Does anyone have knowledge/information, and/or experience in loading .30 carbine using Hodgdon CFE 223 or CFE Pistol? I have an abundance of both, and in this time of powder scarcity I would like to try them if I can find safe and reliable data.
Thank you
I understand your situation completely.
Like @Kurac said, the .327 Federal Magnum data would be very close to the .30 Carbine, so you could search Hodgdon's reloading site for such data, just stay away from upper end loads.
I have used 6.0 grs. of Unique and one of my 115 gr. cast FP bullets in my .30 Carbine's. Velocity is 1425 fps, 100 yd. accuracy is decent, and even with these relatively soft bullets, leading is very, very minimal and even then it's limited to just ahead of the chamber. And since the carbine's gas port is so near the chamber, they tend to function the actions with these fast burning powders. Even this middle-of-the-road load of Unique functions my carbine's.
With such loads, one can used cast bullets and save their jacketed bullets.
Missouri Bullet Company has .30 Carbine bullets for about 1/2 the price of jacketed.
Another suggestion would be to visit the
Military Rifles section of the Cast Boolit website. There are a couple of guys over there (Larry Gibson, Outpost 75) who really know M1 Carbines and how to load for them, especially with pistol powders. Even if they haven't used CFE Pistol, I have no doubt they can point you in the right direction with regards to a load.
Good luck and please keep us posted. I'm relatively new to M1 Carbines so would be interested in what you find out.
308S
