Ammo Prefrences

[mdrim13]

Just wanting to know what everyone prefered shooting in their M1. Handloads or factory, brass or steel cased, size of bullet, ect.

Also wondering what all of the negatives and positives of shooting steel cases through my M1. I would assume they're probably best to stay away from?

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[mar53]

You will get mixed responses on this steel vs brass issue. The Army apparently issued a lot of steel ammo in the war but only for training purposes, not for combat. Alot of the Russian steel ammo today is corrosive and very dirty. my view is why take any chances, just use brass, it can be found almost as cheap. It's not worth it to mess up a 1940's barrel to save a few bucks. There have also been reports of steel jacket ammo, not ejecting properly and breaking extractors.
Aguila is ok, as is Prvi Partizan. Of course Remington is good, but costs more. The carbine is very picky on cartridge sizing. So if you are very good at reloading and can make the rounds the correct size, supposedly you would be ok. However, there have been a lot of people who have had problems with reloads, misfiring, jamming, fail to feed or eject etc. Again, IMO, if you can get new brass ammo for $16-19 per box (50), why bother with the reloads. These are my opinions, you will get others.

[shadycon]

I shoot mostly reloads. I bought a bunch of PMC yrs ago. I still have most of it, as I run out of brass, I get another box or two. I stay away from WOLF's. I tryed a few boxes when it was cheap,UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

[jeep]

Wolf would not feed ,jam,jam,jam, I use magtech,federal.

[ulflyer]

I've shot one box of Tula thru several of my carbines and they all handled it just as well as any other. I have several more boxes to try. I'll pick one shooter to do them all in to see if any malfunctions occur. To me, if it broke, or wore out an extractor, which I seriously doubt, I''d simply replace it. Also, the Tula and Wolf is not corrosive, and is polymer coated, not lacquered. At about $10 per box cheaper, it won't take much savings to buy extractors, should you ever need one. I should add, I'm a plinker at this stage of life so accuracy is not my forte, but it seems as accurate as Aquila I've been shooting.

PS: I love not having to pick up brass.

[us019255]

So if you are very good at reloading and can make the rounds the correct size, supposedly you would be ok

I have reloaded and shot M1 Carbine for 30 years. Full length sized. Keep track of number of reloads and discard after 7 reloads. ( I can't remember why I chose 7 and not more or less.) Bullets: surplus FMJ, Speer hollow point, and a few Remington soft points. Brass: LC, Privi, commercial. Do check length of brass periodically. Trimming before first size is the most important. Follow directions and don't put a lot of crimp on the finished round. No lube, carbide die.

Never had a problem or a failure.

My bottom line: No harder to reload than pistol ammunition. Works reliably for me.

[Tired Retired]

I prefer to shoot my own reloads. I can reload for $11.50 a box of 50 using Remington 110gr FMJ or SP bullets. That is reusing my brass. Buying brass brings that cost up to about $23.00 a box. My reloads are generally more consistent than commercial ammo. For commercial ammo I seem to gravitate to Remington UMC. It is running about $25 a box at Wally World. What I seem to have been doing for the last few years is buying the commercial Remington ammo, shooting it and the keeping the brass to later reload.

I do not like the coated steel case ammo. It is dirty and cheap. I look at it like this - I could feed my kids cheap TV dinners every night and their bellies would be full but it would not keep them healthy. Since I wouldn't do that to my children, why would I feed cheap, dirty, questionable QA'ed ammo to my 65 year old carbines?

Here is a side comment on reloading for your War Baby! The trick to reloading is your own quality control. You get out of your ammo what you put into it in components and quallity control. I think I said this before, but it still rings true. I stand behind every round I reload - literally, my face is 6 inches from it. The commercial ammo producers can not say that.

[emmagee1917]

Russian guns ( SKS , AK , RPK , RPD , etc. ) are known for thier reliability. A major factor in this is thier massive , overbuilt extractors . These exist because they built thier guns for steel cased ammo. Simple , huh ? The majority of other guns were not designed for that , including the M1 carbine. A steel case is harder on the extractor , and it's more of a case of when will it fail , not if.
I shoot any well known makers brass case ammo. I have noticed that Federal Americain Eagle shoots about 2-3 inches lower than PMC / USGI ('50s & '70s ) / Handloads of 15gr. Win 296 ( 110 gr. ball & tracer ) which all group together , and ,in turn , shoot a couple of inches lower than Win. White box ball & HP/SPs .
I reload because ammo around here is scarce and still $25 / bx plus. Also loaded tracer is just flat non-existant. No problems reloading except the brass streaches a lot for what it is , so you must measure and trim to keep it crimped the same and chambering correctly.
Chris

[jackthesmib]

Domestic HP and SP only for our guns. Cor-Bon and Remington mainly.
We believe Federal Cartridge has the best quality control in the business
and they are very highly regarded by us. Mag-tech, Privi, and Georgia Arms
for target and training.

[ulflyer]

I'd like to do an informal test of Tula ammo. So far, I've shot nearly one box thru one gun, an INland, with no issues, but what I'm thinking is I'll use only this gun to fire the rest of the Tula (6 or 8 boxes). Is it likely that the ejection pattern will change as the ejector wears? I'm looking for indications of what I might be on the lookout for. Right now, the Inland has a very consistant pattern of ejection.

Also I want to see just how dirty the powder really is. Didn't seem that way with the box I shot the other day, but perhaps not cleaning for a couple hundred rounds would be a better indicator.