Garand - - 210 HBC

[Ben]

I shot my Garand today with the Lee , 210 gr. HBC, 11.5 Unique, Fed 210's. A pleasant load and super accurate also ! !

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/1-7.jpg

[Char-Gar]

Ben.. That is a very nice group..Aladin would be jumping for joy..now move that target out fo 100 and 200 yards and let's see what it will do. I have one of those molds but have never taken it out of the box.

[Ricochet]

Nice shooting!

I like that boolit! Too bad it would only fit in a single cavity mould. And that it got shortened a tad from the original design for those poor folks with 1:12" rifling.

[Ben]

I just recently purchased this Garand, this was my 1st opportunity to shoot the rifle.
I thought that I better start out at 50 yds. After seeing what the rifle is capable of at 50 yds., I'll move on out to 100 yds.

Ben

[garandsrus]

Ben,

That's an excellent group for any rifle and especially good for a Garand. Does the load cycle the action?

Did you get the Garand from the CMP?

John

[Ben]

John:

No - - - the action doesn't cycle, but then again I don't have to pick up cases either. I wanted a load that I could shoot economically that would be easy on the shoulder and still be accurate. I think I've found it.

This is not a CMP Garand. I bought this rifle from a Garand collector. My rifle was made in late 1944 and completely Ordnance overhauled in Oct. of 1964 with a new barrel, etc. Bore less than 1.0 - - - T.E. less than 2.5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/M%20-%201%20Garand/PICT0003.jpg

Ben

[hicard]

Excuse my ignorance but, what does the HCB stand for?

[Blammer]

nice wood!

I'd just take out the gas plug at the end and then you wouldn't have to worry about it 'short' strokin at all, since you don't want it to cycle anyways.

That way any lead that does go down the gas port will be immediatly pushed outside and harmless.

Now, I'm not talking about the whole gas system, just the plug that screws into the end of the gas tube.

[smokemjoe]

I shoot that 311284 casted hard, with 40 Grs. 4064, Exc. load for 100 -200 yds.

[garandsrus]

Blammer,

If you take out the gas plug, the gas cylinder, which the front sight is attached to, would be loose. You won't get any decent groups by doing that! The gas cylinder could even work it's way off the rifle due to recoil.

What some folks have done is to either get an adjustable gas plug or drill a hole in their gas plug. Normally the adjustable plug is for folks that want to shoot slower powders than recommended. It allows some of the gas to bleed off before smacking the Op Rod. The hole in the plug is no different than the adjustable plug, except that it can't be adjusted other than going bigger!

John

[Blammer]

hmm, you're probably right on that! not a good idea!

was just thinking and didn't have my M1 infront of me....

an adjustable gas plug with the adjustment removed would also do the trick.

[Herb in Pa]

Excuse my ignorance but, what does the HCB stand for?

HBC=High Ballistic Coefficeint

[TAWILDCATT]

the granade launcher has a pin to open the gas plug the back of the launcher could be detached (how)and used.just a thought as my guns have the right plug

[hunter64]

garandsrus: You know you learn something new everyday. I have had my Garand for about 5 years now and I have only ran full power FMJ with IMR 3031 as recommended by the NRA, I have always wanted to try a light cast bullet thru her but have always shied away from it because of the reported lead build up in the gas cylinder and being a mess to have to clean up after. I think I will buy another gas plug and just drill a hole in the middle and try my Lee C309-180-R that works great in my 30-30. You don't worry about slam fires? Never had one but the manuals I have all recommend the special one shot clip thingy, personally I think it is alot of crap but you never know. What size of hole do I need to drill in the end of the plug?

[garandsrus]

Hunter64,

I don't worry too much about slam fires and have never had one. I have never been at the range when anyone else had one either. I'm sure they have happened though. I do make sure that all my primers are fully seated. I normally use CCI 34 primers when loading for the Garand also. They are supposed to have a little bit thicker cup to help prevent slam fires. The other reason I use them is that I got a bunch on sale at Wideners. They are still running the sale, $70 for 5000 primers. I have been using these for all my cast 30-06 loads and so far they are working fine.

You do want to be a little careful when single loading the Garand. If you close the bolt a little before letting if go, you shouldn't have any trouble. Don't let it get up a full head of steam when not stripping a cartridge. I REALLY LIKE the SLED (Single Load Enhancement Device). I am left handed and it makes it much easier to load. After you "snap" a load in the sled, you just pull back on the bolt handle and let it go to load the round. It is much easier to load than depressing the follower to close the bolt. I can only shoot one rifle at a time, but I have two SLED's so that anyone else shooting one of my rifles can use it also.

I don't know how large a hole you would need in the gas plug to make the rifle not cycle, but I would start out pretty small and increase it as needed. I would probably start at 1/16", but again, I am just guessing.

I haven't shot many cast rounds through my Garand as I have been busy with several other rifles, 03A3, Swedish 6.5, K-31, Win 94 .375, Marlin 35 Rem, plus the pistols!

Several folks have said that very little lead makes it's way into the gas cylinder. What little that does wipes out easily. When I work up a Garand load, I hope to get one that will cycle the bolt and feed the next round.

If you haven't tried the Greek surplus ammo the CMP is selling, you really should. At about $.20/round it's hard to reload any cheaper, plus you get the brass, bandoliers, and clips. The ammo is close to match accuracy in a Garand, sometimes beating my handloads with Sierra 168's. If you want to try a couple clips worth, let me know.

John

[hunter64]

garandsrus

I live in Canada so I can not order greek stuff up here, you can buy some once in a while when a dealer brings some in but it is rare and the prices they want are not that great. I think I will buy a SLED and an extra plug to play with. Funny thing was that 15-20 years ago all the Garands that were in Canada were WW2 rifles in prestine condition, alot of them are all orig. and some hard to find ones at that. They were selling at 100 bucks a crack and my dad bought a whole case of them, 25 rifles and you should have seen the look on mom's face when he brought them home. He went thru them all and kept the best 10 of them and the others he sold off about 5 years ago and made huge money, 600-800 a piece. The one he gave me was made in Jan. 1944 and is all orig. battle sights, all the correct markings on the stock etc. and it is a dream to shoot. He still has a couple of rare ones from International Harvester and Harrington and Richardson and someday they will be mine also.

[BruceB]

For my purposes, I have enough manually-operated rifles. When shooting the Garand, M1A or other autoloaders, I want them functioning the way they were intended to be fired...semi-auto.

The much-ballyhooed "lead fouling" in the gas system is pure, unmitigated bullcrap, at least in the three or four Garands and one M1A in which I've used cast bullets extensively. BULLCRAP! One more Internet handloading myth, is what it is, IF you load correctly.

Not too long ago, I fired over 600 consecutive cast-bullet rounds through my Garand, WITHOUT cleaning it or otherwise disturbing it. It was still functioning perfectly when I decided to strip it out of curiosity. NO "lead fouling" in the bore or gas system. Filthy, yes. Metallic fouling...ZERO.

I've had precisely the same results in my M1A, firing well over 500 consecutive rounds without seeing that boogeyman lead fouling.

I use water-dropped wheelweight bullets sized .311" and mostly moderate-speed powders. 3031, 4895, 4064, all work well. Start around the 35-grain mark with 4895 with normal-weight (150-180) gas-checked bullets. Some slow-burners NOT RECOMMENDED for jacketed loads also work very well in Garands....4350 and the 4831s, for example, do rather nicely in the Garand with CAST BULLETS ONLY.

Do a search here for "Garand", "M1", and "M1A", and you'll find a good bit of data. Awkward single-shots kinda leave me cold, but that's just MY opinion.

[garandsrus]

Hunter64,

Wow, that was a great deal on Garands! I have heard that M1 Carbines are relatively cheap in Canada also. They are 500+ in the states.

The SLED is well worth the money.

John

[hunter64]

BruceB

I think you nailed it on the head when you said sized to .311. I looked back thru my NRA manuals and cast bullet books and they all sized at .309 with various lubes and all recommended against it because of the sever fouling and hard clean up.

Did you beagle a .309 mold to get it to .311 or did you use a mold for a 7.62x39 /.303 british? What lube are you using?

[BruceB]

Hunter64, sir;


Many of my .30 moulds cast large enough for sizing at .311". Among them are my 311466, 311467, 311413, 311672, 311291, and some others as well.

.311 is my "go-to" diameter for all .30 rifles, meaning that's the diameter I start with, and I only change to a different one if a particular rifle seems that it wants something different. As long as the autoloaders chamber the rounds freely, there's no harm in using the .311 diameter.

My lube has been the Felix stuff from the Mother of All Lube Batches, created by Sundog and Felix. Since running out of that fine stuff, I'm using Lar45s' 50-50 and Carnauba Red, mixed two-to-one 50-50/CR...mostly because it seemed like a good idea. It certainly seems to be working well for me, anyway.