Ok lets hear it. What is the cheapest you have been able to load -06 for your garands lately? If possible include links to cheap components. Also if anyone has a good recipe for 175gr SMKs in 30-06 I would love to have it. Yes I have a Shuster Adj plug for my garand so don't worry if your load is hot.

I generally stick to 48gr of IMR-4895 under a 150gr FMJ with a Winchester Large Rifle primer.  Works great in my Garand, 03A3 and Savage 111.

Hornady 150 FMJBT - $0.20 when purchased in bulk
47 grains of IMR 4895 (purchased for $22.00 per pound at Camp Perry during the National Matches) - $0.15
CCI LR primer - $0.04 each purchased in 1k bricks for $40 each
Loaded into LC 66 brass that I have on hand

That's $0.39 each, not counting electricity for the tumbler, wear and tear on my equipment, etc.

You can save $0.05 - $0.08 or so per cartridge if you use M80 surplus bullets.

For an extra $0.03, I can load using Nosler 155 grain Custom Competition bullets that I got from Shooter's Pro Shop online for $0.23 each a while back.

I generally stick to 155 or 168 grain match bullets in the M1, so I don't have any good loads for 175 SMK.

Some guys who don't mind using the rifle as a single shot are loading using cast bullets and Trial Boss or pistol powder.  I want my semi-auto to work like a semi-auto, so I don't mess around with those loads.  I do, however, load the following for my military bolt rifles:

110 grain .30 carbine bullet over 20 grains of SR-4759 with a CCI LR primer.  Cost to me is about $0.23 each.  The carbine bullets I am using are Armscorp from Grafs.  They were $0.11 each last time I bought them, but they have been out of stock for some time.  The powder was $28 per pound (20 grains is about $0.08 worth), and the primers were the same $0.04 each.

Those are a hoot to shoot from a M1903 or M1917.  They have the recoil of a .22lr.  Sadly, Hodgdon discontinued the SR line of powders, so once my couple cans of SR-4759 is gone, I will have to start from scratch for a low recoil tin can plinking round.  

As always, consult a reloading manual before assembling any ammo.  The loads I posted above are under the stated maximums in my reloading manuals.

Matt

ETA: I have fired the first load above using both the 150 FMJBT and the 155 NCC bullets at Camp Perry, and have walked off the line with a medal using both.

I see that almost everyone uses 168s instead of 175s in there Garands. Is there a reason for that?

probably so you dont have to buy the Shuster plug

I usually shoot 168s, I would have to guess with my reloads and sierra match kings Im probably around $0.50 / round, which Im fine with the price of if you consider that Greek Surplus ( which I love ) is about $0.58 at the moment. so for a few pennies less Im getting "match" grade ammo.

Is the Garand twist rate fast enough for 175s?

The "official" dope is that the Garand can handle up to 180 grain bullets with the stock gas plug.  The old M1 cartridge was a 173 grain FMJBT bullet, and they worked fine in the Garand rifle.

168's and 175's are great for long range work.  Like 600 yards and up.  If I was going to run a Garand in XTC competition, I would use 168's at the 600 yard line.  Personally, I know exactly one guy who is seriously competing in CMP/NRA XTC matches with a Garand.  

Anymore, most of the serious Garand shooters you will find are the CMP Games match crowd.  That match is shot at 100 or 200 yards.  For 200 yard work on the SR (or SR-1 at 100 yards), you don't need a 175, or even a 168.  Heck, even the 150 or 155 grain bullets I use are overkill.  A lot of shooters are moving to 125 grain Speer TNT bullets or Sierra Pro Hunter bullets, simply because they are cheap and shoot well.  There is no need for a boat tail bullet for short range shooting.

Getting back to your original question, I guess few people shoot 175's because they are pricey and a stock (or even a tuned, but still Garand match legal) M1 rifle really isn't accurate enough to notice a difference between 175's and cheaper bullets.  The 10 ring on the SR target is 3.3 MOA.  It's really not that hard to clean it in prone, even with cheap ammo.  In offhand, its a different story, and most of us would rather load more cheap rounds than fewer expensive rounds, and get more trigger time behind the gun to improve our offhand scores.  

I can get what you are saying. My garand has a really nice shooting barrel so I imagine I could tune a hand load to shoot like fire. And I asked about the 175s cause I already buy them in bulk for my .308 and I get them at a discount that makes them cheaper than the 168s. If I use the 175s I could load 30-06 for around ~ $0.45/rnd. Compaired to the .39/rnd you are getting on your cheap loads, I guess I don't really consider a 6 cent savings per round to be all that big of a deal. Especially when I am getting a good all purpose round for hunting and long range shooting. I already have thousands of rounds of LC surplus I got for ~.22/rnd for practice or plinking.

If you're getting 175's cheap, load them up and blast away!  

also keep in mind that match ammo (as in USGI LC Match) is a 173gr bullet,
use the right powder and  no need for a plug with a 175

Yep.