My gaudy Garand

[Capt. Frank]

I forgot to mention, the screw cap at the end of the gas tube, under the muzzle, is replaced by the adjustable device.

[madsenshooter]

New rings are on, eye relief is better and they sit a little lower than the previous rings. The ocular bell clears the rail by about 1/16". Should be about 2" over bore center. Scope mount and rings total 1.75lbs added. I have some left over from Camp Perry Nosler 168s loaded with 49.5gr IMR4007. Time to go to aunties and get a zero!

[Baltimoreed]

Nice looking build. I also put a laminate stock on my M1, except mines the winter laminate, grey and black. I like the scout scope mount look and did that to my Krag carbine. Unfortunately our Garands would have a very hard time making scout rifle weight. I used the Smith vortex M1 flash hider on mine.

[madsenshooter]

Too bad the eye relief of the Tasco is too far out for use on my Krags. Sighting in went pretty good with the Nosler bullets. My uncle liked seeing bricks blown up at 100yds once I got sighted at 50, so I didn't get to do any groups except for one target I'd go back to between bricks. Those 4 fell into about 1.25", 3 within 1/2", again @50yds. At the end I decided to shoot some 193gr cast loads I had loaded with 45.1 of DP85, an old Accurate surplus powder, about like Win 760. First three went into an inch, a slightly different POI compared to the 168s. The last five, quickly shot, went into a nice group slightly less than 1" square. After I got home, I noticed my gas cylinder was a bit loose, I'll have to tighten that up. 45.1gr should have got the 193s up around 2250fps! They were cast of a hard alloy, same alloy I used for Paul's spritzers. No lead blowback on the casenecks, no lead in the barrel, but it looks like there may have been some blow by that occurred during the trip through the compensator. Guess that didn't effect accuracy much, but I'll likely take the compensator off for future lead bullet shooting! With the smallest jet of the McCann venting some gas, the loads had no problem cycling the Garand, even though it needs some grease. Lee's load data, which is really extrapolated from jacketed loads, shows about 40,000psi. With a cast bullet it would be less. The bullet is an enlarged base pour version of Don Eagan's nose pour MX2-30H, made by NOE. I sized it down in steps to .310. The nose really fills the Garand's throat well! The dot on the Tasco at 50yds just fits in the square formed by the heavy lines on the target.

[Capt. Frank]

The loose gas screw may have caused better groups, this happened to me, which prompted me to use the adjustable gas device.

[madsenshooter]

I've been running a repro pronged flash hider for so long, the regular gas cylinder nut has gotten away from me. Just looked through my tool box, no go! I have way too many small boxes that I don't know the contents of! Easier to buy another than it is to hunt for it! I'm definitely going back to the regular muzzle, cause I want to shoot some more of these cast loads! My gas cylinder has been worked on, the rear ring is enlarged doesn't touch the barrel, when everything is properly tightened to my done long ago peening. The inside of this adaptor nut is a cone from the rifle's muzzle to the end, when I look down it it doesn't look well centered in relation to the bore.

[madsenshooter]

Here's a couple of the cast bullets I was shooting the other day. The ogive is .305" tapering to .307" just ahead of the top driving band. Seated down till about half that top band is in the neck, you can see why it filled the throat! I have this mold in 3 sizes, the original Eagan, and both a .314 and .316 NOE base pour version. The .316 version is for a well worn Mosin that I got cheap. I have a 6mm version of this bullet too, and was able to get very good, bug hole accuracy, from a 1/8 5r Obermeyer barreled 6x45 with the bullet going 2100fps. I sorta figured I could get the alloy going faster in a 1/10 and maintain accuracy. Now to get that gas system tightened up!

[Baltimoreed]

I like your camo stripped Garand but then Im prejudiced. I put a Smith Vortex fh on mine. While Im posting pix, I kinda like the other b/w one too.

[madsenshooter]

I like your stock too. I've come close to buying a few Ruger rifles that were stocked like yours. The other photo makes me think of a departed friend of mine and some of the stories he told me of the Battle of the Bulge. He had my Garand for awhile, I'd used it as collateral for a little loan he gave me. Miss the old coot, he was easier to deal with than banks or pawn shops!

When I took the gas system apart, I noted that I had the gas port nearly shut off, the gas cylinder was too far back! It's a wonder it ran at all, but it did so very reliably, somehow.

[Baltimoreed]

Heres another Garand photo that I found somewhere and had in my screenshotsand a good looking Jeep-driver?