What Type of Ammo Can You Shoot in an M1 Garand?

The M1 Garand is one of the most iconic rifles from the Second World War. At its time, it was the most advanced standard infantry rifle fielded in battle.

Today, it’s one of the most sought after military rifles on the surplus market. Owning a ‘Garand’ today comes with a degree of prestige that you simply don’t get with many other military surplus rifles.

However, a major concern that comes from owning and shooting the M1 Garand is firing the correct ammunition. Yes, you can find .30-06 Springfield ammunition in virtually any sporting goods store that sells ammunition. But…that doesn’t mean that all of the .30-06 ammunition you see on the shelves is necessarily safe to shoot in your Garand!

Long story short, the problem is that much of the commercially available .30-06 ammunition today is not configured to the same specs as .30-06 ammunition that was produced in the 1930s and 40s.

So how can you determine which .30-06 ammo is safe to shoot in your Garand and what isn’t? That’s the question that we’ll be answering in this article…

Design of the M1 Garand: What Made It So Advanced?

The M1 Garand was officially adopted as the standard issue infantry rifle of the United States military in 1936. Replacing the Springfield M1903 bolt action rifle, it remained in service as the standard rifle until 1957 and continued to see limited use up until the 1970s.

Today, many people are familiar with the Garand based on its regular appearance in numerous World War II films and video games over the last several decades. 

What made the M1 Garand so unique (and advanced) amongst military rifles at the time is that it was a semi-automatic rifle with a higher rate of fire than the bolt action rifles that were fielded by other armies. 

In the words of General Patton, it was the:

“The greatest battle implement ever devised.”

– Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.

Indeed, an American infantryman definitely had an advantage over his German, Italian, or Japanese counterparts fielding Mauser, Carcano, and Arisaka bolt action rifles respectively.  

The reason why the M1 Garand was so advanced was because of the gas system that enables it to reliably cycle ammunition as a semi-automatic. The rifle is loaded via an eight-shot en-bloc clip through the top of the receiver. The gas system enables the rifle to rapidly fire (if the user so desires) all eight of those rounds. 

It’s also this gas system that affects what kind of ammunition the M1 can fire, but we’ll talk more about that in a bit.

For now, let’s make sure we have an understanding of how the gas system of the Garand works when the rifle is fired:

• When a round is fired out of the Garand, the bullet travels down the barrel and compresses the air in front of it. The bullet moves faster than the gas can escape, which causes the pressure to increase inside the barrel.
• When the bullet has moved up the barrel to the point that it is now blocking the gas port, the gas cylinder under the barrel becomes pressured by around 10psi.
• When the bullet leaves the barrel the gas inside of the barrel depressurizes quickly, but the pressure is still higher than the pressure in the gas cylinder. Gas flows from the barrel into the cylinder.
• As the gas cylinder depressurizes, gas flows past the piston and exits out of the gas cylinder.
• This action causes the operating rod to move back to extract the now empty shell casing in the chamber; when the rod moves forward again by the spring, it loads the next round in the clip into the chamber.

The entire above process may sound complicated, but it only lasts a few milliseconds.

So what kind of ammunition can work reliably with this process?

Why Is Ammunition A Concern With the M1 Garand? 

The gas system as described above was designed around the standard .30-06 ammunition that was produced at the time. Nowadays, we refer to this kind of .30-06 ammunition as being ‘military-spec’ or ‘M2 ball ammo.’ 

This ammunition was loaded to a lower pressure than much of the .30-06 ammo available today. Ammunition has evolved significantly since the 1940s, and much of the .30-06 ammo today puts out much higher pressure than the ammunition of before. 

Simply put, the internal dimensions of the Garand’s gas cylinder and the size of the gas port were designed to cycle reliably with ammunition that is not loaded to the higher pressures of much of the ammo made today. 

This is precisely why many ammunition manufacturers make ammunition that is specifically designed for the M1 Garand and label it as such on their boxes. These are specific loads that are tailor-made for the gas system of the Garand. Check the box closely, and it should say something like “For M1 Garand Use” on the outside. 

But can you only fire such tailor-made ammunition in your Garand?

When you go shopping for .30-06 ammo for your Garand, do you have to make sure it says “For M1 Garand Use” or something to that effect on the outside? 

What Type of Ammunition Can You Reliably Fire In Your Garand?

The ‘M2 ball ammo’ that was most often used by the military for the M1 Garand was a 152-grain round that produced a muzzle velocity of approximately 2,850 feet per second (FPS). The “For M1 Garand Use” ammunition that you’ll find today will be loaded to the same specs.

NOTE: The M1 Garand was originally designed to fire ‘M1 ball ammo’, which had a bullet weight of around 172-grains. The grains were later reduced to 152-grains with the M2 ball ammo, while the bullet-core itself was made heavier, resulting in a round that had higher muzzle velocity.

If you fire ammunition that is loaded to a significantly higher pressure than this, you can risk damaging the internals of the Garand overtime. 

That being said, it can certainly be annoying to have to search for a “For M1 Garand Use” label on each box of .30-06 ammunition you’re looking at. 

Another solution is to carefully read the box you’re considering buying for the specs of the ammunition. As a general rule, you’ll want to stick to 150-grain ammunition in your Garand. Going up to 180 grains is usually fine, but significantly riskier. Going above 180-grain ammunition is universally considered a no-go in the Garand. 

Another solution is to use specially made gas blogs that you can install on your Garand.

These kinds of gas plugs are designed to delay the operating rod, which reduces the pressure in the gas cylinder. This allows the Garand to safely fire and cycle commercial ammunition loaded above the aforementioned specs, but again, to be on the safe side just make it a habit to fire 150-grain ammunition in your Garand.

In general, any commercially-produced SAAMI (Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute) .30-06 ammunition with 150-grains from a reputable manufacturer should be safe to load and fire in your Garand.

Firing up to 180-grain should be fine, but never go above 180 grain, and avoid any ammunition that is labeled as being ‘high velocity’ or ‘hot’ loads.

Conclusion: m1 garand ammo

In short, with the M1 Garand you want to stick with ammunition that isn’t too far off from the military standards at the time of its issue.

Stick to 150 to 180 grain ammunition from a reputable manufacturer and that isn’t labeled as being ‘high velocity’ and you should be fine.