Garand adjustable gas plug. Upper bullet weight limit?

[gondorian]

So I've been reading 196scoutmaster's thread about his new Garand and people have been giving conflicting statements about the ability of using heavy 30-06 ammo with an adjustable gas plug. Now I know that you could take any 30-06 round and put it in a Garand and it should go boom, but what I'm really asking is what is safe to do for a sustained time without putting excessive wear on the rifle.
In 196scoutmaster's thread dscottw88 says

your gun is no longer limited to specific loadings. Now ALL 30-06 ammo can be used in your gun. YAY!

but Orlando says

#3 Commercial ammo with bullet weights under 180 gr. used with a adjustable gas screw

So what is the straight sauce on the adjustable gas plug? It seem to me that with the adjustable plug the only thing limiting ammo potency is the strength of the chamber, bolt and reciever, is this not so?

 

[61chalk]

I've heard not to shoot above 180 gr. without a adjustable gas plug. Getting into larger gr. bullet an slower burning powder is where you need the plug. With the plug adjusted right I haven't heard of failure problems with the Garand...thats the best I can give you in my limited knowledge.

 

[jpwilly]

The action can handle it no problem. The adjustable gas plug will need to be reset and adjusted for the new heavy load but otherwise there isn't a problem shooting heavy pills and slow powders. That combo has much more residual pressure at the muzzle. The adjustable gas plug provides you a way of limiting the gas pressure the op rod receives back down to normal the extra follows your bullet out the muzzle. Provided your loading isn't above max there's no extra stress to the rifle with that set up.

 

[gondorian]

So basically if a garand didn't have the little hole in the end of the barrel to operate the handy dandy semi-auto function all the other parts are just as strong as any other 30-06 rifle?

 

[dmazur]

There's some story about JC Garand doing proof tests with the Garand action and having one bolt lug crack at 100,000 psi (?), and then went on to shoot another few thousand rounds with the cracked lug. So, yes, the action has a reputation for being strong. (If it is in good condition...)

As I understand things, the adjustable gas plug may also have its limits. Without someone doing some testing, I'm not sure I'd explore Hornady's Light Magnum loads, even with the adjustable gas plug.

 

[gondorian]

Well I'm not about to go and try and blow up my new little friend, I'm just in the hmmm what if stage, and asking folks with more experience. Thanks for chiming in y'all

 

[jpwilly]

One more thing if I may add. Don't forget the Garand has a free floating firing pin and you should be careful not to use ammo with thin primer cups or sensitive primers such as Federal Benchrest primers. If the action is set to cycle too fast or you slam home the bolt too quickly with muzzle down some people have had slam fires.

Also if you do reload for your Garand be sure to Full Length resize and that the locking lugs are fully engaged every shot until you know your reloads aren't too long. Be sure primers are seated deep (not flush)

 

[christcorp]

My limited 1st hand experience, but extensive experience with military weapons; If you were to take out the gas cylinder screw; (Basically turning it into a single shot rifle; similar to a bolt action); it could easily handle and commercial grade 30-06 ammo. It would simply be a manual bolt action rifle. The weak point is the op rod. When you all too much pressure to cycle the op rod, you risk hitting the op rod to fast and possibly bending it or other damage. But take the gas system out of the picture, and the m1 garand can probably handle anything commercially made.