what to expect from a Garand

[jonk]

As issued, I'd agree, about 3MOA. If you go national match on it, with new barrel, op rod, etc., around 1MOA.

[RU shooter]

So it seem to get one to shoot even close to what my 03A3 will do easily is to buy a cmp rifle (500 bucks) and add a good barrel(350 bucks and up) and add smithing fees I'm up to a thousand Ouch.....! I think that settles my desire for a M1 Garand,Yes I would like to own one but the ho hum accuracy would make the novelty of it wear off within a short time.


Thanks for the opinions,Tim

[mouser868]

Mine is a commercial Garand and I get 3\4 to 1 1\2 inch groups with it at 100 yards using handloads.

[koehn,jim]

I have two of them one is a national match and one is just a great shooter. I find them to be a heck of alot of fun to shoot, as far as accuracy they are a battle rifle designed for about 3 inches at 100 yards both of mine will do 2 inches or less when I do my part. I have found that much of the fun is developing a good load. I have just started working on cast loads for the one and fully expect 2-3 inches at 100 yds. I personally feel that is quite sufficent for shooting sil. or targets. If you want extreme accuracy I have 22-250 or 25-06 that do a lot better but they are not as much fun.

[Doug Bowser]

I have 2- Springfield Arsenal M1 Garand Rifles that will shoot 1-3/4" groups off the bags at 100 yards with my special lot of LC 66 M2 ammo. I picked both of the rifles out at Anniston and Camp Perry. The muzzle wear # is 1.5 on both rifles and the throat wear is 3 or less. The important thing is the service rifle bedding. Hold the rifle at the wrist and grab the gas cylinder. Pull the barrel forward and there should be no forward and backward movement of the barrel group in the stock. Also grasp the forearm of the stock and the lower hand guard. There should be a slight upward pressure on the barrel group. This action sets the barrel back to the same place in relation to the forearm between each shot.

Doug Bowser

[AaronJ]

my IH garand shooting 168 matchkings does about 1.5-2 inches at 100 yds from the bench.

[Uncle R.]

My CMP special with brand-new barrel does right around 2 MOA with HXP ball. That is very good ammo - and that's the most accurate of 3 Garands I've owned so far. Lake City ball is closer to 3 MOA in this rifle and I still consider that pretty dang good.

[crawfobj]

Not sure how to do the math to convert to MOA, but 6/8 rounds on target at a life size ram cutout at measured 500 yards was what the last one I shot did, and that was with surplus ammo and not much practice with it. Wish I could get back out to that place and make that target ring some more!

The landowner/rifle owner pitted me against his known quantity buddy to see who could shoot the M1 better - I beat him by 1 hit!

My other experience was at a charity shoot for wounded veterans. 24 rounds fired for smallest group. Mine was good for second and a steak dinner, beating out several active duty and vets, including the owner of the steakhouse!!! Darn good steak dinner and a bottle of wind with the Mrs., by the way.

This is making my trigger finger itch.

[home in oz]

I good cast boolit load for the Garand?

[sqlbullet]

BobS Load. This is the standard. I use a 200 gr lee bullet since I am too cheap to pay for a Lyman mold.

Variation:

I have also tested with 32 grains of Varget + .75 gr dacron, all other the same as BobS Load. Just as good or maybe a bit better accuracy from my guns. Function was 100%.

34 grains of Reloader 15 + .75 gr dacron was as good accuracy, but was not 100% on function.

And, in case you are worried about your op-rod, cast bullets produce different pressure curves than jacketed bullets. Your op-rod will not become a pretzel because you violated the heavy bullet/slow powder rules. Those rules apply to jacketed bullets.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I load mine with cast boolits and a dacron filler. They move at about 1750 FPS per my chrony and are a blast to shoot.

Low recoil, low muzzle blast, low noise and slings empties about 2 feet in front of the rifle and to the right. Cheap to shoot and accurate on steel gongs out to 300 yds.

I put a globe front sight on mine and using a good rest I can hit the steel plate 8 x out of 8 x at 300 yds. Plate is 18" from top to bottom and 12 inches wide.

It makes a very satisfying CLANG when hit and it is a highly amusing activity to boot.

Keeping the powder charge low keeps the rifle cooler and I can blast off 3 or 4 clips of ammo before I need to let it cool down.

Once going out to 440 yds I really had to crank in the elevation and the wind now was more effectual on the boolits and they wandered around more.

Kicking up the powder charge does not really improve the accuracy so I suppose I will try to PSB filler to see if that helps out things.

[shotman]

glad to see some REAL groups Have seen some posts at 1/2in at 100yds with open sights I AINT FROM MO but would have to be there. Ihave 2 both near mint ww II and they do good but not 1/2in found the 413 does the best with 5477 a good load and will leave brass about 3 ft
I got a scope mount for a Garand and going to try it,kind of pain to put on but will do on one and see

[txpete]

alot of it is the person shooting it.I see sometimes on forums where some one is claiming 1/2 or 1/4 " groups with a stock M1 @ 100 meters I just smile.my eyes are going south and bifocals and peep sights are not the best of friends.
I am very happy when I can make a mountain dew can do a dance on the back berm.
pete

[missionary5155]

Good morning
The only thing I really exspect from my Garands is that pleasant chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk,chunk, chunk, chunk,PING ! All the rest is pure delight.
Battle field accuracy... Hit the target in the chest and search for another target.

[oldhickory]

Good morning
The only thing I really exspect from my Garands is that pleasant chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk,chunk, chunk, chunk,PING ! All the rest is pure delight.
Battle field accuracy... Hit the target in the chest and search for another target.

That pretty well sums it up, Mike.

[Crash_Corrigan]

Out here in the Mojave Desert I have an out of town shooting site where the backstop is a mountain on BLM land. I am not concerned about richochets or whatnot since the only life forms ahead of the muzzle have four tiny feet or are at least 6 miles away. If I was shooting a 50 BMG I would have a concern but with my powder puff cast loads not so much.

However a six pack of water filled aluminum cans at 25 yds are a different and a very entertaining set of targets. The idea is to see how many clips of ammo it will take to move all those cans out to 100 yds. The problem is that some of them get so blown up and torn apart that after only a few shots they are shredded and offer only a flat target. I consider those targets DRT and move on to healthier targets.

If I leave out the water they manage to hang together a mite better and I hafta hit the dirt in front of the target to get them to dance. If I hit them directly the boolit makes a hole and tears through the metal without moving the can too much. I need to move them along.

Once they get out there beyond 60 yds or so it is a tough shot but I bring a lot of ammo and I usually win. Golf balls are also a very reactive and interesting target to shoot. If you hit one just right you will have a drive to make a golfing pro envious.

For these fun targets I set them up at about 20 yds on a plank suspended across between two rocks. We put felt tip markers on each ball and have at it. The standing record shot we have measured at well over 600 yds and most will go at least 200 feet if hit properly.

I was amazed to see how some of the balls, hit on an tangent take off and spin in all directions except straight ahead. Others chunked at the base go straight up and hardly move ahead at all. Going to a .223 at 3000 FPS we get an explosion sometimes. The golf ball just turns into shredded stuff and dissapears. All you find are tiny bits of white cover and pieces of rubber. The really old wound golf balls are more fun. They seldom explode but get shredded pretty good and leave trails of rubber bands all over the place.

Bowling Pins, inflated baloons, Necco Wafers, Clay Birds, Golf Balls and blocks of wood can all be fun to blast away at. We bring a big garbage can with us and we take away more trash than we make just to keep the place a little neater.

The best reactive target I ever saw was a five gallon metal can that was sealed down tight and shot at 300 yds by my buddy Blake. He used a custom 450 Dakota rifle and when he hit the target it jumped up about 40 feet in the air and was totally destroyed when the bullet hit the water inside and of course the water went in all directions at once and demolished the metal can. What made it more fun was the fact that he had colored the water bright red and you could not miss seeing the red mist floating in the breeze after the impact of the bullet.

[dpaqu]

I've been getting 3-4 moa @ 600 yards prone, military sling with good light and no wind. That with HXP. I'm going to try some 168gr A-maxes in the HXP cases soon. I'm not sure how anyone shoots 1moa with these with the original sights on them, must be better shoots than me.

This is how I think about it. Its more accurate than I am unless conditions are perfect and I'm slung in, zen like low heart-rate, and am shooting as best as I can. If I stand up, sit, breath hard, rapid fire ect. then just about any Garand is more accurate than me.