lee C309-160-R ?

[dragonfire]

Thinking of getting this mold for my m1a and m1 garand , anyone ever use this bullet in these firearms? ,also what a few good starting loads? ,thanks

[bruce drake]

I use that bullet in my 308 Win Mauser and my 30-06 Garand. It works well in both depending on your loading.

It looks like you are looking for a load to cycle both rifles with two different calibers (308 and 30-06) or is your Garand rebarreled to 308 as well. I have a Macmillan Gas Plug in my Garand which is adjustable to the load. This way I can adjust the gas aperture too allow the Garand to operate with powder and bullet combinations other than the standard medium rate powders. I'd prefer to not give out a load that might bend the Operating Rod on your Garand if you don't have that device or another that's similar. I prefer a 200gr cast lead bullet over a load of Reloader 22 (both a slower than recommended powder and a heavier than recommended bullet) for my Garand.

One load that gave decent accuracy in my 30-06 Garand at 50 yards but didn't cycle the rifle (consider this a straight-pull bolt rifle) before I bought the adjustable gas plug was 10gr of Unique. Almost a sneeze load but than again, I was experimenting and keeping an old warhorse running is my prime load criteria.

Your M1A could probably go up a bit more on the pressure. I use 30gr of Varget as a light load in my 308 Mauser with that 160gr Bullet. It not a deer shooting load but a nice 1-200yd target load. It may even cycle your M1A as it is about a 3/4 of my Jacketed match load of 42grains at 2800fps.

WIth either rifle I recommend that you lube the bullet well and spray the piston faces prior to shooting with CLP or another lubricant to assist with any lead spray that might come through the gas hole during shooting.

HTH,

Bruce