For some folks, the M1 Garand is a venerated object, a potent symbol of American greatness during World War II. Some of these people make an almost holy exercise out of researching serial numbers and finding the correct elusive parts. Yea, verily, for some searcheth out the lock bar rear sight, even from the very bowels of the earth, while others locketh not the rear sight, lest they anger the spirit of John C. Garand.
For others, especially those young whipper-snappers who cut their ballistic teeth on AR style rifles, the Garand is an ancient, clumsy and heavy thing, a dinosaur thigh bone left over from the Pleistocene Era of firearms. I mean who really wants that much petrified wood on a rifle, anyway? And whaddya mean it might bite my thumb off if I don’t load it just right?
But for some real whackos like me, the Garand is a powerful and accurate semi-automatic rifle that can really bring the oomph downrange, especially if you can get your hands on the right ammo. And the right ammo would be the US military surplus armor piercing round.
Because of the way United States ammunition laws are written, .30-06 AP ammunition can be owned by us mere peasants, uh, oops, I mean civilians. I was lucky enough to purchase a couple of cans of it from the Civilian Marksmanship Program the last time a batch came up for sale.
There are plenty of Internet stories circulating about .30-06 AP ammo being more accurate than standard M2 ball ammo. Heck there’s one story of the National Matches at Camp Perry issuing surplus AP ammo due to a shortage of match ammo. So I decided to find out for myself, and document the results for TTAG’s loyal readers.
To that end, I offer up some glimpses of what my Springfield Garand can do at 300 yards using two different types of military surplus ammo.
My M1 was originally purchased from the ODCMP as a Service Grade rifle by somebody else. He then sold it to me. Later, I added an Amega Ranges scout mount and a Nikon 2.5-8X EER scope with quick-detach rings, mainly because my eyes turned about two years ago, and I now wear glasses.
I shoot my scoped Garand at 300 yards because that’s the longest range I can get to in under an hour’s drive. I’d love a chance to shoot out to 500 or 600 yards, or even farther just to see how this rig performs.
The target I shot was a piece of cardboard trimmed to sort of look like a torso. It’s 24 inches tall by 18 inches wide. I stapled an 8.5 inch X 11 inch piece of yellow paper into the center of the target, hoping the contrast with the white cardboard would give me an area to center the crosshairs. At 300 yards, however, the yellow blended in with the white background, so I wound up just holding right in the middle of the whole thing.
The first group I fired on that target was 8 rounds of Greek surplus M2 ball. The M2 round became the standard round for the Garand during WWII, and served into Korea and beyond. It’s a 152 grain, flat-based, FMJ bullet that exits the muzzle just a shade over 2800 feet per second. The Greek M2 holes are marked with a red, magic-markered “G2.” I marked it as G2 because I fired a prior group on another target, just to make sure the scope was still dialed in to 300 yards.
As you can see, all eight red G2 holes remained on the toro-sized slice of cardboard. Four of them hit the 8.5X11 inch sheet of yellow paper. Not too bad for a military-issued rifle built in 1953, if you ask me.
Then, I followed up with another 8-round clip of US surplus AP ammunition. The AP bullets are marked with black tips, and contain a steel penetrator core.
This steel core enhances accuracy allegedly because it gives the bullet an internal axis around which to rotate as it spins out of the rifling. The bullet also weighs a little more, coming in at around 163 grains, instead of the 152 of the standard M2 bullet.
Whatever the cause, the dark alchemy of AP became quickly apparent when I checked my target. Gah-Zinga! All eight of the AP rounds hit the yellow paper at 300 yards. To differentiate from the other group, I marked these with green magic marker. The biggest spread was vertical, and measured just over 6.5 inches, or barely over 2 MOA, with two rounds in one hole, right in the middle, only a few inches above the dead center of the yellow paper. That’s barely over 2 MOA with a 58-year-old, semi-automatic military surplus rifle shooting even older military surplus ammo.
I’d call that more than acceptable.
One downside of the AP ammo is that since most of it was made before the 1960s, much of it has corrosive primers. For many modern shooters, corrosively primed ammo is more intimidating and arcane than the Riddle of Steel was for Thulsa Doom.
My corrosive ammo cleaning solution is the super-secret and almost impossible to obtain mystical elixir known by the exotic name of “Windex.” The cleaning procedure itself is a dark and mysterious rite which involves squirting a few shots of this “Windex” down the barrel and onto the Garand’s gas piston, which are then wiped off and swabbed out with patches. Then I just clean it with Hoppes 9.
Despite its age, and configuration as a service rifle, not a target gun, the Garand can still perform quite impressively even at 300 yards. The last thing I’ve got to say is BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG-PING!
War would have been shorter if the Johnson would have been selected over the Grand!
The war would have shorter if Hitler had captured Moscow in 1941 or if he had won the Battle of Britian, or if the U.S. had invented the A-bomb earlier, or if the ME-262 had been fielded in sufficient numbers in 1943, or if the Japanese had decisively prevailed at Midway. I don’t think the Johnson would have made a damn bit of difference. As a matter of fact, I don’t think ANY Infantry weapon could have changed the course of the war.
The only way the Johnson could have shortened the war was if one of my brothers (506th/101st) dropped into Berlin with one and dropped Hitler with it.
By the way, Johnny, it is spelled GARAND, but you do have one thing right – the Garand was, and is, GRAND.
Finally got a Garand after shoot possiables at 600 yards at P I in 1959 It is a thrill own a piece of history made in 1942 rebarreled in 1952 by the Springfield armory and shoots like it was made yesterday.. Fell in love with one back then and still love it.. Just a great shooting piece.. Like Patton said the greatest battle implement devised. He was right and it still is a great shooter to this day.. Enjoy shooting and hope all others do also Simper Fi..
These days when you get a resupply of ammunition in the middle of a fight, you have to fill magazines before you can load your rifle. Not so with the Garand en-bloc clip: it let you fully load the rifle, in one move, with prepackaged ammunition straight out of the can. It wasn’t such a dumb idea. It meant that in sustained action you weren’t limited by the loaded magazines you happened to have on hand; if you got fresh ammo you could use it at once.
In 1967 when the M16 was still new, our 5.56mm ammunition came in 20-round pasteboard boxes like hunting ammo — no stripper clips, as at present, for filling magazines. If you ran out of loaded magazines, your M16′s deliverable rate of fire dropped to that of a Springfield — and I don’t mean an ’03, I mean a trapdoor. The only answer was to carry 15 or 20 loaded magazines, twice what you were likely to require, so you’d never find yourself reloading them under fire.
Anybody know why the Army never addressed the “pling” issue by making M1 clips out of some kind of tough plastic instead of steel? And as long as we’re on the subject, does anyone know why the Army put up for so long with the position-disclosing smokiness of M2 Ball ammunition? This — still evident to any present-day shooter of M2 Ball — made enough difference in WWII combat that Gen. Marshall specifically mentioned it in postwar reports, contrasting it with the low-observable German ammunition, but I never see a reference to it in historical writing now.
The “ping” made by the ejection of a spent Garand enbloc cannot be heard in the noise of battle – I speak from experience.
From shooting Black powder I don’t think Windex will wash away corrosive salts any better, maybe less better…than real hot water. Most BP cleaning is with boiling water poured down the barrel so that it heats the metal fast and evaporates the water out of the metal without rusting. In WWII they issued a cleaner just for the corrosive salts primered weapons but its apprentley so toxic that it can’t be made anymore and many shooters husband a 70 year old can of cleaner like gold.
M1 Garand, the Mercedes-Benz of Semi-Auto rifles. My Father owned one for several years, it was his issue rifle when he was drafted. We had alot of fun shooting that rifle together and, working up handloads for it. America owes a huge debt of gratitude to J.C. Garand.
SBFP2012!
I love the m1 garand ( was it General George S. Patton’s favorite gun?) This is one of my favorite guns one of the others is the colt model 1911.
The M-1 Garand is and outstanding battle rifle and I greatly admire mine and consider it a heirloom. However I at one time owned a cross breed variant rifle known as the BM-59. A magazine fed equivalent of the M-1 Garand. The magazine fed feature is the only modification that could possibly be made to the original design of the M-1 that would improve it’s battlefield quality. The BM-59 was the interim development between the Garand and the M-14. I love them both and would have a difficult time in choosing which one to grab if the SHTF. I do favor my M-21.
I inherited an M1 Garand. I have a lot to learn about it. The proper use of the sling seems complicated. I thought a sling was for carrying the rifle to leave hands free. Seems the sling is suppose to be wrapped around the left arm steadying the rifle when shooting. The little push button on the left side of the receiver seems to do nothing. That button must do something? The butt plate has a compartment in it. I suppose a cleaning kit was stored in the holes? It is easy to hirt oneself cleaning this rifle. The trigger assembly has a sharp spring projecting out. I sliced my finger on that spring removing the trigger assembly. One could get their thumb smashed by accidently releasing the bolt when pushing down on the magazine. The cocking lever is noticable if cycling it several times. I have not shot it yet. Being a semi auto I would think the recoil would be less than a bolt action. Hoping the barrel is not shot out.
You do realize that I’ll be out for guts?( I mean. You killed it. I sympathize with your eyes but dam. A scope on a WWII masterpiece.) but good review
Though clp isnt a solvent… its a lube.