Hey lads, can you old timers share your recipes for handloading for the Garand?  I just got a service grade 44 Springfield CMP gun and the price of commercially loaded M2 ball is pretty steep at 70 cents a round.  The Sellier & Bellot stuff shoots great, though.

The "classic" recipe for the Garand uses IMR4895 as the powder.  There are many other powders that also work perfectly well, possibly better (depending upon your criteria).  

The amount of powder depends to some extent on the bullet weight you use.  Get that part worked out before you try to finalize a recipe.  You'll probably end up with about 46-47 grains.  

I use the CCI #34 mil-spec large rifle primer.

I use Lake City brass but any mil-spec or commercial brass does just as well.


Master Po's Temple is a web site that can get you started - Link to Master Po's Temple

Resize, trim and tumble your brass. Then separate it by head stamps. .30-06 brass, especially foreign brands have quite a bit of variation. What works well with Winchester commercial brass may blow primers in surplus Greek.

46.0 grains of IMR-4895 or H4895 is a maximum load in .30-06 for use in M1 Garands shooting the old M72/M118 173 grain US military sniper/competition bullet. That bullet spikes pressure quickly and load data is similar to what works with 190's.

You can use that same powder charge for 168's and 150/155 grain match bullets. It will be a very mild load with 150's. When I first started shooting competitively around 1983 the 46.0 grain IMR4895 load with 168 grain Sierra Match King bullets was the standard load for match use in the M1.

Load 48.0 varget...WLR primer and any 168 match bullet.

If your rifle doesn't shoot that well..it's you or the rifle...not the ammo.

The hornady and accurate arms loading manuals ( having paper manuals on hand beats finding sometimes questionable data on the net) have garand specific sections. I have used blc-2 2230 4895 all with good results. Start low and once you get reliable function and acceptable accuracy stop

I've been using 46.0 grns of Varget with 155s from Nosler in HXP brass all dated '69. They shoot better than I do at the High Power matches I've gone to. I like Varget because I can also use it to reload for AR as well.

Good luck.

I think 48-50gr Varget or H4895 under a Nosler 125gr BT at 3.150" is what I used to earn High Junior at the 2013 JCG match.


ETA: not Garand specific.

~168gr or less bullets over 13gr Red Dot is a fine bolt action load. Inspect each charge.

Recommended .30 caliber M1 loadings from the NRA

147 - 155 grain FMJ or HPBT bullets

IMR 3031 - 48.0 grains
IMR 4895 - 49.0 grains
IMR 4064 - 50.0 grains
W748 - 48.0 grains
AA2460 - 49.0 grains
AA2520 - 51.0 grains
AA2495 - 50.5 grains
H4895 - 49.0 grains
BLC-2 - 49.0 grains
H335 - 49.0 grains
RL-12 - 48.0 grains

165/168 grain FMJ, HP or SP bullets

IMR 4895 - 47.0 grains
IMR 4094 - 48.0 grains
AA2520 - 47.5 grains
AA2495 - 47.0 grains
H4895 - 47.5 grains
BLC-2 - 49.0 grains
H335 - 47.0 grains
RL-12 - 44.5 grains

173/175 grain FMJ or HPBT bullets

IMR 4895 - 46.0 grains
IMR 4064 - 47.0 grains
AA2460 - 46.0 grains
AA2495 - 46.0 grains
H4895 - 47.0 grains
BLC-2 - 48.0 grains

180 grain FMJ, SP or HPBT bullets

IMR 4895 - 43.0 grains
AA2460 - 46.5 grains
AA2495 - 45.5 grains
H4895 - 44.0 grains
BLC-2 - 47.5 grains
RL-12 - 41.5 grains

If you're into loading for general shooting and want to load up with equivalent military powders, W748 is not a bad choice for either the M1 Garand's 30-06 ammo or the M14/M1A's 7.62x51 ammo.  However, the first thing you need to decide with the M1, 30-06, M2 Ball ammo is what brass you're going to use.  The commercial brass is thinner than most mil brass and so the powder loads are lower, about 2 grns lower, in mil brass than commercial brass.  This isn't an issue with the .308/7.62x51 ammo for the M14/M1A.

From NRA's data for M1 Garand, M2 Ball ammo (150grn fmj):
 
Reprint of the NRA’s, Reloads for the M1 Rifle, Suggested loading data for M1 Rifle.  The charges listed are meant to approximate the performance of military ammunition using commercial reloading components, including cases.  

Military surplus cases should be reduced by 2.0 grs. from listed amount. Loads using ball powders should use a large rifle magnum primer.
 
147/150-gr.bullets – either FMJ or HPBT  OAL 3.300”
AccAA2460 49.0 grs.
AccAA2520 51.0 grs.
Acc2495BR 50.5 grs.
HercRe-12 48.0 grs.
HodH-4895 49.0 grs.
Hod BL-C2 49.0 grs.
HodH-335 49.0 grs.
IMR3031 48.0 grs.
IMR4895 49.0 grs.
IMR4064 50.0 grs.
Win748 Ball 48.0 grs.
 
173/175-gr.bullets – M72 or M118  OAL 3.330”
AccAA2460 46.0 grs.
Acc2495BR 46.0 grs.
HodH-4895 47.0 grs.
HodBL-C2 48.0 grs.
IMR4895 46.0 grs.
IMR4064 47.0 grs.
 
180grain FMJ, SP or HPBT bullets  OAL 3.330”
IMR4895 - 43.0 grains
AA2460- 46.5 grains
AA2495- 45.5 grains
H4895- 44.0 grains
BLC-2- 47.5 grains
RL-12- 41.5 grains

No, same brass difference in .308/7.62.

CO Steve has it backwards- thinner commercial brass has a larger capacity so can stand a bit more powder. Honestly I do not care for a single recommendation of data. Give me a min and max and for example let's say min is 42 and max is 48 I start at 44 and if the gun runs and accuracy is acceptable I stop right there. Since I never load anywhere near a max load I don't have issues loading commercial and military brass interchangeably with the same load, and although in theory this could change pressure and velocity and therefore impact on target at least at my level of skill I have not seen it make a difference worth mentioning

Excellent info
Thank you !

47 grains of H4895, CCI large rifle primer, Winchester brass, Nosler 150 grain ballistic tip.

46 grains of IMR 3031, CCI large rifle primer, Winchester brass, Nosler 150 grain ballistic tip.

46 grains of Benchmark, CCI large rifle primer, Winchester brass, Nosler 150 grain ballistic tip.

48 grains of IMR 4064, CCI large rifle primer, Winchester brass, Nosler 150 grain ballistic tip.

Modern Service Rifle shooters use Varget. Meters great and it's much less temperature sensitive than other powders, including 4064.

Check out Hornady's SR Reloading manual. It contains recommended Varget loads (across different bullet-weights) for the M1, M1A, and AR-15.

Want to try reading what I said again?  I said, "Military surplus cases should be reduced by 2.0 grs. from listed amount. Loads using ball powders should use a large rifle magnum primer." 

That means that the thicker mil brass has less capacity than commercial brass so you are saying the same thing I did.

BTW, Per TM 43-0001-27, page 5-9:

"CARTRIDGE, CALIBER .30, BALL, M2

Type Classification:
OBS - MSR 11756003.

Use:
Machine Guns, Caliber .30, M37, M1919A4 and M1919A6; and Rifle, Caliber .30, M1. The cartridge is intended for use against personnel or unarmored targets."

The propellant for M2 Ball is 50grns of IMR 4895. This should produce a velocity with an M2, 150grn bullet of 2740 fps at 78 ft from the muzzle.  HOWEVER, that's the spec for new GI ammo, not reloads.  The NRA's recommendations are more appropriate for reloading and used by most handloaders.