Sniper or infantry?

On a semi-related note, I'm seriously considering purchasing a CMP Garand this summer.

Understand about the commercial ammo, got it, bad news. Don't do it.

So my question is, aside from the surplus market, and reloading, is there anyway to aquire ammo for the Garand that is safe to shoot?
 
AK103K, I've shot the same .308 Win. barrel and .30-06 barrel with both 7.62/.308 ammo in one and .30-06 M2 ball/commercial-150's in the other.

The .308 Win. barrel showed a 25 fps average velocity difference between Federal Match and M852 match with Sierra 168's in each; the M852 was the fastest. Had I used two other lots of each type, the numbers may well have been reversed.

As for the .30-06 barrel, the commercial 150's were about 75 fps faster than the military M2 rounds but their bullets were a few ten-thousandths larger in diameter. Again, these number would probably reverse with different lots of ammo.

I've no idea what the pressure difference was between all this stuff, but a 25 to 50 fps spread across several barrels with a given ammo type and lot will also show that much spread.

MIL SPECs for velocity with a given ammo type's quite a bit. Their match ammo's got a +/- 30 fps average range, service ammo's a lot more. So the lot to lot difference in it will often show a 100 fps spread.

Using SAAMI's tables is probably the best way to compare the .30-06 rounds as peak pressure in both military and commercial versions are the same; 50,000 CUP. MIL SPEC test barrels have the same bore and groove dimensions as SAAMI.
 
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SPEMack618 asks:
So my question is, aside from the surplus market, and reloading, is there anyway to aquire ammo for the Garand that is safe to shoot?
Yes. Buy commercial match ammo from Federal or Black Hills. There may be other companies making it for Garands.

You could also ask companies what ammo the make that's safe for Garands. Several do.
 
Bart,

Thank you. My reloading operation is small at best and I was worried about the surplus market. Good info to have.

Can't wait for summer camp season to start.
 
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