garand adjustable gas system
thinking about installing an adjustable gas system on my garand so i could shoot factory ammo , maybe kill a deer . i know of 2 kinds that are readily available and was wondering if any of you had previous experiance with them and could share. thanks.
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I don't know about the adjustable gas systems but that seems to be the hard way to be able to shoot hunting ammo in the M1 Rifle. Why not get some M2 ball ammo pull the bullets and replace them with expanding bullets. The zero should be close to the same as for the M2 with FMJ bullets so changing sight setting would not be necessary. 0 -
I haven't used either of them but from my readings both work good. Give this posting the rest of the day and someone else should answer with some actual experience.
If you shoot the Greek surplus ammo it's a good ideal to use one of these as it tends to be hotter than USGI ammo.0 -
Well there are basically two ways I've seen gas regulation thru a Garand, both involve the plug. Basically use the principle of adjusting the volume between the plug and the piston by increasing the space in the plug.
Either pre-milled set to size plugs of various volume capacities, then a plug that is hollowed out and has another little plug in it that can be moved up and down via hex wrench to adjust the volume like teh Schuster DCM plug.
Personally I'd prefer the pre-sized plugs, and a bit of trial and error (buy all of them, and keep accurate record and marking of which ones you used for what ammo or loads). The idea of the adjustable one just seems like something that would end up moving itself as you shot the gun, and possibly cause failures over time. The pre-milled various sizes seems to be the simplest design, and thats usually the best IMHO.
Midway stocks the schuster, and I thought fulton used to stock the fixed various sized ones but I don't see them on their sight anymore.
Also don't forget that you could have a gunsmith mill out a plug for you. So if you bought a schuster plug, you could determine the volume you need, then take a stock plug into a machinist or gunsmith hollow it out to the equivalent volume.
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=7771460 -
Unless you were planing to use some very heavy 30-06 ammo in your M-1 (over 180gr), I think you'd be just fine with factory loads. Remember the ammo used in the M-1 during the war wasn't limited to 150gr bullets. (AP-172gr, M1 Ball 180gr, M2 Ball 150gr) I know a lot of guys will tell you all about their bad experiences with heavier bullets, but I'll bet it wasn't with factory ammo loaded here. Go ahead and shoot it, you have to work at hurting an M-1 ! 0 -
I've seen a fair number of Garands that were damaged by using commercial hunting ammo in them. It's not the weight of the bullet, it's the burn rate of the blended powder - AND - subsequently the pressure at the gas port that will allow proper function, without damage. I've seen bent op-rods, broken main springs and damaged bolt lugs - even saw one cracked receiver - all due to using improper loadings in the M1 - it can be broken - they were still improving this fine rifle when the M14 was adopted, that's why there's so many variations over the life of the design - steady improvements based upon combat experiences. 0 -
During my stint in Army Ordnance I've never seen broken or bent Garand op rods, bolts or receivers in spite of those rifles with ringed barrels that experienced overpressure.
M1 AP 173gr ball was used for combat and M2 150gr Ball for practice.
Failure to cycle was due to wear of gas pistons, gas cylinders or the fit between gas cylinder and barrel. A variable gas port as on the BAR
would probably have cured this very common problem.
It's surprising to hear of these failures today as these guns didn't come apart. They corroded and wore out to unserviceability.
Were I to own one today, and I've had my fill of them, I'd either install a variable gas port or match the pressure curves of M1 & M2 ball ammo.0
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