I have a milspec but new production carbine from Fulton Armory that is a work of art that will last me and my grandchildren several lifetimes, as long as we as a nation retain our rights as free citizens (as opposed to subjects).
Because its the only rifle that my wife also shoots well, it is our ready long gun for home defense with two 15 round USGI magazines loaded with soft points.
Finding commercial .30 Carbine ammo is sometimes hit-or-miss (especially now), and even when you find some it seems under-powered (Aguila?). Thankfully there are brass and bullet suppliers online if you reload. Its a reloader's delight to load pulled, never fired, sparkly 1952 Lake City brass with highly consistent USGI 110gr FMJs.
Check out Bartlett Reloaders, Polygunbags, and Mastercast, to name a few online suppliers.
The .30 Carbine round may not have descended from a pistol round, but it reloads very similar to one since it is not a necked cartridge. The case lengthens when resized, so it requires attention to case length and needs an occasional trim to avoid slam-fires.
Since you have to check case length
after resizing, I use my hand-indexed turret press instead of my progressive. The case is long (relative to most pistol cases) and unlubed cases work the brass more and can stick. I use Hornady One-Shot spray lube and tumble finished rounds to take the lube off, just like for .223/5.56.
I really love my carbine, and being able to reload for it means my wife and I can shoot it more often.
If only I could find a reliable supply of small rifle primers.
