M-1 Garand Commercial Ammo

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tcourtplayer
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M-1 Garand Commercial Ammo

Post by tcourtplayer »

Ok, yes I know surplus ammo is the way to go but...

I am trying to avoid opening one of my two remaining CMP spam cans of Greek surplus and I have fallen behind on my reloading. For Christmas, I'm heading up to the fiance's family and plan on taking my old CMP M1 to plink off some rounds with the future in laws. While I still have a dozen clips worth of ammo to take, I'm sure that that will not be enough between 4 gunny guys for an afternoon of fun. Yes there will be other toys, but lets face it, considering I'm the only one of the 4 that will have ever shot a battle rifle before much less an M1 a dozen clips will just not be enough to scratch that itch I'm sure they'll get.

So help me out, what are some commercial ammo's out there that others have used and can be trusted for use in the Garand. While not trying to be cheap, lets not go overboard b/c this isn't going to be a competition, just a friendly afternoon of plinking. Thanks again for the help
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morsetaper
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Re: M-1 Garand Commercial Ammo

Post by morsetaper »

I've used American Eagle 150g FMJBT's in mine successfully. Can't speak for anything else though, I roll my own, too.
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Whirlibird
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Re: M-1 Garand Commercial Ammo

Post by Whirlibird »

+1 on the A.E. 150's.
Rich Jordan
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Re: M-1 Garand Commercial Ammo

Post by Rich Jordan »

PMC used to make an M2 equivalent .30-06 loading; it came in green camo boxes. I understand it has not been made for a few years now.

Federal used to make a load for the CMP; I believe it was also labeled as American Eagle, sold at Camp Perry, and used at the matches there until the Greek stuff came in and demand for the Federal dried up so they stopped making it. It was loaded appropriately for the M1 gas system.

The red box AE is not loaded for the M1. There have been long threads in the past on the CMP forums, as well as Culver Shooters Pages (Gus Fisher) and an article in the Garand Collectors Association newsletter concerning the red box AE.

There are reports that the Federal Gold Match is compatible with the M1 but the price is steep.


Its really a crap shoot using commercial ammo. Its not like one or even a few rounds is going to cause damage. But the chance of damage is not negligible. The most likely problem will be the oprod bending from the excessive force applied by the excessive gas pressure; that can cause a whole slew of other problems.

Best bet; open your spam can of M2 and order another to replace it. (I know the pain; I still regret opening my one can of M72 match and shooting one box 15 years ago ; )

Second: order an adjustable gas plug (McCann, using replaceable vents, or Schuster, using an adjusting screw) and use it to very safely use commercial ammo to your heart's content, though it will take a few rounds up front to get the proper jet or adjustment. Then you can use whatever decent ammo you get a fair price on; AE 150gr will be fine, name brand hunting ammo (without too big of an exposed lead tip that could cause hangups) should be fine.

I don't know how people feel about steel cased Wolf/Barnaul/etc in an M1 (I wouldn't shoot it)
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Windy Wilson
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Re: M-1 Garand Commercial Ammo

Post by Windy Wilson »

I went to my local purveyor of fun things that go bang, and asked them specifically what commercial loadings suitable for the Garand I should buy to use in the Garand. They sold me several boxes of Federal American Eagle in a red box with an eagle on it. This was in 2005 or 2006. These are not safe for the Garand?
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NVGdude
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Re: M-1 Garand Commercial Ammo

Post by NVGdude »

Windy Wilson wrote:I went to my local purveyor of fun things that go bang, and asked them specifically what commercial loadings suitable for the Garand I should buy to use in the Garand. They sold me several boxes of Federal American Eagle in a red box with an eagle on it. This was in 2005 or 2006. These are not safe for the Garand?
I have always heard that they were fine. Seems there may be some slight disagreement on that though. (per above)

Be interesting if someone were to chrony it out of an M1, Federal's 2900 fps figure will be out of some minimal chambered test fixture. I'd expect real world velocities to be a couple hundred fps slower.
Rich Jordan
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Re: M-1 Garand Commercial Ammo

Post by Rich Jordan »

I'll try to find my GCA issue with the article. There have been a number of posts on other boards about folks contacting Federal and being told the commercial red box AE 150gr FMJ is not recommended for use in the M1 because of the powder being incorrect (too slow) and the primer not being 'mil-spec'.

The latter is less of an issue; I think its Federal just covering their butts. Single-loading can tend to However Federal does have the rep of having the softest/most sensitive primers relative to CCI and Winchester. They used to say that their match ammo had appropriate powder but still didn't have match primers.

There was a lot of confusion because Gus Fisher was quoted as recommending Federal American Eagle; he's a very well known M1/M14 armorer. He was referring to the version made for and sold by the CMP but a lot of folks assumed it was the commercial stuff.

I have quite a few boxes of the commercial stuff I bought early on; I won't use it in the M1s any more, at least without the adjustable gas plug.
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Denis
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Re: M-1 Garand Commercial Ammo

Post by Denis »

I don't have a Garand, but I know from my FN-49 how much of a beating the mechanism takes if the gas port isn't adjusted correctly to match the ammunition. I really wouldn't want to subject a non-adjustible repeater to very much of the wrong ammunition. Especially a weak one like the Garand :lol:

Of course, the nice thing about the FN-49 is that I can tune the mechanism to suit the load, so that it doesn't batter itself, and it drops the used brass where I can reach it.
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