets. The reason regular 30-06 loads are bad in an M1 is that the pressure curve is wrong for the long old op-rod which can and will bend with Non Military type loads. KurtM

 

[CAR-AR-M16]

M1941 Johnson Rifle

 

[1911user]

One option to shoot commercial 30-06 ammo in an M1 rifle is to use a vented gas plug. It is a replacement gas plug that has a small hole to vent some gas and reduce pressure on the op rod. On some plugs, the vent hole size can be changed or adjusted depending on how much gas bleed off is needed.

It's a crude system that requires some range time to find the vent size that allows enough gas pressure to work the rifle action without excess gas pressure to the op rod. One would be almost mandatory for a heavy bullet (180gr and up), high pressure 30-06 hunting load in an M1.

I also recall that either the basic Federal American Eagle or Remington UMC 150gr FMJ loads were M1 gas-system safe. I think it was the Federal load, but it'd be worth a call to them before shooting a bunch of it.

For reloading, Accurate Arms powder did have special data for the M1 rifle. I couldn't find it on the website anymore but I saved the file several years ago. It is attached it to this post. Change the filename to .pdf instead of .zip before opening. I had to change the name so it would fit the upload size limits here. PDFs are limited to 19K where .zip files can be up to about 100K in size. The file is 46K and has data for 150gr FMJ and 168gr BTHP using several AA powders.