Alternative Calibers for the Garand

[ordmm]

Am looking forward to the range report. The release of the $125. receivers by the CMP might create some interest alternative caliber and configuration rifles. Thank you for the update.

Greg

[majbdrake]

I'm heading to a 200/300 reduced distance rifle match on Saturday with the boys and wife in tow. The boys to shoot their ARs as Juniors, me with The Heretic and my wife to photograph us all for her scrapbooks.

I hope to be able to post my results and a few photos of me with the rifle in action by Sunday.

Bruce

[timshufflin]

I'm very curious if anyone has a Garand in .458 Win mag. This is about the only round worth me trying right now. I'd kind of like to do both rounds that the late Mr. McCann did.

[centurion20000]

Forgive my amateur design thoughts and maybe looking like a lunatic, but it looks like you'd have to develop custom versions of these parts.

Op-Rod (which you're already a wizard at)
M1oprod.jpg

Gas cylinder (to allow for heavier barrel)
IMG_3691.jpg

Gas Cylinder Lock
G043.jpg

Lower Band

On the back end ...
Bolt
Cartridge Lifter
Extractor

And of course a heavy garand barrel for .458 Win Mag



Interestingly enough once you get that done you can replicate all of the win mag calibers (.264, .300, 338, wildcats to death) as it looks like the 84mm OAL is the limiting factor.

458.jpg


For capacity you'd have to machine those two ridges I pointed out on the 35 whelen thread at the front of the receiver. I went out and bought some 35 whelen and I can see where the receiver needs machining and it's not much (and certainly wont compromise the receiver strength)

Have you tired putting 300 / 458 win mag rounds into an en bloc clip to see how they fit?


458garand-1.jpg

Some reference links

http://olegvolk.livejournal.com/608143.html


Another one is the web archive link to McCann's page .... you might be able to crib some from there.
[You could also buy the design papers off his widow perhaps]

Oddly enough the earlier versions of his page go into slightly more detail on the construction than the later archived versions.

http://web.archive.org/web/200810170...458garand.html

Good luck Tim. I'll buy one

[Punch The Clown]

Tim, just take a scrap barrel and bore the chamber for the .458. Not with a chamber reamer. Just end mill or drill it. You should be able to check feed issues without building a custom gas system-yet. If the receiver needs to be modded you'll know right away. Same for the bolt and other internals. It'll work Bro. I just know it.

[centurion20000]

Oh here's another one for the idea pile.

375 Ruger (85mm OAL)

And apparently people are making wildcats out of it ... 30/375 (There's your ultra long range 30 cal Garand with 300 Wby performance and 4000+ ftlb ME)
300 Dakota is another weird one you can throw on the pile too.
338 Campfire (338/375R)



And apparently someone's necked the 375 Ruger up to .416 and is shooting that too.

After seeing some more research apparently if you wildcat the 375 Ruger (neck up or down), you've basically reinvented the XXX Newton (30, 35, etc)

Lothar-Walther got back with me saying the might be able to do a .375 custom barrel. Also they stated that if you wanted just a .30 blank you can order one and wait for them to do a run of Garand barrels.

Still .... lots of interesting possibilities.

[majbdrake]

7mmgarandtarget.jpg
I haven't been able to take it to a match as I'm waiting for a spinal fusion surgery on my neck next week but I was able to get the rifle to the range Saturday to put the loads over the chrono and zero the rifle for later this year. 2650fps with 38.5gr of IMR4895 and the 10 round string pretty much kept them in the black.

[ordmm]

7mmgarandtarget.jpg
I haven't been able to take it to a match as I'm waiting for a spinal fusion surgery on my neck next week but I was able to get the rifle to the range Saturday to put the loads over the chrono and zero the rifle for later this year. 2650fps with 38.5gr of IMR4895 and the 10 round string pretty much kept them in the black.

Hope all goes well with your surgery and your back 100% in shortest time possible!

Greg

[ordmm]

Took a look at the ballistic graph on the .458 Win and then compared it to the graph for the 450 Marlin. The 450 might be worth looking into. Looks like existing mags could be used...which I'm thinking means existing receiver config of the BM14 could be used. If you go to this site and scroll down you'll see a pic of the 450 rounds in a mag. Here's a link to source of pic: http://www.ar-10-rifles.com/index.php

450_MARLIN_mag pic.jpg

[majbdrake]

Good Lord. An elephant gun....