Looking to pick up some ammo for my M1 Garand. I saw these rounds on Ammoman.com. What is a "boat tail"? Anyone use this ammo?



ON SALE !
   30.06 REMINGTON 150 GRAIN
BRAND NEW FROM GREECE
BRASS CASE AND NON CORROSIVE
FULL METAL JACKET AND BOAT TAIL

A boat tail has to do with the bullet profile. It’s supposed to be more accurate.  I had some Olympic ammo in 8mm Mauser.  It was ok.  I have however heard there may be some QC problems with the ammo. Go to Midway USA, and read some of the feed back from people who have bought the ammo.
MB

Get the Greek HXP (Pyrkal) ammo from the CMP, It is True M2 Ball Ammo

estore.odcmp.com/store/catalog/catalog.aspx?pg=product&ID=415C&item=&sfv=&cat=AMC&desc=&udc=&mct=&vndr=&ba=&pmin=&pmax=¬e1=¬e2=¬e3=¬e4=¬e5=&max=

Since you may not shoot JG matches, take this all with a grain of salt.

In regards to Military standard 30 cal ammo, there are two types of bullet tips.  The first is 150 Gr FMJ flat base (30-06), and was designed for the garand rifles. Laters came the M-14, and the ammo for the became 147 FMJ boat tail (308/7.62 NATO).

Now on the standard USGI garand barrels, the throat is set up for a bullet jump to lands, and most often, the flat base 150 gr bullet will out-group the 147 gr boat tail design (using the same loads/differnt type bullets in the 30-06 cases).  Because of this, when reloading for the garands using stock USGI barrels, the 150 Flat base is the better choice of bullet tip than the 147 Boat tale.

Now in regards to ammo (read stuff to shoot in JG matches If I have to shoot "factory ammo" and not reloads)), My first choice would be the CMP surplus ammo, then depending on the price they may be gouging that month, turn to korean PS stamped ammo. With good surplus ammo avalible at a cheaper cost over current production, I would just stick with it until the sources drys up, then start looking at new produced ammo.  To sum it up, it all just comes down to what prints in the rifle, and what will not.  If you have the funds, buy a little of all of current offerings, and start printing groups to see what the rifle likes.

By the way, the current LC ammo offered by CMP is a smoking deal.
estore.odcmp.com/store/catalog/catalog.aspx?pg=product&ID=405&item=&sfv=&cat=AMS&desc=&udc=&mct=&vndr=&ba=&pmin=&pmax=¬e1=¬e2=¬e3=¬e4=¬e5=&max=


Here is a source for Korean PS ammo (non-crossive with clips, the ones on the bottom of the page) just incase your can't order from CMP,
www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/copy_of_30_06.html

Thanks for the great info..

I think I'll try the ammo from aimsurplus. Hopefully they ship quick.

From the way I understand it the boat tail design is mainly for keeping the bullet more stable for long distance shooting. The bullet, instead of having a flat base has a slight taper which is supposed to promote better airflow keeping the bullet more stable.

Quoted: From the way I understand it the boat tail design is mainly for keeping the bullet more stable for long distance shooting. The bullet, instead of having a flat base has a slight taper which is supposed to promote better airflow keeping the bullet more stable.

Almost.  The purpose of the boat tail is to reduce drag. Once a bullet falls below supersonic, the velocity of the bullet drops of at a very rapid rate. As the velocity drops, the stability of the bullet also drops. As stability drops, accuracy drops. So, the longer the bullet remains above the speed of sound, the further it will travel and the more accurate ( relative to the target) the trajectory remains.

I like to think of a bullet as it drops out super sonic speeds as getting kicked in the ribs.

When the bullet is super-sonic, the sound shock wave is behind the bullet.  As the bullet starts to drop out, the super sonic shock wave moves from behind, and to the front of the round.  This intermediate time of dropping out is when the shock wave is being bounced off the middle/sides of the bullet, hence the good kick in the sides.  On calm days, the spin of the bullet does well to stabilize the bullet during the transfer, but during windy conditions, the round just gets danced (slightly off axis yawed due to uneven side wall pressures) and has to once again sleep after the transition  (read often not in the same direction as before it start to drop out).
Note: this is all total theory, and could be thought as  having the validity of big foot sightings.

As for the Boat tail, it is used to lower the coefficient of the bullet (read less after drag vacuum behind the round), hence keep it sonic longer due to less wind resistance at the tail of the bullet.  But back to the Garand, again the bullet of choice is a flat base due to what most barrels seemed to prefer (gas seal after embedment, and since the longest in CMP is 600, both designs will stay Super sonic to that distance if loaded right.

Palmer, a little tip on the surplus ammo.  
When I get clipped surplus ammo, I break it apart and give it about a few hours of tumbling (read no different than a few hour prop plane ride, so I don't want to hear how you are not supposed to tumble loaded ammo, even thought all the manufactures do it to shine new produced ammo up before boxing/shipping it off).

This allows me to knock off any grime/tarnish, and take a good look at each piece for any case defects in the ammo.  Also, with the clips loose, you can give them a good CLP cleaning/light protective coat to prevent rusting (read knock off the present rust, and keep new rust from forming).