New M1 owner - how hot is ”normal” for the barrel

[RicT]

I am a first time M1G owner. I have a 1944 rifle.
my question is about how hot should I expect the barrel to become during shooting.

I made an inspection of the internal parts, following a very usefull guide found online and all was ok as far as I could Understand.

Then I lubed it in accordance with an instruction I found.

I placed a vented gas port and shot 3 rounds until it cycled. I did not used mil spec M1G ammo but “some” low powered hunting ammo.

Then I shot about 24 rounds in 3 to 4 min.

After this the barrel was very hot and so was naturally the metal band close to first attachment point for the sling in the front.

With hot I mean not to touch hot! It was not smoking, but as I said it was very very hot.

So my rather silly question is, without being able to give you any more precise information then I just did, it this normal? Should the rifle become quite hot?

Please excuse me if I have omitted important information and let me know if I should include other pertinent facts.

Overall the rifle was very accurate with the ca 40 rounds I have put through it that first day.

Thank you,

Ric

[Orlando]

Barrel will get very hot firing a lot of rounds in a short time. I have seen rear handguards and stocks in barrel channel that were charred from a hot barrel

[David Milisock]

The heat is why the hand guards are there. How hot is too hot? Depends, I've seen firearms with smoking barrels and I'd be willing to bet by that time the barrel was ruined. I've seen barrels bow from heat and that's bad on all fronts but mainly the reason you fired it that much.

I've shot thousands of rounds through barrels that were fired in controlled 10 shot strings that were fine after the shot strings.

Proper military loads do not use maximum pressure, from a Garand an aimed 10 shot string will not harm a barrel. Aimed shot string with a 30.06 Military load is a few seconds between shots, not what you see in Band of Brothers. Pacing strings a minute or 2 apart will help with avoiding throat erosion.

Average barrel life if you pace yourself in my experience is around 5,000 rounds max maybe as low as 3,000. If the metal makes your hand uncomfortable when very close to it slow down a bit.

I speak as a shooter not a collector if you're worried about wearing out a rifle don't, just be prepared to repair it. If you have a valuable collector don't shoot it.

[RicT]

Ok, so it does not have to mean something is wrong with internals, the ammo or gas preassure?

[David Milisock]

No the heat is normal, keeping your rate of fire slower extends barrel life. Also I picked this up years ago in an American Rifleman Magazine article. The pressure curve, if incorrect can damage the rifle in all self loading firearms. A Garand is not designed for heavy hunting loads nor slow or very fast pressure curves. A proper load is rarely more than 75% and the proper powders are relatively quick for a 30.06.

The American Rifleman article said that a proper pressure curve in a properly functioning rifle would eject cases at about 1 o'clock to 2o'clock position about 3 to 4 feet to the right. Being what I am I got a close duplicate military load just to test that article, 168gr, Hornady HPBT match, 46.5gr of Hodgen 4895 at average 2680FPS at 10 feet. It shoots really well and I was amazed the rifle dumps the brass just where they said it would.

Interestingly I tried lower pressure slower pressure curves and it moves my ejection around to 3 o'clock all the way to 5 o'clock, this gets hard on the rifle as the port pressure has increased.

[RicT]

Thank you all for your very kind support!
Ric