Via email from Rolf (and Sneedus Feedus):
Various loadings:
|
Bullet |
Muzzle Velocity |
Power Factor |
|
300 gr (19 g) |
2,606 ft/s |
782 |
|
350 gr (23 g) |
2,557 ft/s |
895 |
|
400 gr (26 g) |
2,468 ft/s |
987 |
|
500 gr (32 g) |
2,192 ft/s |
1096 |
For comparison a fairly typical .300 Winchester Magnum load would be a 190 grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2900 fps for a Power Factor of 551. Or compare it to a .308 Winchester with a 168 grain bullet at 2650 fps with a PF of 445.
The semi-auto action of the Garand would help a little but I couldn’t see myself shooting that except under duress.
Sometimes you have take down a pack of velociraptors and two .600 Nitro Express bullets just won’t do the job. Orthopedic surgeons gotta make a living too.
I would have thought hand grenades would be more appropriate with packs of those type of creatures.
Just because you can do something does not mean that you should do it. This is certainly one of those things. Kind of like an old friend that shoehorned a 429 into a 57 T-Bird. An amazing feat to be sure but unbelievably scary in the driving department.
Oh, come now. That can’t be as bad as a bolt action .50 BMG with a 28″ barrel and a shark fin brake.
Sweet little thing – I’d like to have one for my very own self.
The Real Kurt
not a very good idea in my estimation. the m-1 just wasn’t made for that. that kind of thing has to batter the living bejesus out of the op rod and receiver & bolt. not a good idea …. i know i said that already, but it bears repeating.
Nope. Chamber pressure is fairly mild at 62,000 PSI. 308 Win has a chamber pressure of 63,000 PSI, so it’s not going to stress the bolt on firing.
With the correct gas port size (or an adjustable gas regulator such is is used with heavy bullets in 30-06) will make the bolt cycling just as gentle as with M-2 ball.
The recoil on the other hand…
Recoil wasn’t too bad. http://olegvolk.net/gallery/d/32742-1/458garand_2632text.jpg
A definition of “recoil wasn’t too bad.” and a quantifiable comparison to the recoil of other rifles is of great importance here.
How does this compare to e.g. a 12 gauge?
Standard .30 ammo I can shoot all day, but a box of 12 gauge will leave me with a sore shoulder for a few days.
This reminds me of a very nice looking rifle I saw for sale at a local gun store recently, a Remington 700 chambered in .300 WUM. (“With two boxes of ammo”, used/unfired, stainless steel, $795.) I was slightly tempted… but it seemed a bit much for my first rifle.
You might mean a .300 Remington Ultra Mag. I swapped some night vision equipment for one several years ago – his was fired once or twices as well. As long as you mount a scope with sufficient eye relief, recoil is stout but not unbearable for a few shots. My .50 BMG is much worse.
One cool thing about the RUM is that Remington makes controlled recoils factory loads for it – you can stoke the cannon with full on RUM loads, or buy reduced loadings that are equivalent to .300 Winchester Magnum and .30-06. It’s actually a nice hunting rifle.
Yes, you’re right. I thought the dealer said WUM but I probably misremembered. The rifle was drilled for a scope but didn’t have one installed.
Right next to it was a 6.5 Arisaka that looked pretty nice, at half the price. Maybe…
Check ammo availability first, on that Japanese rifle. Might not exist, from one of the Forgotten Weapons videos I recently saw.
I did some reading; it’s still made. Ammoseek shows it available, new from Norma. (One seller at the moment.) Not much worse than 300 RUM for which it shows 4 sources.
Shooting it under duress? Shooting it is duress.
But I would oh so pull the trigger on it! Prone. Just to see if I would actually go backwards. And to say that I have. It can’t be much worse than a Mosin-Nagant M44 carbine without a recoil pad.
I bet it would detonate boomers nicely though.
Trust me, It can always get worse. That being said. The heavier the slug, the slower the recoil impulse. Which gives one a measure of time to manage it. Things like the aforementioned 300 RUM, and 338 variants on the other hand. Have very sharp recoil impulses.
Shooting a 458 Garand would be fun in comparison to a 338, 3 1/4 G&A. Neither of which I would take on prone. (There’s a good reason why African hunters shoot standing up.)
I’ve fired .338s and .50BMG rifles prone off bipods or bags. Including non-Barrett designs like the McMillan Tac-50 that let you enjoy the recoil properly. A Tac-338 is on my short list of guns I’d love to own.
I’d do the .458 standing too and really lean into it. The PING! has to epic on that beast!
“…lets you enjoy the recoil properly.” — now that is a smile-provoking way of putting it!
I don’t think it is a coincidence that a round of .458 WinMag is almost identical in size and shape to my middle finger.
If I ever get into the business of culling herds of elephants or Cape buffaloes I look them up.
And yes I know they used to do that with SLRs in 308.
Rich MacCann was nobody’s fool. Nor did he suffer fools. He used to have a table at the WAC Puyallup show. He is gone way too soon. RIP.
My late uncle had a Le Mag M-1 carbine conversion. Interesting idea, re-chambering an M-1 from .30 carbine to .45 Winchester Magnum. However, that significant increase in chamber pressure, especially on a receiver that was 70+ years old made it unsafe. When I inherited it from him, I never dared fire it. I sold it to a WWII arms collector for parts value.