reloading the carbine

[beefyz]

hey guys, newbie here asking for someone to "adopt" me and please set me straight.i've reloaded successfully in the past;thousands of 12/16/20 shells,'06& 44mag without incident. but in all cases guns were either pump or revlover. admittedly, i haven't reloaded for about 15 years and i'm concerned i may be a bit "rusty" and/or out of date. i still have my turret lee press and am ready to go but alot of people i talk to have had "bad" experiences reloading when the round is to be used in a semi-auto; difficult,not worth it, don't do it, & to many variables is alot of what i hear.Can a long time shooter/loader of this nostalgic piece give me the skinny here???
Specifically, i notice lee doesn't make a set of .30 carbine dies for their press; rcbs does. since speed is not a consideration, i wouldn't mind using /trying one of lee's pocket reloaders in that caliber. in either case, am i looking for a headache ? is this .30 cal to finicky ? does/would it matter if i used the pocket loader instead of the turret press ? will a reload function properly in the carbine and if so what are the critical areas in the reloading process that i have to be concerned with? am i still using bullet lube ? am i still crimping ? some say yes, others no. varying opinions on sizing also, full length vs just neck. since i last reloaded, i've noticed how high ammo and components (what an obamanation ) have become , but i specked this round out and its still better to reload it, if it can be done, SAFELY and RELIABLY. i'm not looking for any "hot" or max loads, just good 'ole gi issue for plain ole self defense. anyone care to comment ? thanks

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[JBS]

I started loading for the 30 carbine in 1975. Easy to load. Most important part of reloading this round is staying on top of case length. This round head spaces on the case mouth just like an auto pistol round. No crimp but remove any bell at the mouth. Some rifles will run long in the chamber. You can adjust for this by measuring your headspace and trimming your cases accordingly as long as you have only one carbine this works. If your brass ends up Looooong don’t use it in another rifle. RCBS 3 die Carbide set will eliminate the need for lube midwayusa search number 299697 71.99 bucks. RCBS 3 die regular set 524355 37.99 bucks and you have to lube the cases for sizing. Rainier makes a plated 110 grain bullet 1050393392 that is great for plinking and cheap when you can get them. H110 is the powder of choice and gives better results than Winchester IMHO as Win is temp sensitive. Consult a couple reloading books for loads.

[jimb16]

Actually, you have a wide range of powders to choose from; 4227, 110, 296, unique and 2400 just to name a few.

[browningautorifle]

What I found over the years and thousands of carbine rounds is, if the carbine doesn't work well with that load it just doesn't like it. Just change loads and move on. It ain't brain surgery. Stay within the safe spacs of your manuals and you'll be fine.

[Jerome Cooper]

BeefyZ, Reloading the 30 Carb is not difficult at all. No more so than any other cartridge if you observe/follow the basic requirements. I have loaded this cartridge on a Lyman 310 Tong Tool, a Lee Handpress and various bench mounted presses, including a Lee 3 holer turret press. Regardless of whatever was used the finished rounds were well done. They feed reliably, cycle the action and are as accurate as anything you could buy, with groups of 3 -4inches or sometimes a bit less at 100 yards. Contrary to the advertizing hype and the beliefs of those who still think that the world is flat, no one press nor dies, barring a manufacturing defect, are better than any other and all will produce good ammo.I am not sure what you mean by a "pocket loader" unless you mean The Lee Loader. That is a compact system which is very economical and uses a hammer do drive cases in and out of a die system. It also seats primers with the hammer (a not too bright idea in my opinion) and I once had one in 45ACP. After a couple of primers went off on me, I got rid of it. It can make perfectly good ammo but is very slow and tedious and good for people having only a few/limited number of rounds to load. Lee DOES in fact make 30 carbine dies in Carbide and they are good dies, I use them. There are no particular evils involved with loading this cartridge, nor myths about autoloaders that make them "spooky". Carbine rounds are designed with roundnose bullets so that they will feed reliably. They also seat on the case mouth so they cannot be roll crimped like a 44Mag or a 357Mag. Instead they have to have a slight taper crimp (the 4th or last die in the die set) Instead of rolling the case mouth into the side of the bullet, the taper crimp die squeezes or crowds the mouth of the case gently and firmly against the bullet, giving it the required tension and still allowing the case mouth edge to rest on the rim inside the chamber. If this step is not performed or too much crimp is placed on the mouth(such as is the case with a roll crimp) then the case is driven too far into the chamber and the firing pin cannot reach or contact sufficiently the primer. It is important to keep carbine cases trimmed to the same and proper length. Specs for this and Overall length of the loaded round can be found in any good loading manual, as well as the different powders that can be used...same as any other cartridge. I do recommend the use of Carbide dies and that you lube every 4th or 5th round so that the sizing is easier and smoother and easier on the dies as the carbine case is a thicker and stronger one. Cases in any autoloader are often not finished expanding when fired and when yanked out of the chamber wind up a bit bigger, so full length sizing is better. I never neck size my cases and thus am sure that when full length resized they will always chamber again correctly. I've loaded this cartridge successfully for a long time using both GI and commercial brass with cast bullets, IMR 4227 powder and SR primers. The savings have been huge. If you have any other questions regarding the reloading of the 30 Carb, please feel free to contact me as I don't mind helping out to get things going the right way. JC

[imarangemaster]

I have used a Lee 3 and 4 hole turret press with auto index for about 12 years. I do about 200 pistol rounds an hour.

The LEE factory crimp dies (4th die) are awesome. I haven't loaded 30 carbine with it, but tens of thousands of rounds of .44 (Russian, Colt, Special, Magnun) 38 WCF, 44 WCF, 45 Colt, ACP and Schofield, 223 and 7.62x39. I will be getting LEE carbide and crimp dies for the carbine next.

WW 296 meters very well through the LEE powder drops.

[emmagee1917]

..excelent reply

except the part about cases continuing to expand after ejection. No how , no way. First they have to shrink back to break the seal with the chamber in order to be extracted. If it doesn't , the extracter would break , pull through the rim , or rip the case head off. Second , when the case extracts it's in open air , nowhere for the presure to come from for further expansion.
Other than that , good job. Chris

[imarangemaster]

JC

Are you using gas checks or just hard cast on your cast loads?

[Jerome Cooper]

Imarangemaster, I use the RCBS 115 grain round nose with a gas check. I used to buy checks when they were reasonable, but Hornady and Lyman got out of control with prices. I bought one of those Freechex tools on E-Pay and now punch and form my own out of beverage cans or chimney flashing.The pop can aluminum is a little thin(.004) so I use 2 layers. The flashing (from Lowes or Home Depot) is around .010. They work just as well as copper checks for a fraction of the cost. For casting metal I use straight WW metal and sometimes toss in some 60/40 solder as a little tin is all that is needed to increase the flowability or fillout ability of the melt. WW is somewhere around 9 to 12 BHN on the hardness scale; not really hard but not soft either. If harder bullets are needed then there are two ways to go about it. Add about 4-5 % tin (which is pretty expensive) and that would raise the BHN rating to around 22 which is what Linotype is, or water quench the bullets by dropping them directly from the mold into a bucket (placed lower down & behind you and the casting setup) of cold water. This will harden them to around 18 on the BHN scale. Sorry for my erroneous notion in my previous post that extracted cases continue to expand on extraction; I thought that was happening as some of my cases would not re-enter the chamber later after firing...and a thank you to Chris for correcting me with the right info/sequence. With the spectrum of calibers that you have been loading + your time and experience you will have no problem loading good ammo for the 30 Carb as soon as you get set up. Good shooting. JC

[Ed Johnson]

The carbine case is NOT a straight walled one although it appears to be to the naked eye. My sizing die is carbide and I learned the hard way a long time ago that the cases still must be lubed. Trust me if you try to size these without lube you WILL stick a case in the sizing die and they are usually a double ringed tailed booger to remove. I use the Dillon spray lube. One bottle will lube thousands of cases and it is not expensive. You can make your own by buying liquid lanolin and a bottle of 100 % alcohol. The alcohol must be 100 % to work. Yes, you can probably get by lubing every 2nd or 3rd case but with spray lube, you have them all done with a squirt or two.
I hope this saves someone from sticking a case in their sizing die.
Best to all..
Ed