Bruce Drake
Active Member
Yes, its not a typo. I rebarreled a M1 Garand with a 7mm Mauser short-chambered barrel a few years back to replace a worn out barrel (for collectors, it was a mixmaster from Blue Sky Imports that my Dad bought in the 80's so no harm was done and the barrel was a very welcome birthday gift). As well as replacing the barrel, new oprod spring, stock and an adjustable gas plug, I finished chambering the barrel after I had a gunsmith in Michigan (http://shuffsparkerizing.com/services/m1-garand/) do the barrel replacement and timing the barrel to the receiver.
Well, for the last couple of years, its been fed a diet of 38.5gr of IMR 4895 with 140gr Remington spirepoint jacketed bullets for NRA rifle matches but in my goal to shift over to shooting more cast bullets, I finally sat down and developed an initial starting load for it with cast.
Lyman 287405-150gr Louverin design gas checked with two coats of Eastwood PC Paints (one before and one after the bullets are gas-checked and sized at .285)
Winchester 30-06 cases (brand-new and trimmed down and resized at 57mm.
Winchester LR Primers
31.5 gr of IMR 4895
reduction formula from Lee's Modern Handloading put this load at 2100fps.
offhand target at 50 yards. It even fully-functioned with the gas plug set for the previous jacketed load I mentioned earlier. No leading or excessive fouling either.
I will try to do another shooting test on this for 100 and 200 yards before the end of the summer.
Bruce
Well, for the last couple of years, its been fed a diet of 38.5gr of IMR 4895 with 140gr Remington spirepoint jacketed bullets for NRA rifle matches but in my goal to shift over to shooting more cast bullets, I finally sat down and developed an initial starting load for it with cast.
Lyman 287405-150gr Louverin design gas checked with two coats of Eastwood PC Paints (one before and one after the bullets are gas-checked and sized at .285)
Winchester 30-06 cases (brand-new and trimmed down and resized at 57mm.
Winchester LR Primers
31.5 gr of IMR 4895
reduction formula from Lee's Modern Handloading put this load at 2100fps.
offhand target at 50 yards. It even fully-functioned with the gas plug set for the previous jacketed load I mentioned earlier. No leading or excessive fouling either.
I will try to do another shooting test on this for 100 and 200 yards before the end of the summer.
Bruce