M1 Garand

Q

quillgordo

New member
Dusting off the war horse. have some mixed brass My RCBS die mic's 460 at the sizing die mouth. Specs call for .471 near the head. Cant fully resize them but enough to de-prime. Ran all thru my mic set to .465 and the ones that passed, I reloaded with 147 g canelured military bullets (pulled by machine)

Hornady Garand reloading manual, has H335 as suitable powder. Loads are for 150-155 grain. So I loaded 16 with 42 g which should give about 2600+ fps (not crimped).
Went to range today and about 50% of them did not eject after firing. Bolt closed on the empty. Now it was not case stuck as minimal effort manually ejected the round.

So my thinking is that it's probably not hot enough to fully cycle the action.
Has anyone else had experience with H335 with similar bullet in CMP Garand?

I just don't want to go too hot in the old girl. Thanks
 
I wouldn't fool with H335. I suppose it might cycle the bolt at the upper range but I think it's too fast. Try IMR or H 4895. Op rods are expensive.
 
With H335 you'll have to load towards the higher end to get it to work. You'll have much better results with IMR4895 or IMR4064. It's not about being too hot, but the pressure at the gas port.
 
With the faster powder, your op rod will see less stress, not more. This is because the gas port pressure will be lower with a faster powder. It's when you go with slower powders that you start putting your op rod at risk.

If you've got the H335, there's no reason not to give it a try. Test fire those 16 rounds you loaded up and see how they shoot.
 
Not clear what the issue with your die is. If you don't full-length resize for a Garand, you increase the odds of having an out-of-battery firing that can destroy the rifle. Rare, but it happens. The SAAMI drawings have the case 0.2" up from the head at 0.4618" to 0.4698" diameter. Your shell holder keeps the die up at least 0.125". If you measured the inside of your die with the inside jaws on a conventional caliper, you will notice, when you look at them closely, those jaws have a little flat on them that makes them measure holes slightly undersize. Your actual die dimension may be .001"-.002" bigger. That's probably a small base die, but it should work for full-length resizing.
 
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