Well, as the title reads, I'm looking for commercial hunting ammo for my Garand. The 30-06 cartridge has performed admirably on game for me in the past, but I'd like to take the Garand hunting once or twice. The problem stems from the fact that I don't reload, I don't want to use fmj ammo to hunt with, and I've heard that Commercial ammo is too hot for Garands. Is there any truth to this, if so, any good remedy without handloading?

Best bet is to find something that pretty well mimics the military loadings as far as performance. Bullets between 150 and 180 grains, 'standard' stuff at the usual velocities (NOT the 'High Energy' or 'Magnum' loads from Federal/Hornaday).

Odds are the off-the-shelf Remington / Winchester / etc. stuff will do just fine. You could pull a bullet or two and even see if it was loaded with stick or ball powders, but that's probably carrying it a bit far.

After all, it IS a battle rifle, and was made to operate reliably under a fairly wide range of conditions......

My thoughts, anyway.

Stay with the 150 grain bullets as that is what the gas system is tuned for. 165 will get by but the 180 throw the cycle timming off some. You can get a adjustable gas plug that would help out and when its set it can be easily swapped out for the orginal gas plug.

thanks all, I usually shoot 150's anyway, so that's good news for me. I usually hunt eastern (se KY) deer, and the 150 I took the last one with did the job very well. Well, thanks again. ---J.Bird

I agree with the above post. Stay with the 150 grain ammo and you will do just fine. I have a Garand and I reload, but the cases come from somewere. I buy new hunting rounds from Remington 150 grain soft points shoot them thru and reload my cases from there. I never had a problem with the new rounds and the rifle cycles excellent. Find some 5 round clips so you don't get in trouble with hunting laws. :p

I had a lot of problems trying to get my Garand to shoot hunting ammo in the 180 and 200 grain bullets. I tried neck sizing them and that was found to be a big mistake years ago, right from the get go.

It did like the 150 grain ammo I bought over the counter for it then. Remington or Winchester worked ok at that time. I also handloaded some 165 grain bullets for it and full length sized those cases.

Keep in mind that heavy bullets and/or loads can bend the op rod. I only shoot 150 gr bullets hand loaded to mil spec velocities in mine and can't recall having a single malfunction. Take good care of your Garand it is a wonderful piece of history - mine was built in 1942 and I intend to keep it alive as long as possible. I have only taken 1 deer with mine and it did not seem to care that it was hit by a 150 gr bullet.

There were two different US loads the M1 and M2 Ball. One used a 150gr and the other 172gr FMJ. The Armor Peircing rounds where also on the heavy side and functioned fine. Since the M1 does NOT have an adjustable gas try and find a good 150gr SP at around 2800fps as that was one of the loads used. I do need to find my references.

Combat Diver:
The 172 Grain Ammo was Frankfort Arsenal National Match. Great stuff out to 1000 yards.

Lee L.

This is from Hatcher's Notebook

Comparison Table of US .30-06 Loads

Type Bullet Weight Muzzle Velocity Velocity @ 53 ft. Velocity @ 78 ft. Muzzle Energy

M1906 150 grains 2,700 fps 2,655 fps 2,640 fps 2,429 foot pounds

M1 174 grains 2,647 fps 2,620 fps 2,600 fps 2,675 foot pounds

M2, Ball 152 grains 2,805 fps 2,755 fps 2,740 fps 2,656 foot pounds

M2, Armor Piercing 168 grains 2,775 fps 2,730 fps 2,715 fps 2,780 foot pounds

1903, Ball, 220 grains, 2,300 fps

The M1 Ball was developed in 1925 and 2 billion rounds of 1906 was still on hand. After the adoption of the M1 Garand in 1936 and depletion of the 1906 ammo it was discovered that the M1 Ball had a max range of 5500 yds and would overshoot the safety of existing ranges at the time. The M2 Ball was designed to stay within the range fans! The reason the M1 Ball was design was for long range machine gun fire (lessons learned from WWI) where the 1906 ball had a shorter range then other allied ammo.