I have a M1 Garand in .308.

I currently have an adjustable gas plug in it.  I'm having some occasional failures to load a round into the chamber, and the plug may not be letting enough gas into the action.

I'd prefer not to use the adjustable plug at all - one less thing to fiddle with, and I could sell it for a box of ammo or so.

But, I've read that you need an adjustable plug to avoid damaging the op rod with commerical ammo.

So, a few questions:

1. Is that possible damage a result of the commerical ammo being loaded to higher pressures than military rounds?

2. Since my Garand is in .308, even with potentially hotter comerical .308 rounds compared to 7.62mm rounds, are even the commerical rounds less powerful than a military 30/06 round, thus there's no danager to overpressure in my M1 no matter what rounds I use?

3. Does anyone gain accuracy using their adjustable plug, to fine tune the harmonics of the rifle?

Thanks,

It is the pressure curve and when it spikes that can cause problems. Powders in different commercial loads spike the pressure at different times. Get the wrong spike and you could damage the op-rod.

What kind of failures are you having? Is the round nosediving and catching on the edge of the chamber. I had that issue with my .308 Garand and got rid of it with one of the Fulton Armory guide blocks. It gives a bit of a ramp to help with feeding while making it impossible to load a enbloc of .30-06 in the gun.

The best advantage I have seen for using my Schuster gas plug is that it tightened the groups by about an inch once I got it tuned in.