Waitng to pick up my first M1 carbine, and would like to know if commercial ammo is ok to shoot in these guns? Or could it damage the op rod like a Garand? Thanks.
Printable View
Waitng to pick up my first M1 carbine, and would like to know if commercial ammo is ok to shoot in these guns? Or could it damage the op rod like a Garand? Thanks.
Commercial ammo is fine in the carbine. Some better then others. Most do not use steel cased ammo in their carbines to stop possible damage to them and the powder is quite dirty.
I used the "American Eagle" and the PRVI both with good success
My local Walmart almost always (now) has Remington UMC which I've had very good experience with, shoots fine, not too dirty (I shoot my own 38 spl handloads which can be REALLLY filthy or not depending ...)
American made .30 carbine ammunition is the best in the world.
Stick to Federal, Cor-Bon, Hornady, Winchester, and Remington
for use in your USGI carbine. Some foreign stuff is great. Some
foreign stuff is for practice only. A lot of foreign stuff is just plain
junk. No foreign stuff is anywhere near as good as U.S. commercial
ammunition. Buy American. If your carbine is used for law enforcement
or a personal/home defense situation - never use foreign, hand-loaded,
or re-loaded ammunition. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this rule: use
factory loaded cartridges only. :cheers:
Nice comment, but to expensive for over here and i´ve never had a problem with my selfloaded ammo, only with the Remington ones.Quote:
Originally Posted by jackthesmib
What an un-informed statement..:thdown::thdown:Quote:
Originally Posted by jackthesmib
Well, I agree American made factory ammo is great stuff. I shoot almost exclusively RP 110 FMJ for target and 110 JSP for defensive ammo (they shoot to the same POA). Mainly because the RP, I can get at Wally World anytime I want it for $24 a box. It averages about 1920 FPS, or 50 FPS less than Lake City. WW 110 ammo is a tad slower than RP, but good also. Czech made Sellier and Bellot is great ammo, too, shooting almost to the same POA as RP. Prvi Partizan is OK, but about 100 FPS slow, and Aguilla is almost 200 FPS slow, and shoot way low at 100 yards. Brazilian MagTech is superb ammo, and clocks at 2,000 fps, while still below max pressure. I also disagree about handloaded ammo not being good. If cases are trimmed, the standard 15 grain load of WW296 duplicates Lake City ammo, and is very accurate.
The only ammo I avoid is Wolf and Tula steel cased ammo. I tried 500 rounds and it was awful! group size was 2x to 2.5x the RP, it was very dirty and inconsistent, and the only malfunctions I had (aside from a carbine with a collapsed recoil spring) were with the Wolf. It would not feed from even GI 30s because the polymer had too much drag under the spring tension of a full magazine. I even noticed a chipped extractor after shooting it, though I can not definitely say it wasn't chipped before it (though I think it was the Wolf that did it).
Another note is that Aguilla can have FTEs when you have a new recoil spring (10 1/4"). When I shot some of it, I used a compressed spring a tad shorter than 10". Then it worked fine, but was almost off the target low at 100 yards compared to RP.
I really wish I could afford to pick up 2,000 rounds of MagTech FMJ and 1.000 JSP. That ammo rocks!
+1Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Haas
If it shoots and is reliable and accurate, shoot it!
What is wrong with relaoding ? Maybe you don't know how or how much fun it is !Quote:
Originally Posted by jackthesmib
Can we please keep this civil. Thank you
and continue that way. Nothing at all wrong with that.
Bill Hollinger, You have mailQuote:
Originally Posted by phil441
I am actually thinking of loading for mine, too. I have a bout 1500 rounds of REP FMJ and JSP, but want to "reload as I go" using my own brass. 1500 rounds is not a lot for 2 carbines. I think I still have dies, brass, primers and some 296.
Reloading with 15.0gr W296 and Rem 110gr FMJ or SP is currently running me about $11.60 box of 50 (reusing brass). Using 12.0gr 2400 knocks it down to about $11.16 per box of 50. While it does take some effort and time for case prep (size, trim, etc), I still feel like I get a better cartridge at less than half the price of commercial.
As far as not using reloads for HD, I believe that part of the argument put forward over the years has been being able to defend it in a court. Shoot someone, even during a burglary in your own home, and you are going to get sued by the perp or his family. I agree that using a "super" homemade 44 magnum reload with hand-cut fragmenting projectiles would be hard to defend on the stand - especially when standard commercial ammo is available. "Soooo, you were not satisfied with how deadly commercial ammo is and you obviously wanted to kill someone by cutting x's in your bullets, is that right Mister Smith?"
But I see no problem with using reloads when they are duplicates of standard commercial/military loads. "You Honor, I reload to save money and stay profficient in my safe weapons handling. I use unmodified commercial bullet loaded to exact military specifications for which the carbine is designed." I have a couple 30rd mags loaded with Remington 110gr SP bullets. I used brand new brass, bench-rest primers and I hand-measured the 15.0gr of W296 powder in each case. I am comfortable that they will go "bang" if needed.
Please note that I thank GOD every day for my family's safety and that the bullets are still in the magazine.
The key to the kingdom regarding carbine reloads is getting the case mouth bell correct. Until that is found you will have some collapsed cases and loose fitting projectiles. Once you have it right, they come off like factory loads. The caliber is not hard on either the cases or the weapon. The only pitfall for the caliber is case length. If it is too long problems arise.
Eventually I would see cracks develop lengthwise in the old cases. Very small and just a pin hole in diameter. Other wise case life was longer than most everything else. I used all types of brass and mostly cast gas check bullets. Once you've worked up a load that functions correctly, stay with it and you're good.
I shoot reloaded ammo only, since i got all the equipment to do it. And with the 110grs. PRVI bulletts and 14.3grs of the H110 powder, the CCI small rifle primers i´m at $17.90 per 100 rounds over here and thats very cheap.
I'm an experienced reloader and I just got set up with my Dillon for .30 Carbine. It took a little study work with a case length gage and stripped bolt in the rifle to make sure I was trimming correctly and not over sizing. At the range last weekend I fired 200 without a hick-up. 14.5 of 296 w/pulled 110gr RN. 1.285" cases work but I went to 1.280' hoping to get another reload before trimming again. This is a fun rifle and great for the wife also.
I even shoot cast lead bullets out of them from an old Lyman mould. Watching case size parameters is important, but so should all of our hand loads.
The cases don't stretch much and case life is wonderful. not as good as a .45, but as good as a .38. This also keeps trimming to a not-so-often thing. By comparison, he 30-06 is a beast on cases. They seriously stretch and must be trimmed often, they are usually done after about 5-6 uses. I actually prefer the HXP cases as they neck split after about 4-5 uses and makes counting and tracking pointless. The difference is 15gr vs 48gr of powder, a much bigger fire inside and about 10K more pressure. The carbine is an ideal candidate for reloading.
I would agree to stay away from Wolf.......American made is probably great stuff generally, although I have noticed some FTF and FTE rounds with Federal American Eagle. I have been very impressed with Sellier & Bellot, and will continue to make that my ammo of choice as long as I can get it.....I am beginning to think that individual carbines react differently to different brands of ammo--they can be quite demanding and if one works well stick with it. I do know that a clean chamber will make any 30 carbine ammo work better.,,,,JKL
I only have 4 carbines, but I shoot them all. I have had 100% non-failure rate with Prvi-Partisan SP ammo.