30 carbine with a Lyman 115 gas check

[cwheel]

Good morning,
Wondering if any here have used the Lyman 115 gr. gas check mold on their carbine loads ?? Lyman #311359BV. It's casting a pointed boolit VS a round nose. Wondering how they feed, if the gas check is used, how fast ones that do work well are being pushed ?? Recently came into this mold, thinking about casting a few next time I fire up the pot. Thanks,
Chris

[Cherokee]

The 311359 worked fine in the M1 Carbine in the limited shooting I did with it. I was not pushing the load, just working the action using AA9 powder.

[Larry Gibson]

Excellent general purpose cast bullet for the M1 .30 Carbine. Mine weigh 120 gr fully dressed when cast of WWs +2% tin. I size them at .309, use Javelina lube and Hornady GCs. I've shot thousands of them through M1s and M2s loaded over 13.5 gr H110. These run right at 1880-1900 fps when chronographed out of the 3 M1 carbines I currently have. They give excellent accuracy, usually less than half the group size of typical US Ball ammo. Cast them up and give them a try.

Larry Gibson

[para45lda]

The only issue I've had is making sure they were seated deep enough to feed through the magazine. I also have to be careful shooting them at my steel plates as they tend to cause damage (I knew I should have used less powder).

Wes

[beagle]

Probably one of the best all around bullets for the M1 Carbine as far as functioning and accuracy. The only drawback is that it's a GC'd design and there are many PB .30 bullets out there that will feed and give good accuracy in the carbine and I tend to shoot bunches of ammo in the carbine when I get started./beagle

[cwheel]

Thinking about using 2400 and starting about 12gr. Got a old 5 lb unopened can of the stuff might date back to the 70's that I need to use up somehow. Notice that 2400 generates to most pressure of any of the loads listed in my old Lyman loading manual. I'll watch the pressure and the OAL of the round, give them a try. Thanks for the input,
Chris

[beagle]

Unfortunately, the M1 Carbine's a picky little beast. It reqires a lot of pressure in order to function properly so it's a matter of getting enough pressure. The 2400 is agood powder to start with for sure of some WC820 if you have access to some./beagle

[cwheel]

I'm sure there are better powders for this round, just trying to get rid of this old can of 2400 if possible. 5 lb. can should go to almost 3000 rounds @12 gr. If it doesn't work, will buy something else and try to get rid of the 2400 with another project. Grand kids starting on the carbines next summer, hope to have a pile of ammo tested and run by the time June gets here. The kids have a way of going through ammo quickly, in the next year or two the lesson will be reloading.
Chris

[williamwaco]

I loaded about a zillion rounds of M1-Carbine back in the '60s. Used the lyman 3118 AKA 311008.
I used 2400. Don't remember the charge but it was the max recommended by Lyman at the time.

You don't need a gas check in the M1 Carbine but feel free to use one if you feel you should.


.

[cwheel]

12.5 gr. is the listed max on 2400. Posted speed is 1850 at that load. Pressure is running high with that load, highest of those listed. Thinking about starting at 12 and working up a tenth of a gr at a time to the 12.5. After getting a powder charge both M1's seam to like, will do a set of loads with gas checks, and a set without. Guess the part I'm concerned about most is the gas piston, and if it gets gunked up without gas checks. Time and rounds fired will tell. Just don't want to be routinely removing the nut to clean this thing out, it's a real pain. Casting these boolits with a alloy hardened with a 4X nickle babit mix, should be hard enough, but no way to measure the BN.
Chris

[dale2242]

i have shot 1000s of 311359s through my carbines using H110/296 powder.
I use a 50/50/alloy...WW/lino.
13.5 gr H110/296....dale

[zomby woof]

I'm shooting 12.5 296 with 311115

[williamwaco]

I never used a gas check in my carbine and I never had trouble with the gas piston.


.

[rexherring]

Never had the carbine but shot AA#9 in my Ruger Blackhawk 30 carbine. Used between 10 and 10.5 grs. Shot well with that load. Here's the load data I used out of their book.

No. 9 115 LYM #311359 10.0 1,678 11.2 1,834 45,028

[stubshaft]

12.0 grs. of 2400 is my standard load with this boolit. I get around 1800 with it and great accuracy (about as good as a carbine can produce) with it. I never had a problem with fouling in the gas cylinder although I have taken it apart just to check periodically.

[beagle]

I've used loads of 2400 in various M1 carbines I've loaded for. It's one of the better powders that will fit in that limited capacity case. By all means use it.

The only time I've ever encountered leading in the gas system of a carbine was when shooting unchecked 311359s and 2400.

If a bullet is designed for a check, use it with the carbine or you may have problems. On the other hand, I once put 2,000 rounds of GC'd and PB bullets through a carbine once over several months time and a check of the gas system only showed normal carbon fouling and that happens with jacketed carbine ammo as well./beagle

[QuickRick]

I have shot 115 to 120 grn plain base and gas checked bullets (all round nose) in my 30 carbine (semi auto) for many years with no problems. I have loaded mostly H 110 or AA#9 from 1,800 to 1,900 fps. I am always surprised when cleaning the gas piston to find very little carbon fouling. My little Marlin Model 62 (30 carb chambering) is a great little shooter with the gas checked Lee 113 flat nose cast bullet. This was the one bullet I tried that would jam my US Carbine on a regular basis. Unlike the US Carbine the Marlin would give me leading if not shooting gas checked bullets. Go figure. If you shoot oversize bullets (I go .309) and your carbine has a reasonably smooth barrel I expect you could load to 1,800 fps or so and get away with plain base bullets as I have. Good luck. For my money the US 30 Carbine is one of the neatest "fun guns" on God's green earth. Good luck and God Bless.....

[supertodd]

just wondering whats a good pb bullet for 30 carb. Does lee make a good 30 carbine bullet mold?

[Larry Gibson]

just wondering whats a good pb bullet for 30 carb. Does lee make a good 30 carbine bullet mold?

If you want the usual milsurp equivelent accuracy (usually 5-6 moa) then you can get away with PB'd bullets in the M1 Carbine as mentioned. However, if you want to get the best accuracy (most carbines in good condition will shoot 2-3 moa with cast & jacketed bullets) regular 30 Carbine velocities (1850 - 1950 fps) then the GC'd bullet is needed.

I've worked 311227, 311410 and 311008 every way possible in several M1 Carbines and could not get what I consider good accuracy (I definately do not consider milsurp accuracy in the Carbine as "good") with any of them above 1600 fps.

GC'd or PB'd....just depends on what you want. I had no problems with leading the gas system due to using cast bullets.

Larry Gibson

[Newtire]

I've used the "311359-ish" boolit made by Lachmiller that weighed 118 grains out of wheelweights. I later picked up a Lyman 311359 but it was pretty heavy at 130 grains and haven't tried it. The Lachmiller boolit is the most accurate boolit out of my carbine. No joy without the gascheck for me.

The load I used was 12.5 grains of W-296. I picked up a Fajen stock that uses a machined barrel band that holds the barrel down against the stock. Accuracy was alot better than when using the military stock so I left it on.

I had lousy luck with the 311410 130 grain plainbase although I know alot of people use it and have good luck with it. So, each rifle has it's own quirks I suppose.

So, that's my experience with it. I also had great success with the little Lee 120 grain round nose gas checked number. Mine wouldn't feed anything remotely resembling a flatnose. The RCBS 98 grain .32 boolit wouldn't feed. I take out the gas-nut and clean out the carbon out every 500 or so shots.

One of the funnest rifles I have. Never met anyone who didn't like the M-1 carbine for being a fun gun.