June 9th, 2022
SFC Lance Dement featured in CMP’s First Shot Online. The U.S Army Marksmanship Unit has published a series of great reloading “how to” articles on its Facebook page. This article focuses on self-loading gas guns and the key factors to consider when loading ammunition into Match Rifles or Service Rifles. For more helpful reloading and marksmanship tips, visit the USAMU Facebook Page. We offer some “cardinal guidelines” to help new gas-gun handloaders improve their safety and efficiency. These rules apply to both Match Rifle as well as Service Rifle versions, including the M1 Garand, M1A and M110. They can also improve safe loading for many other autoloaders, such as M1 Carbines and FALs, as well as SIGs. These principles were developed by the author many years ago to help you focus on the most important aspects of these rifles.
Gas-guns require a tight fit between ammunition chamber and chamber (vs. bolt action) to ensure safe, smooth operation. In the extreme bolt gun accuracy arena, many techniques such as neck sizing or keeping cartridge headspace very tight are highly popular. They are not useful with Service Rifles and can even be dangerous. Be sure to carefully consider whether a specialized technique is appropriate and beneficial for your gas-gun. Rule TWO: Safety is paramount in order to achieve accuracy
Example: If you are unsure about which brand of match primers is best for your rifle design, don’t buy it. In the best-case scenario, you are given exactly two eyes and ten hands. They risk trying to squeeze 0.25 MOA more accuracy from an M1A, etc. It’s not worth it.
This has been discussed before, but it is worth repeating for those who are new to the area. If you’re struggling to break out the Marksman Class or are using a CMPM1 “Assued”, then turning the necks on your 600-yard brass is a waste. Practice or dry-firing will make your scores improve faster. On the other hand, if the reigning champions anxiously check your scores each time you fire an event, a little neck-turning might not be so far-fetched.Verifying Load Improvements — Accuracy hand-loading involves a wide variety of techniques, ranging from basic to rather precise. You should carefully choose those that offer a good return for your time and effort. In doubt? Do a classic pilot test. Your new technique will allow you to prepare ammo for at most three or four ten shot groups. This is in contrast to the standard method. Next, choose a calm day to test the ammunition at its full range (e.g. To verify a significant improvement, test the ammo at full distance (e.g., 200, 300, 600 yards). It’s possible to save a lot of labor by doing a little testing. Rule Four: Be your own efficiency expert
Serious Service Rifle shooters tend to think in terms of thousands of rounds and not “boxes” or “hundreds”. Analyze and WRITE DOWN every step of your reloading process. Count how many times each case has been handled. Next, determine if any operations could be changed or dropped without compromising safety or accuracy. Two operations can be eliminated, which will save 2000 steps per 1000 rounds. You should also carefully consider the measurable benefits of adding one step to your routine before you add another.
Instead of marking 300-yard rounds individually, as is the case with 200-yard ammo for identification, could a simple change to primers be used? If accuracy is required, using brass-colored primers 200 and 300 for 300 will provide an indestructible indicator that eliminates one step. Instead of spending hours selecting GI surplus brass that is uniform in weight and neck length, you can spend your 600-yard loads on known, high-quality imported brass. The results should be excellent, the time saved is considerable, and brass life should last a long time given the 600 yard range.
This seems intuitive and simple. Many slam-fires, which were more common in the days when M1s and M1As were standard, are at least partially due to high primers. Primers should not be flush with the case head. This has been addressed by the USAMU in a previous column. However, each round should be checked to ensure that primers are properly seated before they are packaged.
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