Why are Garand barrels softer than a lot of sporting rifles?

[Herschel]

solli, check your private messages.

[jcj54]

As an M1 armorer I can tell you a new GI or aftermarket barrel should throat at 1.75. That is why the original GI TE gauge has a dot there. GI barrels were discarded after reaching 5 on the TE gauge only by the Rifle Team armorers. This equals about 5000 rounds. In service use they were used until they hit 9 or 10 on the TE gauge. Sporting arms barrel steel us no harder than that of GI barrels. Bolt gun shooters do not fire nearly as many rounds per year as those shooting service rifle matches.

[UUURah]

I have to disagree and agree with your posting.

I have an Italian barrel that throats a "1". Right now I am working on one of my American Legion Garands that shows 1.75, and I KNOW it's been fired, I have fired it myself some years ago. It has also been subjected to an unknown quantity of blanks, which tears them up.

Bout 8-10 yrs ago my Gun Club sold off their Garand loaners and went to AR-15's. They held one back because they knew it was shot out. They offered it to me for $300. I did have a Korean Era barrel that was close to the build date. Worked out good for them and me.

Just for fun I checked the old barrel. It was a 9. Now it didn't get to 9 overnight, it had to gradually get there. Someone was borrowing it and using it for years. Granted they were probably novice shooters but they still shot and enjoyed it. They must have hit some 10's.

What I'm getting at is this topic is subjective. It can be interpreted many ways.