M1 Garand

[beerbelly]

 I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, we both have M1s. Mine is standard 3006, and his has been re-chambered to .308. He says he only gets three reloads on a piece of brass and that once fired his empty brass will not fir back in the chamber. When I got home I got a fired brass and it slid right into my chamber.
Anyone know why his will not or why mine will, which ever is not normal. I have a few pieces of brass I have loaded nine times and see no reason why it could not be loaded again. While he says three is max in his gun.

[Larry L]

More than likely his loading data is in the wrong burn rate for the timing of his action. You have to match the burn rate to the timing of these old shooters or expect issues. Your Garand was designed with IMR4895 burn rate and functions best with it and BL-C2 which is pretty close in burn rate but a ball powder. I would assume that the 308 rechamber would need close to the same burn rate. Hard to say as some of the rechambers also get a port mod that allows slower burning powders to be used. Unless he knows exactly what has been done to it, he's guessing but can work around the guesswork by trying different burn rate powders. I'd start with the 4895 powder and see where that goes. If it doesn't cure the problem, try IMR4064 or AA2520. That should either make it far worse or fix the problem but it will tell you which direction he needs to go.

[jhalcott]

 The Navy simply put a small device in the chambers of the M1's to enable them to fire .308 ammo. This did NOT help accuracy and occassionally popped out on the neck of a spent cartridge when rapid fire was done. I'd get a chamber cast done on this gun to SEE how long and wide the chamber really is. Fired cases SHOULD go back into the chamber with minimal trouble. He may damage the gun IF he's getting that much pressure, OR his chamber is worn out.

[beerbelly]

Thanks guys, I for got to ask what powder he is using. I use IMR 4895 I guess I just assumed he was also. I will ask about that.