I went out and picked up some 180 grain federal Fusion ammuntion in 30-06 for my new M1 Garand. Four boxes of the stuff! I read today that such commercial rounds don't like Garands, and I'm asking for slame fire after slam fire.
Where can I get some military surplus ammo here in Canada? I'm currently in BC, so west coast dealers are prefferable but not necessary.
Anyone with any experience on the subject out there?

You should not have any trouble with Federal ammo in your M1.

Only way to find out is go to the range and try it.

You don't need mil ammo for your Garand. You do need to use ammo that is close to mil spec for the Garand. Many of the 180gr loads are to warm for the Garand, they use slower powders & higher pressure which can bend the op rod. You are better of w/ Fed. AE 150gr FMJ or PMC 147gr FMJ or RPUMC 150gr FMJ or WW 147gr FMJ or any of the 168gr match ammo should also be fine. The idea is to stay away from med.slow & slow powders & heavier bullets than 172gr.

i bought 150 gr ball korean 1975 surplus... i'm getting 2" X 2" groups at 100 yds....

Artic Gun
I have shot standard factory hunting loads in several 308 and 30-06 Garands.

One thing you might do is take a look at the firing pin "tail" and the corosponding slot in the action. See if both of them look ok.

Keep your chamber clean.
I have never had a problem.

Do remember that some of the surplus on the market (including some of the overseas stuff advertised as noncorrosive) is corrosive primed. No biggie, as long as you properly clean after firing.

Hoe does one tell the difference between corrosive and non- corrosive primers?

For the overseas stuff, all you can do is assume it is corrosive or sit in in the corner for a week or two after shooting and not clean it. Than you'll have a good idea as to what you have...

I'll just go with the first option myself!

The problem with non-military ammo in the Garands is that the factory ammo for the heavier bullets is loaded with slower burning powder. This creates higher chamber pressure which is slow death for a gas operated semi-auto. That is why most loads for the Garand are taylored around the medium to faster burning powders like 4895 and 4064. If you shoot the factory 180 grain ammo you are going to beat your action.

The Garand was designed to use powders which burn similar to 4895 in order to produce an acceptable port pressure; breech pressure is a concern, but port pressure is as important to the health of your garand. Powders in this burning range are normally used with 147-173 gr. bullets. Heavier factory loads should be avoided, as fredj338 said, because

quote:

they use slower powders

( which would be within safe breech pressures, but would create excessive port presssure). Excessive port pressure will bend your op-rod.

Slam fires are a different proposition. Gov't ammo for the M1, M14 and M16 use a primer with a harder cup than is used in civilian ammo to resist "slam fires". This is done due to the floating firing pin on all three rifles, which "pecks" the primer each time the bolt slams home.

When reloading for any of these gas guns, care must be taken to avoid anything which might cause the firing pin to strike the primer hard enough to cause it to detonate (high primer, insufficiently sized case, dirty rifle chamber).

Any one of these three conditions can cause the primer to detonate with the bolt out of battery with disatrous results even if the tail on the firing pin and the notch in the receiver in good shape on the garand or M14.

CCI is now making a military type primer with the harder cup which is recommended for gas guns: just another bit of insurance when loading for the semi-autos.

Regards,
hm

The other day, itchin to get out to the range, I went out and bought a couple of boxes of federal, vital-shok, 150 grains (soft points). I put all 40 rounds through her without a hitch (aside from a couple times she failed to feed). When I chambered a round and ejected it, there was the smallest of dents on the primer. That said, with this ammo working fine, should I just stick with it?

The vital shok may be OK, but if you want to be absolutely sure, check out this link. This was made for the M1 and is non corrosive. At $192 per case + $38 shipping for 960 rounds runs $4.80 a box; hard price to beat.

Surplus M2 Ball Ammo @ CMP


Regards,
hm

That's a great deal!... but I'm in Canada.

Darn! That's a bummer.

PMC used to make an M2 ball clone. Is PMC available in Canada? I would suspect that any FMJ 150 gr. commercial ammo would be in the correct range.

May be the best you can do is stick to 150-165 gr factory loads but not any of the new hot "magnum" loads. Manufacturers are getting a bit more aggressive on some of their loads today.

M2 ball uses a 150 gr. bullet at 2700 fps. M72 Match ammo uses 173 gr BT bullet @ 2640 fps. As long as you try to stay at or about these bullet weights/velocities, that is probably the best you can do.

Regards,
hm

The light dent in the primer of chambered, but unfired, rounds with Garands has long been known, but doesn't seem to commonly cause problems with slam fires.

If you're not going to reload, I think the advice above to use commercial 150-165 grain loads is good. I'm sure the major manufacturers have done function testing in Garands, knowing there are so many out there. They don't want lawsuits, either. George Frost's excellent book "Ammunition Making," available from the NRA's website, says that in the 1960s Winchester was using IMR 4064 powder to load their .30-06 ammo. A 150 grain bullet with a normal load of 4064 shouldn't be too far off from the original military load in terms of gas port pressure. Manufacturers today may not be using exactly the same powders and loads as in the '60s, but I'd bet it's something very closely comparable. They're paying high prices per pound for their powders, they load many pounds of powder into those cartridges and won't switch to heavier charges of slower burning powder to achieve the same muzzle velocity without a compelling reason to do so. It'd cost 'em more.