M1 Garand and cast observations over 6 months

[fatelvis]

After shooting cast bullets out of my Garand for some time, I always scrubbed it out with chore boy, and it appeared clean from the muzzle. Recently, I bought a bore cam, and it showed that I was missing spots of leading in the bore, that scrubbing could not touch. I found that Lewis Lead remover system carries a 30/32 caliber head as well as the usual 38/357, 44 cal and 45 cal. After screwing it on a cleaning rod, and pulling it through the bore twice, it proved to be effective. Just trying to pass on some cleaning knowledge to you guys that don’t have a bore cam. Good shooting!

[M1fuzz]

Well, I used my load listed above for our local Cast Bullet Association military bench rest shoot yesterday......

What a joke!!! What an embarrassment!!!!! It all went to Hades in a handbasket. Damn thing was landing them everywhere!!!! Back to the Drawing board. I didn’t even keep score after the first target. It was awful. Just used the rest of the rounds to try to make sense of what happened. Rounds landing everywhere. No rhyme or reason.

[charlie b]

This thread finally got me off bottom dead center with my Garand. Had never reloaded for it but kept a boatload of Lake City brass I got from a bulk purchase of ammo at CMP many years ago.

After loading up some 168gn Amax and getting decent results I moved on to the two cast bullets I use in my .308. The Acc 31-210E (Eagan copy) and the NOE 165XCB, both powder coated. For powder I am using IMR4166. That is the 'new improved' version of 4064.

Both shoot really well, and probably would do better if I could see the bullseye better 2-3" with 35gn of powder driving the 210gn bullet. I size them at .210 and the nose at .302. The rifling just marks the powder coat on the nose section so the fit is pretty good. No velocity on it yet.

The 165's do really well on 34gn. Just under 2000fps and also 2" groups.

Thanks for the encouragement!

[Newtire]

Any data/observations with 311299's that have been lube sized and NOT powder coated? Intrigued, but not interested in painting bullets.

I felt the same way until my daughter started dating a guy who powder coated. It was either start powder coating or not get to see my granddaughter so I gave in. Found out it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I still use lube on my Snider and Gibbs slugs so it still enables me to smell that sweet smell. Living the dream I guess you could say.

[LenH]

post deleted

[LenH]

Not sure about the 311-299 bullet but I have a 311-199-SP-K5 NOE bullet. I couldn't get it to shoot out of a 1-12 twist .308 but I want to try in my Garand.
Just curious about this bullet. I might try and powder coat and see if it will shoot. I have plenty of IMR 4895.

[slim1836]

Well, y'all hurry and find out what works best, I just bought my new to me M1 yesterday.

Slim

[Wilkija]

Bringing this back from the past!
Hello all,
Anyone else ever get a good load figured out? I think i have something with acme coated 155 grain and IMR3031. Sitting right around 1900-1950fps One big thing that helped was to 45-45-10lube the coated bullets. Zero leading now and a smidge more accurate.it cycles great to, once i figured out these things get greased not lubed. Just wondering where everyone else is at since this thread is a smidge old.

[Newtire]

Who posted this? It wasn't me.

[Newtire]

I felt the same way until my daughter started dating a guy who powder coated. It was either start powder coating or not get to see my granddaughter so I gave in. Found out it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I still use lube on my Snider and Gibbs slugs so it still enables me to smell that sweet smell. Living the dream I guess you could say.

Someone is posting using my name.

[Wilkija]

Maybe you forgot? It was a long time ago.

[K43]

Lots of good info from everyone. Always learning even after shooting Garands for over 40 years.
Thank you OP and contributors.

[Bigslug]

Good to see this thread revived. To those who have found M1/cast success, do you have any chronograph velocity data to go with these loads?

[Newtire]

I don't even own a Gibbs.

[charlie b]

Good to see this thread revived. To those who have found M1/cast success, do you have any chronograph velocity data to go with these loads?

NOE 165 (XCB) 34.0gn IMR4166 1980fps
ACC 31-210E 34.9gn IMR4166 1890fps

Unfortunately it looks like that powder may not be made again.

[rockshooter]

Newtire- thats the one you sold to me for $25- I'll get over there one of these days to pick it up.
Loren

[Bigslug]

I'll be adding my own contributions to this one in one week. . .maybe two. The next range trip I'll be mentoring a newbie - if they show enthusiasm for this dry, propeller-head science, I'll break out the chronograph and get it done. If not, then next time.

Since the forum's photo allowance thing is now possessed by Satan, I'll resort to the thousand words of the same worth. . .

I'll be doing my testing with the Accurate 31-200V, which is basically the 311299 with a slightly shorter bore ride section, a little more taper in the nose, and Tom's minimal flat point of 0.18"

WORTHY OF NOTE FOR GARAND SHOOTERS: I purchased that mold to have a flat point plinker bullet in controlled-feed bolt actions that were fussy feeding the blunter 31-194D. On a wild impulse, I noted that the Garand's feeding system out of the clip does a WONDERFUL job of aiming the bullet pretty directly into the chamber, and the 31-200V goes in without suffering any meplat damage. If you have flat point .30 molds in your collection, it might be worth testing them in your M1 for hunting or short range jug busting.

At any rate, I'll be working with 8-shot strings in half-grain steps from 34 to 36 grains of H4895, CCI34's, 2500+ lube, and Lyman #2 at a lubed and gas-checked weight of 194-195 grains, sized at .309" out of Winchester brass. My hope is that the 34 grain charge short-strokes the action, duplicating the OP's results with IMR4895 and firming up our bottom end data point.

Stay tuned, sports fans!

[Bigslug]

I'll be doing my testing with the Accurate 31-200V, which is basically the 311299 with a slightly shorter bore ride section, a little more taper in the nose, and Tom's minimal flat point of 0.18". . .

. . .I'll be working with 8-shot strings in half-grain steps from 34 to 36 grains of H4895, CCI34's, 2500+ lube, and Lyman #2 at a lubed and gas-checked weight of 194-195 grains, sized at .309" out of Winchester brass. My hope is that the 34 grain charge short-strokes the action, duplicating the OP's results with IMR4895 and firming up our bottom end data point.

As promised, here we go. It was pretty miserable between 100F and 105F on the range today. The Truth seems to be in the 35.5-36.0 grain ballpark - - the velocities of lower charges were not too impressive:

34 grains (it and everything else cycled 100%):
High: 1949
Low: 1842
Spread :117
Average: 1875
Std. Dev.: 39

34.5 grains:
High: 1958
Low: 1845
Spread: 113
Average: 1896
Std. Dev.: 34

35.0 grains:
High: 2025
Low: 1895
Spread: 130
Average:1935
Std. Dev.: 40

35.5 grains:
High: 1975
Low: 1945
Spread: 30
Average:1959
Std. Dev: 12

36.0 grains:
High: 2035 (This one round was a curve-wrecker.)
Low: 1954
Spread: 81 (Curve-wrecker removed, 26)
Average: 1975 (Curve-wrecker removed, 1971)
Std. Dev.: 25 (Curve-wrecker removed. . .my brain don't math, so ??? Tighter than the previous charge at any rate.)

The lower charges didn't do anything to impress on paper - probably just way too much empty space in the case. The hotter two look like they can be tweaked into something that will consistently shoot into 3MOA or better with some massaging of seating depth and re-learning the rifle. Only two rounds broke 2,000 fps, and they were well above the rest of their groups - more stringent brass sorting measures might be the fix.

[dale2242]

My Garand cycles just fine with 32 gr IMR 4895 and any cast bullet in the 150gr-200gr range.
I use 1gr. of Dacron to hold the powder on the primer.
This was suggested by Larry Gibson, who has done extensive testing with fillers.
We have shot well over 1K of these loads without one malfunction.
My rifle was dismantled and cleaned by a Garand expert without any lead buildup in the gas system.

[Larry Gibson]

My Garand cycles just fine with 32 gr IMR 4895 and any cast bullet in the 150gr-200gr range.
I use 1gr. of Dacron to hold the powder on the primer.
This was suggested by Larry Gibson, who has done extensive testing with fillers.
We have shot well over 1K of these loads without one malfunction.
My rifle was dismantled and cleaned by a Garand expert without any lead buildup in the gas system.

Suggest a try with a dacron filler with the H4895 reduced to 30, 31 and 32 gr.