30 cal M1 carbine

[SpeedyR]

any thoughts on getting started on the M1 carbine reloading? just dusted off the carbine and about time to get some loads going. I will probably pick up a set of the Lee Carbide dies unless someone has a better suggestion. will probably load them on a 550b.

I saw that Berry's makes a plated 110gr bullet, any other suggestions on weights, shapes, brands that work well? any reason you can't put a tipped bullet in one of the correct weight if it meets OAL? or just none available to meet the OAL?

I"ve got some H110, IMR 4227 and Alliant 2400 to play with but if there's something else that works I'm not to set on those but I have them already and use them with other calibers. from what i've read sounds like most prefer H110. and that the load is very sensative to powder charges and case length.

any other thoughts or suggestions on the M1 carbine? I would like to have a few extra magazines, any good brands or places to pick them up?

 

[fuelman1]

I use the H110 and it does the job well. Keep in mind that even though you have carbide dies you will need to lube every 4th or 5th case. The 30 carbine isn't a straight walled case. It has a slight taper and this seems to be enough to cause some difficulty when sizing. Be aware that some of the cheap aftermarket mags are just that.... cheap. I've bought a few that I had to bend and tweek to get to lock in place and feed correctly. I's a real fun gun to shoot and since ammo's so expensive reloading really helps.

 

[Petro_58]

I use IMR4227 mostly, and 2400 a little, and have never had a problem with plated bullets. I traded for 700 Sierra 110gr RN FMJ, so I've been loading those lately.

 

[RET E-7]

H110/W296 is my powder of choice. Been known to use 2400 also.
M1 Carbine is a heck of a lot of fun to shoot.
IMHO it's the grandfather of all these so called "Black weapons".

Tom

 

[SpeedyR]

just getting ready to load some up in the next few days. Will probably put together some with H110/296 and try those first. I've got a few hundred 110 FMJ hornady's as well as some Ranier plated bullets to try for just plinking rounds.

one thing I read today as I was considering loads, in one of the speer manuals, it says that they used magnum primers with the H110/296 loads. None of the other manuals refer to the magnum primers. I was going to start with 14.5gr loads (seems that is pretty close to the factory/milspec load that was originally developed for the M1) and see if that works well.

any thoughts on the magnum primers??

 

[fuelman1]

I load with regular small rifle and haven't had any issues. I've been loading 14.3 of H110 and it cycles well and is accurate. I noticed the same thing about the primers and dismissed it. I tend to look at as many manuals/reloading data as I can and try to see where the consensus is. I'll eliminate the oddball load. As exacting as reloading is you would think that there would be very consistent data across the books. For the most part it is, but sometimes you come across one that is a few grains different in powder or calls for different primers.

 

[Going Postal]

I dusted my carbine off a couple of months ago, too. I loaded up a couple of hundred rounds using the Berry's 110 grain bullets and H110 powder with standard SR primers. They worked very well, no problems at all, reasonably accurate, seeing that the carbine is not the most accurate rifle out there anyway.

I have a few 15 round magazines still wrapped in paper (believe they are military ones), make me an offer for a couple of them!