M1 Garand load work up question

[tominboise]

It's been awhile since I have worked up any loads for the M1 Garand, but I need to work up a new load using 168gr HPBT bullets. Anyway, my inclination is to ladder up charge weights in 8 shot groups, so I can just load each charge weight in an en bloc and shoot them. But it occurred to me that I could use a SLED and single load them and use 5 shot groups. That would exacerbate any issues with first round fliers when loading a fresh clip, but maybe it doesn't matter.

Is there a best practice for number of shots in a group for M1 Garands?

 

[Walt Krafft]

What powders do you have? There are known good safe loads that will require very little work up. I would single load and do not use a sled.

 

[XTR]

I‘ve never owned an M1, but I’m going to guess it should be pretty much like the AR15, or more likely the AR is like the M1, that the platform precision Is limited and there is only so much you can do. To that end there are known loads that just work. Service rifle isn’t known for load development. I’d bet there are some pretty pat recipes out there.

 

[tominboise]

Planning on starting with IMR4064 and H4895. Some work is required to check velocities and get the charge weight correct. Some working around the recommended charge weights is usually required due to lot variation of powders, bullets, etc.

 

[nmkid]

Don't load them too hot.

 

[RegionRat]

The best practice is not to expect a standard M1 Garand to run with a custom barreled and match prepped version. Set your expectations based on the version of the rig you are shooting.

All of these will benefit to some degree by being fed decent quality ammo.

Pick a good powder (H4895, Varget, 4064, etc.) , use a good bullet, use good neck tension (~0.003 - 0.0035") and a primer that is reliable against slam fire.

Here is a classic article on reloading for the Garand. There are decent Pet Load starting points to get a first look. Then, you might try to perturb the charge up or down a little to see if there is any effect at all.

Don't play around with light neck tension values on semi-autos. Use enough neck tension... as witnessed by your seating forces being well above 45 pounds, and closer to 50 - 90 lbs.



And here is a clip from the long gone NJ Highpower Reloading Stuph page.




Good Luck and Have fun.

 

[dstoenner]

I run 48 gn Varget or H4895 for 155 or 168 class bullets. Now i shoot 125 gn SMK and 50 gn H4895 for reduced recoil. All these loads will clean a SR1 with high x count.

This has worked for the 3 garands i have owned.

David

 

[RegionRat]

I run 48 gn Varget or H4895 for 155 or 168 class bullets. Now i shoot 125 gn SMK and 50 gn H4895 for reduced recoil. All these loads will clean a SR1 with high x count.

This has worked for the 3 garands i have owned.

David

+1 I agree.
For CMP Wooden Guns Games that are limited to 200 yards, loading lower recoil rounds in 120 - 125 grain bullets makes the rapids easier.
Now if they would only stop screwing around with the supply of H4895 we would all be better off.

 

[Zero333]

4 shot groups with a few sighters beforehand. In 0.5 gr increments.
That's 40 shots or less.
Done.

If 3 or 4 shots don't group then the 5th shot ain't gonna shrink the group.
Once you narrow things down a little then you can do more shots per group.

Forget a Lead Sled. It may change the harmonics of the rifle and deceive the results.

Hodgdon's M1 Garand Service load data...

 

[Zero333]

Even my M1A doesn't like anything besides mild loads. H-4895 and Win-748 are my Favorite powders for Service rifle loads.

 

[Bill K]

Back when I shot the Old Garand, 4895 was the powder that worked best, work around the 55 grn area with the 150 bullets.

 

[karrarararararar]

49.5gr of varget with 125 Speer tnt's. Makes the rapids much easier. Ditch the sled. You don't need it to single load and it isn't worth the trouble.

 

[jpjulian]

I used 46.0 of IMR4895 with WLR primers and 168SMK's. Function was good with decent accuracy.

 

[trebor244]

It's been awhile since I have worked up any loads for the M1 Garand, but I need to work up a new load using 168gr HPBT bullets. Anyway, my inclination is to ladder up charge weights in 8 shot groups, so I can just load each charge weight in an en bloc and shoot them. But it occurred to me that I could use a SLED and single load them and use 5 shot groups. That would exacerbate any issues with first round fliers when loading a fresh clip, but maybe it doesn't matter.

Is there a best practice for number of shots in a group for M1 Garands?

Be aware that the
CMP (DCMP) has issued pressure warnings! These guns are over 70 years old and Hornady has a section devoted to the M1. Victims of over-pressured loads are the OP-ROD, BOLT, and the RECEIVER. If you go to Camp Perry, they'll also have load advisories not to exceed 49,000 cup pressure. 4895 and 4064 work well

 

[Paddyd]

Try some N135 and N140 with155 gn match bullets. Another good powder for a Grand is IMR 4166 with the copper eraser.

 

[fatelvis]

I saved this part of a discussion with the retired head ballistician from Hornady, as I thought it was quite interesting:

 

[Doom]

When you look at the M1 design you have to remember the function it was designed for. It needed to accurate to a degree but also needed to allow for quick target acquisition. The barrel is nowhere near being free floated. Add to that the rifle is designed with manual sights with a rear aperture and front blade. I didn't measure the sight radius but as I remember it's about 25" making it about 30" to the eye so the front blade covers ~10" at 100 yds which complicates any load development based on group size or mean radius. It makes the shooter the most likely source of dispersion. Trying to separate that from load source dispersion is going to take a lot of shooting. Realistically it makes more sense to safely work up to a known published load and shoot that. If you want to work around that then you have a more reasonable likelihood of improving on that load.

 

[hoz53]

It's been awhile since I have worked up any loads for the M1 Garand, but I need to work up a new load using 168gr HPBT bullets. Anyway, my inclination is to ladder up charge weights in 8 shot groups, so I can just load each charge weight in an en bloc and shoot them. But it occurred to me that I could use a SLED and single load them and use 5 shot groups. That would exacerbate any issues with first round fliers when loading a fresh clip, but maybe it doesn't matter.

Is there a best practice for number of shots in a group for M1 Garands?

Im gonna start loading my garand soon also. Im am going with 168 smk and imr4064
if that powder doesnt work i have imr4895 as well as others

 

[Janeau]

Remember that hotrodding loads in a Garand will kill the ops rod in a short time. There is plenty of Garand load developed since the 50’s to find safe loads.

 

[GetReal]

I will tell you what Isaac Mccaskill the CMP armorer told me about shooting the US rifle M1 for accuracy.

I was talking about barrels and twist rates and powder charges and seating depth and all that and after listening to me for a while he said...

"Just shoot the effer.".

A little Gruff but I understood what he was saying. The Garand really isn't intended for accuracy or Precision ....it's a battle rifle and as long as you are shooting a safe load given the age of the rifle and the known parameters of the usgi loaded ammo you just want to shoot the rifle and have fun with it.

I think you're good with either the en bloc clip or the single load device or how ever you can get rounds in the rifle without giving yourself a couple of garand thumbs and you're good.

I would use the 8 Round enbloc, mark the first two rounds fired for each group and then look closely at the other six