Hello Rex, I have a Winchester M1 Garand chambered in 30.06. It is the only rifle I have that can be used for long range shooting. I am wondering if I decide to put a scope on this weapon will it be effective out to 1000 yards? If so, what would be the limitations of this weapon while deployed in the field?
merwin907
5 days ago
Oh lord why didn't I listen! Why did the Steiner have to be out of stock everywhere I looked! I ended up getting a 5-20x50mm Razor HD for $1899.99, what a great deal. Put in on my beautiful newly rebuilt savage 110. XLR chassis, MPA single piece rings, Atlas BT-35 bipod, a smoking hot 29 inch stainless heavy palma barrel, and a camo Cerakote on the whole thing. I get it all together and I am ready to shoot laser beams with this thing. Nope, POI shifts as much as 10 MOA JUST SITTING IN THE CASE. I cant get it zeroed, cant index a FS, cant do anything because of a $1900 POS. I saved my pennies for so long to have a rifle that would make heads turn. I was starting to really reach out there with the range- pushing 1200, 1300 yards and making first round hits- so I wanted to treat myself to something nice after practicing twice a week for almost two years straight. I had my eye on the Steiner T5XI, and they were on sale for like 1300 bucks, but everyone else and their sister saw it too and bought them up quick. I settled... I am sending the scope to vortex today, hopefully I will get one back that works. I was in denial- Couldn't believe the stories were true. I tried everything to correct the problem. Bedded the action into the chassis, unmounted and remounted the optic like ten times. messed with torque and turret caps. Its a crying shame that at 400 yards, I can't hit the target because the scope put my projectile three feet to the right. If they send me a new scope as some attempt to rectify the issue, I am going to the local fudd forums and I am going to sell it for $1500 brand new in the box, and I am going to put my SWFA back on until I can afford something from IOR. at least with SWFA I know damn well I will make a hit whether its rain or shine- I have three of them and they are all reliable. like, go-to-war level reliable. Its sad that a guy can start really feeling confident about LR, and then have a piece of equipment bring him down. I took this scope to my first competitive shoot ever in my life and I didn't hit a single target- put me in last place... I felt like a moron lugging this 28 pound beast of a rifle around like I was some kind of badass and then have my equipment fail on me- totally making me look like an idiot. further more, half of the guys out there had vortex scopes that somehow worked. makes me sick. I am glad you all are here to listen to my angst. sure, I could afford to be a little more humble about the whole thing- and I would be if this wasn't a $1900 mistake. Had Athlon been known to me before hand, I would have went with that.
The M1 is a fantastic rifle, it has so much history! The bullet will get there at 1000, accuracy will depend on your particular rifle and eyesight. But personally, I don't think I would put a scope on one. They load only with the en bloc clip so your mounting options are kind of restricted and usually require permanent modification to the rifle. I would lean toward a second, bolt action rifle in 30.06 so you could share ammunition and components. Maybe a Springfield 1903 if you like the nostalgia and have some money. Otherwise, A factory modern bolt action will be more affordable, and I would feel much better about modifying it to get better accuracy or the features you need for longer range precision.
The M1 is an excellent rifle for doing some minor modifications to it and it becomes a tack driver. About 4 years ago I had a chance to build one up from 3 guns. Essentially taking the good parts of each one and combining it into a single rifle that has served me well in shorter and mid range targets out to 500 yards. I have yet to try and shoot beyond that as the scope selection is kind of limited. When building this rifle up I used an omega mount for mounting a pistol scope to it. That is about the only way to go with these older ones unless you have a D model that was used for snipers. One cool thing about the Omega mount is it actually helps with accuracy as one of my friends has put it on many M1 rifles and has determined it helps in the long run to do that. Next is the very front piece should be loose when there is a cold barrel. As this will help with barrel harmonics. Sometimes you have to also hammer or dimple in some of the areas or glue the stock in order to make it rigid enough for the gun to get accurate enough. Another thing you have to be careful with is your hand loads. They cannot be as hot as your regular bolt action loads as this can damage the op rod. A bent op rod is never a good thing. Other than that they are so much fun to shoot and as the Greeks are the only ones that still use them in service but soon to go out of service for them. If the import restrictions are lifted we may see the last shipment of M1s ever back to the US. These old war horses are a true testament to American mass production could do when brought together. As for shooting out to 1000 yards consistently I would look at getting a bolt gun. Less moving parts and can be made to be much more accurate. Hopefully this helps. (Just don't get rid of the M1)
Thanks for the info