10/08/2019
We just built and fired a Garand in 6.5x55, my favorite military caliber of all time! The barrel was a pre-production test barrel from one of the major manufacturers. They sent it to us so we could test whether the rifle required any additional modifications to cycle reliably.
Turns out it doesn't! For those that don't know, the 6.5x55 has a slightly larger case head (.480 rather than the standard .473) and a thicker rim than 30-06-based cases. European 6.5x55 cases fit every Garand bolt that we've tried so far (at least 6), and we had no feeding, extraction, or ejection issues in about 40 rounds of testing. That suggests that the extractor works just fine despite the thicker rim.
The only issue is that about 1/4 of new clips won't fit 8 rounds. For the rest, it takes some massaging, but usually works. We're going to start marking the clips that work best. They're probably just a little looser than an average new clip. Loading the first round usually requires an authoritative smack on the back of the op rod handle to help it forward. The rest of the clip loads smooth as can be.
https://i.imgur.com/RyRfKIb.jpg
Here are the first 8 rounds I fired from the rifle after loading a single shot to verify function. The recoil is very mild. It feels like 7.62x39. The sights happened to be spot on with no prior sighting in. We took our time when installing the barrel, and I guess we got it just about right on centerline! The steel target at 200 yards turned sideways on the stand after the 5th shot, but I didn't stop shooting because I was more interested in verifying function than accuracy at that point. It was a pleasant surprise that I hit 5/5 without sighting in before the plate turned!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83bG9HwmUIk
Here's a video of my buddy shooting it. I was trying to get some footage of the ejection. We drilled the gas port with a #50 drill bit (.070"), which we expected would be too small. We were planning to step it up slowly from there. I was surprised that it cycled reliably at .070", but ejection was erratic. We think it's because the rifle was undergassed. About half of the cases ended up between the 10:00 and 2:00, within one foot of the muzzle. The rest were between the 12:00 and 2:00, 4-6 feet downrange. We want to verify that it's not overgassed (even though I'm fairly certain that it's not). We plan to bring an adjustable gas plug to the range next time and see how many clicks we can open it before it won't cycle reliably. If it's more than 1 or 2, then we'll just leave an adjustable plug installed. We hope to do some accuracy testing as well once we've verified that it's not overgassed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPJUv4j_BS8&t=45s
