Garand 230 grain load

[Pirate69]

I may be getting close to a load that will work for me. The boolit used was conditioned as follows:

200 grain boolit, GC, sized 0.311”, air cooled, powdercoated AND Lee tumble lubed,and 32.5 grains of IMR4895 pulldown powder.

Group 1
Shot at fifty yards. Five rounds in a 1” target block. This looked promising.

Group 2
Shot at 100 yards. Five rounds in a 2.5” group. Also looked promising.

Group 3
Shot at 100 yards. Five rounds in a 1.25” group. This was too good to believe.

Group 4
Shot at 100 yards. This was an interesting looking group. It was 3.25” wide and 1”tall. Figured I may be starting to have leading problems so ran a ChoreBoy brush through the barrel. However, I did note that I had a slight lubestar on the end of the muzzle.

Group 5
Shot at 100 yards. Shot an eight round clip into a 3.75” group. That’s all I had loaded for this test.

I may have already reached "as good as I will get". I will do one more trial with a water quenched boolit, conditioned the same as before, to see if that helps. I would like to see consistent 8- round groups of 3” or less.

[Scharfschuetze]

I may have already reached "as good as I will get". I will do one more trial with a water quenched boolit, conditioned the same as before, to see if that helps. I would like to see consistent 8- round groups of 3” or less.

That's a realistic goal for the average M1 Garand. Some will do better and some will do worse, but it will often equal what M2 Ball ammo will do in the average M1 Garand.

[Pirate69]

Latest progress on my journey. For this test, I used boolits that have been water quenched from 400F. I prepared four 8-round clips. Boolits were weighed to eliminate any influence of boolit weight differences and two weights were used. Weights of 211.0 grains to 211.9 grains comprised the first weight group. 214.0 grains through 214.9 grains comprised the second weight group. Four groups were shot at 100 yards. The 1^stand 3^rd groups were 211 grains and the 2^nd and 4^thgroups were 214 grains.

200+ grain boolit, GC, sized 0.311”, water quenched from 400F, powder coated AND Lee tumble lubed, and 32.5 grains of IMR4895 pulldown powder.

Group 1 (211 grains)
Eight rounds in a 2.3”group. Nice round pattern. Center of group is X= -0.8, Y= 3.7 per TargetCal.

Group 2 (214 grains)
Eight rounds in a 2.75” group. Vertical in nature. Less than 2” wide. Center of group is X= -0.7, Y= 2.9 perTargetCal.


Made a scope adjustment at this point. Had been using a 4” high POI for testing so I would not cut the 1” circle used as a POA. Think this was a mistake.


Group 3 (211 grains)
First shot was 3.5” lower than where the impact should have been. Second shot was 2” lower than expected POI. The next six rounds settled into a 1.5”group at the expected POI. I had mounted a cheap 4X scope on the rifle and it appears the scope has a problem when adjusted.

Group 4 (214 grains)
Eight round group of 3.25”. Seven rounds measured 2” at the expected POI. Could have had a flyer or could have been me.

It was nice to see that there did not appear to be any fouling issues through 32 rounds. That is an improvement. Looks like the harder boolit works. I think, overall, I am seeing smaller grouping than before. Looking at the group centers and extreme spreads for the first two groups, it does not indicate that boolit sorting by weight has any major impacts. Horizontal was almost identical but there was about 0.8” vertical difference.

I think I have a load that will consistently give 3”or less groups and minimal fouling problems. Next step is to see if I can eliminate the Lee lube and only powder coat. Need to change the scope as well.