1917 Eddystone 30.06

[brokenscout]

Can you shoot hunting ammo in these?

[StagLefty]

I'm not an expert by any means but my understanding is you can't use modern cartridges in that old of a rifle. I'm sure some else will be along that has more expertise.

[rondog]

Yes, anything .30-06 caliber should be fine. It's a bolt action, should be plenty strong. M1 Garands are a different story, commercial hunting ammo can damage them because of higher pressures. Any questions, ask Bert.

[Troublco]

1917's, and for that matter 1914's, are very strong actions. 1914's used to be the action of choice for building magnum hunting rifles. Any normal hunting ammo loaded to SAAMI spec should be just fine. And Ron's right, Garands are a different story due to the gas system.

[StagLefty]

It must have been the Garands that I read about and using modern ammo. Thanks for clearing that up folks [Beer]

[rondog]

Yeah, modern hunting loads create higher pressures, which can bend a Garand's oprod or even crack the receiver. You have to use a special gas plug in them that has an adjustable vent to relieve some of that gas pressure. That's gotta be some high pressure shit, considering the gas port in a Garand barrel is only about an inch from the muzzle. But Garands are designed to only use M2 class ammo, such as ball, tracers or A/P. Even the early WWI M1 ammo is supposedly too hot for them.

[spqrzilla]

The issue with Garands is not that commercial .30-06 is of "higher" pressure (ie., peak pressure), its that it might be loaded with a powder with a slower burn rate resulting in higher port pressure.

The 1917 will shoot any SAAMI ammo .30-06 just fine.