With components becoming increasingly harder to find as well as drastically increasing in price I’m looking into alternatives for projectiles for use with my m1 carbine. I’ve been able to find a few places offering inexpensive plated bullets as well as coated cast bullets. I currently use h110/w296 to load my standard 110gr fmj. Im curious if I could still use that same powder with reduced loads to push the alternative projectile. I do have a chronograph so I figure I can start low and work up to a load that will cycle the action. I generally shoot an 8” steel plate out to 1-200 yards so as long as it can make steel ring I’d be happy. I’m not looking to dial in a sub moa load. I don’t think the rifles even caliber of that. Just something to keep shooting my favorite rifle.
30 carbine coated cast vs. plated bullets.
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Way back in the day I used to cast 90 grain .310” bullets intended for the .30 Luger, sized to .309”.
I used an alloy made with 9 pounds of clip on wheel weights with a pound of 50/50 bar solder, producing Lyman no 2 alloy.
I then tumble lubed them with liquid alox and used them in my M1 carbine. Velocity was around 2000 fps and accuracy and reliability were quite good. The sole caveat was that I did need to clean out the gas port in the barrel every 500 rounds or so. That requires a wrench to remove the gas tappet in order to access the hole to punch out any accumulated lead.
At the time, I could essentially shoot my .30 M1 carbine for the same cost per round as a .22 LR. Way more bang for the buck.
I used an alloy made with 9 pounds of clip on wheel weights with a pound of 50/50 bar solder, producing Lyman no 2 alloy.
I then tumble lubed them with liquid alox and used them in my M1 carbine. Velocity was around 2000 fps and accuracy and reliability were quite good. The sole caveat was that I did need to clean out the gas port in the barrel every 500 rounds or so. That requires a wrench to remove the gas tappet in order to access the hole to punch out any accumulated lead.
At the time, I could essentially shoot my .30 M1 carbine for the same cost per round as a .22 LR. Way more bang for the buck.
Scharfschuetzer
Member
Back in the 70s I shot a lot of cast 110 grain gas check bullets (RCBS mould) through my M1 Carbine. Cast from the WWs of the time, they clocked 1800 fps with equal accuracy to the military FMJ loads. I used the RCBS crimp on gas checks and the NRA Alox lubricant and sized to .309 for the .307 bore of my carbine. No leading and the gas cylinder and piston remained clean and functional after lots of rounds.
WWs not being what they were back in the day, I'd cast from a 94-4-2% alloy were I to repeat the project today.
It was an inexpensive and fun load that worked well on jack rabbits on the high deserts of Colorado and Wyoming.
As a side note, I used the same bullet in a 1903 Springfield military rifle in 30/06 at about 1,700 fps for a vermin load and small game hunting load. It worked very well and on one outing in 77, I shot my limit of 10 cotton tails with something like 12 rounds.
WWs not being what they were back in the day, I'd cast from a 94-4-2% alloy were I to repeat the project today.
It was an inexpensive and fun load that worked well on jack rabbits on the high deserts of Colorado and Wyoming.
As a side note, I used the same bullet in a 1903 Springfield military rifle in 30/06 at about 1,700 fps for a vermin load and small game hunting load. It worked very well and on one outing in 77, I shot my limit of 10 cotton tails with something like 12 rounds.
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AJ
US Veteran
By coated slugs, I assume you mean powder coated bullets. I use them all the time in all of my handguns. I never have any leading in my barrels, I have recovered several bullets from the butts and the coating was still intact. Sorry I do not do rifles. I load from .38 ACP to .45 Colt, and all the bullets that I cast are powder coated. HTH
Ivan the Butcher
Member
Cast bullets don't have to be coated or plated, but then they need to have a Gas Check.
The 3rd bullet mold I bought is the Gas Checked version of Lyman 3118. I size them to .308, .309, .313, and .314. (depends on which cartridge they get loaded in!) I load the following with it.
32 Colt New Police
32 S&W Long
30 Carbine
32-40 WCF
7.62x39
30-30Win
303 Savage
300 Savage
308 Win
30-40 US
303 Brit
30-06 Gov't
I never messed with this bullet and Magnum cartridges. But it is probably the most versatile bullet you can cast!
I've been loading 30 Carbine since 1981. Getting affordable brass has always been the problem! Starline is probably the best solution!
BEWARE of 1953 LC brass. in the late 70's China imported thousands of rounds in boxes that look factory. It Is Berdan and corrosive primed!
I have a 1981 RCBS high speed steel reloading die set. It cost $17.99. In 1982 I bought a RCBS Carbide sizer die, it cost $80.00. It was worth the expense! A commercial loader told me to still lube the cases, I kinda do, every 5th case has very light lube.
Ivan
The 3rd bullet mold I bought is the Gas Checked version of Lyman 3118. I size them to .308, .309, .313, and .314. (depends on which cartridge they get loaded in!) I load the following with it.
32 Colt New Police
32 S&W Long
30 Carbine
32-40 WCF
7.62x39
30-30Win
303 Savage
300 Savage
308 Win
30-40 US
303 Brit
30-06 Gov't
I never messed with this bullet and Magnum cartridges. But it is probably the most versatile bullet you can cast!
I've been loading 30 Carbine since 1981. Getting affordable brass has always been the problem! Starline is probably the best solution!
BEWARE of 1953 LC brass. in the late 70's China imported thousands of rounds in boxes that look factory. It Is Berdan and corrosive primed!
I have a 1981 RCBS high speed steel reloading die set. It cost $17.99. In 1982 I bought a RCBS Carbide sizer die, it cost $80.00. It was worth the expense! A commercial loader told me to still lube the cases, I kinda do, every 5th case has very light lube.
Ivan
terry_tr6
Member
i've shot some 115 Bayou carbine coated bullets (only problem is it takes 3 months to get them) that were pretty reasonable and just used load data for cast from the one book/one caliber load book. have not shot enough to know if there is any special cleaning needed but guys who have shot a lot of them say they haven't needed to clean the port. I wonder if just shooting a couple FMJ would blow out any deposits in the port
S&WIowegan
US Veteran
I haven't played with my 30 Carbine in many years. I have the rifle and a Ruger 3-screw revolver. I loaded both jacketed and lead handloads. The lead bullets coated the bore immediately and was a bear to clean out. So gas checks are a must if you want to shoot lead in 30 Carbine. The Ruger was fine with lead.
BrovoEchoSierra
Member
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In my youth, my Dad played with a Carbine some.
He started out with a Universal, and when it turned out to have an over sized bore, he ditched it, and went to an Inland, that appeared to be un-issued.
Cast lead bullet that was used was the 311- 359, I think, and about 120 grains.
When I bought my Underwood, Carbine we both shot them some with pretty good success.
Even though it can happen, we never had any leading issues, and a check of my gas piston a few years ago, reveled no lead build up there either.
Its a funny little round to load for. Some what like a .410 shot gun, in that there is not very many powder options available.
H110, is what the military loaded with, from what I have read. 4227, and 2400 worked well for us, and there are loads in the Lyman manual.
Stick with the published "Rifle" load data, (Ruger chambered this round in a Pistol too),and all should be well.
I would run towards the higher side of the data, and would not reduced the loads, for fear of having a bullet not clear the barrel.
I just bought a tool to check loaded rounds with a while back, just to be on the safe side, as a carbine can fire out of battery with disastrous results.
Lots of luck..
He started out with a Universal, and when it turned out to have an over sized bore, he ditched it, and went to an Inland, that appeared to be un-issued.
Cast lead bullet that was used was the 311- 359, I think, and about 120 grains.
When I bought my Underwood, Carbine we both shot them some with pretty good success.
Even though it can happen, we never had any leading issues, and a check of my gas piston a few years ago, reveled no lead build up there either.
Its a funny little round to load for. Some what like a .410 shot gun, in that there is not very many powder options available.
H110, is what the military loaded with, from what I have read. 4227, and 2400 worked well for us, and there are loads in the Lyman manual.
Stick with the published "Rifle" load data, (Ruger chambered this round in a Pistol too),and all should be well.
I would run towards the higher side of the data, and would not reduced the loads, for fear of having a bullet not clear the barrel.
I just bought a tool to check loaded rounds with a while back, just to be on the safe side, as a carbine can fire out of battery with disastrous results.
Lots of luck..
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DWalt
Member
Back in the late 1960s, I had a friend who cast 120 grain .30 bullets. They were just plain lubricated lead w/o a gas check. I fired many hundreds of them in a carbine with no issues, I loaded them just like regular GI jacketed bullets, usually using H110.
I lucked out the last time I went to a gun show, a guy had a container full of 30 carbine brass. A bunch of bags divided up into 100 and 200 piece denominations. Trying to not be greedy I tried to purchase a couple but he talked me into taking the whole obtained for something around $80. All told it was about 900 pieces with 500 having live primers.
Ivan the Butcher
Member
Last Spring a LGS had a bag of just under 500. They had been loaded many times! I'm saving them for Hunting, I won't take time to try to recover them.
The Forrester case trimmer has two hollow pointing tools, the consist of a centering devise and a short drill bit. (one is 1/16", the other is 1/8") A 1/8" hole about 3/16" deep blows a proportionally large hole in small game or garden critters. If I were hunting for food, I would use 1/8" hole with 1/16" deep hole.
My cast M-1 bullets are made with WW or Linotype usually, to avoid leading, sized .309".
One of the joys of M-1 Carbines, is pre-teens can learn how to use a semi-auto. My wife (like many tall thin women) has issues shooting a rifle offhand. She tried with AR's and Mini-14's, but only succeeded with the M-1 Carbine. Hers is in the safe with 3-15 round mags of Winchester 110 grain Soft Hollow Pointed Jacketed ammo (Factory, and somewhat rare).
Ivan
I tried cast 110 bullets years ago, bought from somewhere I forgot and without gas checks. The accuracy and reliability were awful and it took forever to use them all up. Since then I've used jacketed projectiles.
I did just buy a box of Berrys plated and await a trip to the range to see how that works for me.
I did just buy a box of Berrys plated and await a trip to the range to see how that works for me.
I have been shooting my cast GC'd bullets in my carbines for years. Work great. never clogged a gas port in my carbines or Garands.
Found this page while searching on problems with cast .30 Carb. Because at some time in past few years I loaded up 500 rds of 115 gr coated lead in new .30 Carb cases with 15 gr H110.
Took them out last week to zero for a match and their accuracy was garbage, 4”+ groups at 25 yards with 3/5 shots off the paper at 50 yards. Then switched to the Berry’s and those shot fine.
Either I never accuracy tested the cast bullet load, maybe only chrono’d, or even just figured they’d be fine and loaded em up. The funny part was the first shot last week was at 25 yds and hit dead nuts center of bullseye. So I immediately moved to 50 & suddenly didn’t know if I’d died, gone blind, was snakebite or crapped my pants. And dang it, measured velocity was 2028, sd = 10.
Only about 450 rds left to shoot up and recover the now-very-expensive 1x brass….
Took them out last week to zero for a match and their accuracy was garbage, 4”+ groups at 25 yards with 3/5 shots off the paper at 50 yards. Then switched to the Berry’s and those shot fine.
Either I never accuracy tested the cast bullet load, maybe only chrono’d, or even just figured they’d be fine and loaded em up. The funny part was the first shot last week was at 25 yds and hit dead nuts center of bullseye. So I immediately moved to 50 & suddenly didn’t know if I’d died, gone blind, was snakebite or crapped my pants. And dang it, measured velocity was 2028, sd = 10.
Only about 450 rds left to shoot up and recover the now-very-expensive 1x brass….
Decades ago I bought a mold for the 30 carbine just in case I ever got into buying one. An old 2 cavity cramer #50 that casts a 125gr sp and a 115gr hp.
Never did buy a 30 carbine but it's always nice to have a mold laying around for them.
Never did buy a 30 carbine but it's always nice to have a mold laying around for them.
