Garand with light bullets

[RU shooter]

Well I always wanted one and finally got a M1 and will be picking it up on Sunday,And of course I want to shoot it the minute I have it in my hands.problem is All I have in jacketed bullets are 110 and 130 gr .Now I have read all the warnings about using slow powders,But what about different than the average 150 gr bullets. Any problems using these light weight bullets at sane speeds say 2800-3000 fps with 4895 should be 48-50 grs give or take.I'll have to wait till I get it to slug the barrel before I try cast in it. Hoping for success since it has a new barrel on it. Any advice would be appreciated.


Thanks,Tim

[GrizzLeeBear]

If your talking about IMR 4895, yes, that should work fine. I would load 16 rounds (2 clips) with the 130 grainers and 48 gr. of 4895 and shoot them. If they function and eject the clips properly, load up the rest and enjoy. You should be able to safely work up to the 50 gr. if needed to get proper functioning.

[oldhickory]

I agree with the bear.

[WineMan]

I have had full function with a 130 grain jacketed bullet and 41 grains of Ac 2495. You will be surprised how accurate these lighter bullets are especially at less than 200 yards. With normal charges of the appropriate powder (IMR 4895 burn rate) the recoil is much less. The Speer TNT 125 and even the Sierra 110 grain HP spire point work well too. I have only used cast that were 170 grains or greater. You need to be at 1,800 fps to get full function with cast. I have some 130 grain plain base cast that I will try someday, but too many other projects in the works.

Wineman

[nicholst55]

A lot of service rifle shooters use 125 grain j-word bullets for 100-200 yard shooting with great success. Recoil is very light, and they shoot good enough to be competitive. Especially for 100-yard paper punching, I would think they would be just about ideal - if (big word) the rifle will group them.

[Blammer]

I shoot 130gr bullets and use IMR3031 in my Garand, they work fine. I worked up the charge so it'd cycle the action and I got decent groups.

Killed my first deer ever with the above combo. :)

[RU shooter]

Thanks all, I got good function with as low as 44 grs accuracy wasnt very good till I got above 48 though. The serria 110 varmiter HP shoots real well so far.I also tried some cast loads in it ,Larry Gibsons recommended load of 32 grs of 4895(I used my Russian equivalent) a tuft of dacron and the Lee 185 and ly. 311467 functioned well enough and accuracy was good getting 1.25" for a full clip at 50 yds.


Thanks,Tim

[Pirate69]

My favorite jacketed load (150 gain bullet) is 42 grains if surplus IMR 4895. Works the action each and every time. My cast load is a 150 grain cast (GC) with 34 grains of IMR 4895 and a dacron filler. Action works, no leading and a clean barrel. Look for 2 MOA at 50yds or 4" at 100 yds. No made for a Rack Grade.