Ammo for Garand Milsurp.
I am ignorant of the reloading criteria for the this question. I bought a refurbished Garand and was in the same quandary.........as far as what ammo to use. I came upon another thread (milsurps.com) which explained the issue and suggested which to use and I quote.
"Gus Fisher, who is a retired USMC armourer and currently services rifles for the National Match competitions at Camp Perry, Ohio. Gus's advice was to use the American Eagle FMJ 150-gr. load, which he has used frequently with no problems. His other preferred load was the Federal Gold Match 168-gr. FMJBT load, which was designed for the Garand but is very expensive. He had no opinion on the Remington-UMC or Winchester 150-gr. loads.
The crux of the matter here is the burning speed of the powder. The American Eagle, as well as the Winchester and UMC loads, equals the ballistics for those companies' 150-gr. hunting loads, which seem to use powder of the wrong burning speed for the Garand. However, Gus Fisher acknowledged that the American Eagle was a bit hotter than the military loads, but still caused no problems such as bent op rods, etc. He had no opinion on the Remington-UMC or Winchester 150-gr. loads.
This quote was from a 2007 thread so it may be dated and there may be other ammo manufactures that have stepped forward to service this niche.
I have used the American Eagle FMJ 150gr and have had zero problems......though I have only put about 100 rounds down range.
