Peter,
Like you, I just purchased an M1 Springfield. I went to gunbroker.com and purchased there. You are correct... I paid $2 per round but it was for the M1 ball ammo. Don’t attempt to shoot modern ammo through your gun. Lots of bad things can happen to your gun.
MFO
Absolutely. Unless I get an adjustable gas cylinder screw, I need to keep the ammo very tame (in comparison to some of the stuff I’ve seen).
I’ll just stick to the safe stuff.
Don’t be stupid. An M1 in proper shape will handle any factory ammo up to 220 gr rn.
I personally have M1s that have had thousands of rounds of M72 ball fired through them. M72 consists of 173 gr boattail spirepoint loaded to 2640 fps. That load produces 50k psi. not 48k. One of the rifles is an NRA CMP Springfield Armory NM built at Aberdeen MTU and the other a Winchester that I bought as new. Both rifles have a fair amount of wear in the bore, still shoot exceedingly well, otherwise are in great shape. Had them both about 45 years and will never re-barrel them. I’ve been through two other M1 NMs and one M14 NM and one M1A NM.
The two worst things you can do to a rifle:
1. Overcleaning
2. Underusing
The loads for the Garand have a particular powder charge that has a pressure curve suitable to the rifle. Of course these are produced in smaller runs than normal hunting ammo, and probably not at all right now.
I spoke to Springfield Armory and was told that 150 gr factory loads would work in the rifle, but to avoid heavier bullets. You might confirm this for yourselves by calling them.
You can duplicate the Garand load by hand loading.