Well I have been shooting and reloading and having a hi ho time with this old bugger. The weather was nice today, so I packed the kids and guns up, and off to the range.

I must admit the reciever and stock fit is quite lose on this Garand, but I was still able to get a 4 inch group out of it. I have a couple of ideas to tighten up the stock/reciever fit, and see how much difference it makes.

Mike, did you happen to log the sequence that you fired those shots?

I ask that because I notice a small cluster of 4 shots together at about 7 O'Clock from the center of group and the rest of the group seems fairly evenly scattered and favoring 2 O'Clock in the group.

DaMan

PS - BTW that group appears larger than 4" center-to-center if that target is marked with inch grids!

No...I forgot to bring the binoculars today, so I have no idea which order the shots were. Those little squares sure look funny on there, don't they?

On my old Garand, which had a barrel like a sewer pipe, bedding it per NRA specs shrunk groups from 6" to 3"....

Mike, I think you might want to consider posting your your target and topic on the AR "gunsmithing" board.

I am by NO means an M-1 expert.... but targets talk.... and I can read them. 40% of the group clustered in the "sweet spot"...... and the other 60%... all fairly evenly spread out and all at 2 O'Clock from the "sweet spot".

My guess would be that the problem is op-rod related.

BUT again ..... I'm not an M-1 expert...... and you should probably go out and shoot a couple more groups before you pour a lot of money into modifications that don't produce results.

Log your shots. NO..... better yet! Have your kids do it! They'll keep you honest!

DaMan

quote:

Originally posted by Pedestal:
On my old Garand, which had a barrel like a sewer pipe, bedding it per NRA specs shrunk groups from 6" to 3"....

On my old Garand, which had a decent barrel, accurizing (NM treatment) per NRA specs shrunk groups from 3" to 1", EXCEPT THERE WERE ALWAYS ONE OR TWO FLIERS OUT OF 8 ROUNDS that opened up the group from 1" to 2" or more. Never was able to determine the reason, or stop it from happening.

Let his kids log his shots, man are you gonna make his buddies keep his golf scores too?

Well, It has been far too long since I took time to shoot the Garand, so I decided to make life right again today. I had been working this load up with limited success....untill I started applying a slight crimp while seating the bullet. Suddenly the groups shrank.

The following pics are two clips that I fired today from the bench at 100 yds. I made a sight adjustment (tempting the fates?) and the group still held. The one group is about 2 1/8", C to C; the 2nd group, after sight adjustment, is less than 2".

I think I am happy.

So Mike, what was your load?
Peter.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter:
So Mike, what was your load?
Peter.

Pete,

The load recipe is as follows:

Federal case
Federal Match Primers
Hornady 168 gr. Match Bullet
IMR 4064 49.5 grns.
OAL 3.325 max
Light crimp with Lee Seating Die

My actual average chronograph reading was 2660 fps.

I didn't record the std deviation.

Thanks Mike. I have some of those Hornady 168gr. match bullets, and, of course, some 4064!
Peter.

Pete,

Just be sure you reduce the load by 10% and work it up for your gun.