There was a thread in GD awhile ago discussing the M1. And naturally the subject matter of shooting commercial ammo through the M1 came up. Such as that one guy says you have to use just surplus 150gr ball ammo. And another vouching that he had been buying all kinds of run of the mill commercial ammo for his M1 Garand and never had any issues like a bent oprod or any of that.

Don't do it unless you have a Ported Gas Plug.  CMP usually has M1 food.

American Eagle has some 150 grain seems to be loaded to Garand Specs.

 

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/777146/schuster-dcm-adjustable-gas-plug-with-wrench-m1-garand-steel-parkerized

This is the one that doesn't need to be adjusted for each load.

Buy Ammo from CMP, best value.

Commercial 147-150 FMJ ammo ( Fed, Fed-Garand / PPU/ REM-UMC / PMC / WRA etc. ) is safe and will not explode your Garand. If that is all you can find shoot it.
Just Avoid High End Premium hot heavy bullet hunting ammo.

Instead of wasting $ on a adj Gas plug ....buy a new $5 Orion 7 op-rod spring. More Garands have been ruined by tired wore out op-rod springs than Commercial 150 FMJ ammo.

Here is info on loads that are no worse than the stuff you get from CMP and which rounds put more stress on the operating rod / gas system. There are many that can be used safely without the plug but the plug reduces the pressure impulse of all. The booklet that came with my rifle said to avoid bullets of more than 168 gr. I believe, I'm not at home to check.It didn't say avoid all commercial ammo, that is a myth.

Pressure Graphs for common 30-06

 

 

Never mind.  Do as you choose.

Learn how to grease your rifle, and check the condition of your op rod spring.  It should be at least 19 inches long (minimum).

Gus Fisher recommends the Orion7 op rod spring as a replacement.

I'll check into that.

 

Also--you mentioned that you have Berdan-primed Garand brass.

If it is AMA it decaps beautifully using the hydraulic method, and it seems to be very good brass.

Save it in a bucket--you'll want it some day, or if you don't someone will..

+1 thats some good stuff

 

I'd think about buying a Lee Challenger single stage kit for reloading.  It's cheap.  It will reload well, but it will be slow going.  In addition to the kit with a powder scale, you'll need a set of calipers, the Lee case trimming tool, a chamfer / deburr tool if it doesn't come with the kit.  You'll need a solid bench to work off of, or a Lee press stand.  You can probably put it all together for about $250 or so.  The commercial ammo all runs around a buck a round.  For reloads - bullets are the expensive part - as much as .30 a round, but often cheaper for 150 grain pills.  Primers are about .03 a round.  Powder runs around .12 give or take a good bit depending on how you buy it.  Realistically, you can reload 30.06 for around .50 a round.  Doesn't take a lot of reloads to pay for the equipment.  The downside is the challenger press set up will be some what slow, but not too bad.  
Spend a bit more for a turret press by Lee, and you can reload quicker - even in progressive fashion if you want.  Spend even more and you can get an electronic powder trickler that will dispense fairly accurate powder charges.  You'll get more consistent results this way than most factory ammo.  
It's a lot to dive into at first, but makes for an interesting way to spend some down time.  

I shoot this Prvi Partizan PPU 30.06 FMJ with the standard GI gas plug. It is suppose to be the same specs as M2 ball. And as far as I can tell, it shoots the same and ejects the brass the same as the Lake City 67 ammo I used.