Reloading 30 cal M-1 carbine????

[Prof Young]

Loaders:
So I'm weighing the possibility of buying an M1 carbine via an LGS. Seems like the price is good etc. However; I know I will want to reload for it and I'm having trouble even finding a set of dies on line.

First, is this cartridge called something other then .30 cal carbine?

Second, does anyone out there reload this? Is it hard to find the dies and the components? I've looked at lee and at midway, but am striking out. Help?

Live well, be safe
Prof Young

[mwells72774]

Ive got an old set of pacific dies I procured srveral years back at a yard sale. Only seen 3 other sets for sale since.

Its not hard to load for. No different than a straight walled pistol round. Brass is pricey. I wheeled and dealed into a ammo can of lc brass on stripper clips.

Projectiles can be difficult to procure.

[zxcvbob]

It's an easy cartridge to reload, but can be aggravating. Buy the Lee carbide dies, and then lube the cases even tho' you're using carbide (you don't have to lube them well, but if you don't lube at all you will stick a case)

You need to trim them every time you reload, after you resize them. They sometimes shrink when fired and then stretch during resizing. Sometimes the trimmer won't take anything off and sometimes it will cut quite a bit; there's no way to predict except using some kind of case gauge.

[jag2]

Thats the round that got me into reloading because it was so fun to shoot but really goes thru a lot of ammo fast. Nothing tricky about it but right now everything is near impossible to get so you'll just need to be patient. Think long term.

[Grump]

Yeah, settled on 14.6 of W-W 296 with this one a long time ago.

And last weekend had my first ever partial casehead separation. Probably 5 reloads on them, hard to know since my Dad started on them when I was too young to notice. Like the .308s I've been wearing out, the breakage is enough forward of the case web that gas sealing is not really compromised.

The other reason to trim religiously is that many chambers will let the case mouth sort of go into the leade and leave you with a "pinched" case/bullet and some scary-high pressures if the cases are too long.

The only other name for the cartridge has some variation of Winchester in it. I learned about it this week, and it reportedly appears only in some very early 1940 or 1941 military spec sheets. No one I have encountered has used it.

[mwells72774]

Grump, are you talking about .30 WSL?

[jcwit]

I've reloaded thousands upon thousands of 30 caliber carbine.

As others have stated lube the cases no matter what kind of dies you have. it is not a straight walled case but a tapered case. Lubing will make your life so much easier.

Also check the case OAL every time after resizing and trim if necessary, I normally need to trim every 2nd or 3rd reload.

I cast my on bullets for mine using a Lee mould #90301, this gives me a round nose bullet at 100 grains. I size the bullet to .310. This bullet/mould is originally designed for the 32/20, 32 S&W Long & the 32 Colt, but works extremely well in my carbine.

Powder charge is 12 I/2 grains of 4227 which cycles the action well and gives superior accuracy.

Hope this helps,

[Ozzieman]

I load for mine also. Carbide and a small amount of lube is the way to go.
I don’t cast so I found the Penn 115 works well for mine. It will take the velocity of the carbine.
http://www.pennbullets.com/30/30-caliber.html

[saddler]

Same as Jag2 = this was the round that got me into reloading

I STILL have the Lee Loadall kit that I started out with too

Back in the day with this one I used Nobel Glasgow powders & whatever 110-gr FMJ or SP bullets I could find

Never ever located any mil-surp or factory ammo for my carbine in all the years I owned it, 100% home made reloads from day one!

[dewcrew8]

Love that thing! Loaded a lot of it ,mine likes 2400 and Speer 110 jk . Also fun to shoot out of the ruger wheel gun too! all of my brass is Gi brass. I think maybe next time ill try some aa9 in it.

[Sevens]

I load it for my .30 cal chambered Ruger Blackhawk. I do not currently own an M1 Carbine of any flavor. I like those rifles, but chasing that brass is a horrendous chore.

I'm a handgun reloader, mostly, and I only dabble in rifle. It's my opinion (formed with a lot of thought and experience) that reloading .30 Carbine...sucks, compared to most every other handgun round. Compared to rifle rounds, it's about the same.

You -will- lube cases. If you dare attempt to do this work without case lube, please come back and tell us how far you got until you stuck a piece of brass in your size die. I highly recommend Imperial, and even the smallest little tin of that stuff will last you YEARS.

You simply must check for length & trim these cases. And be careful, because if you trim them too short by mistake, they become worthless as they headspace on the case mouth and making them too short will make them unable to fire.

For powder, I have great success with Alliant 2400, though H110/W296 might be even better. AA#9 and IMR-4227 are also popular choices. Some have used Blue Dot, I was wildly unimpressed with it in this round. Use small rifle primers ONLY as this round peaks at 40k PSI and a small pistol primer is a dangerous proposition in .30 Carbine.

For bullets, my favorite is the Berry's 110gr plated round nose. These bullets shoot extremely well, are economical, and Berry's gives them a speed rating beyond 1,900 FPS. Purchased in bulk, they are far cheaper than 100 round boxes by any known rifle bullet maker.