Cast bullets in M1 Carbine

[roysha]

Some years ago I cast a batch of bullets for a fellow to shoot in his M1 CAR and he came back after shooting some of them with the piston jammed with lead. They were 1 linotype and 4 WW which I figured would be plenty hard and his load was listed at around 1600fps. Never chronographed it because of the fouling problem.

Now I'm quite certain I have seen here, where people are shooting cast bullets in their M1 CAR. If this is the case, what did I do wrong?

[Larry Gibson]

What bullet?
What alloy?
What was it sized?
Was a GC used?
What lube?
What load, specifically?

Hard to answer a general question like yours without having to give a general answer like "you did something" wrong. Not much help, eh? Just give a few specifics and perhaps we can help you. Many of us use cast bullets in M1 Carbines with no leading at all, particulary in the gas system. I've shot cast in many, many M1/M2 Carbines since '68 and have on had one M1 Carbine foul up un the gas piston. It had a burr in the gas port. We should be able to solve your problem.

Larry Gibson

[zomby woof]

My carbines love cast.

[C1PNR]

My carbines love cast.

Mine too!

When I first started with the Carbine I was shooting it for about the same cost as shooting a .22 LR.

[Poygan]

I have no idea why you had a leading problem. I bought my carbine in the mid sixties and cast for it with a Lyman .311359. I dipped the boolits in alox, no gas check and didn't size them. Lead was range scrap which was mostly .38 wadcutters. I would guess I shot between 200 - 500 like that. Oh, yes, 12.5 grains of 2400, small rifle primer. Finally bought a gas piston wrench a few years ago and removed the gas piston. Barely a trace of lead. Go figure....

[USSR]

My Carbine LOVES cast boolits! The alloy consists of A LOT of monotype with a little WW, and they are sized to .310". Powder of choice is 2400.

Don

[leadman]

Possible if the rifle barrel was badly fouled with jacket material it could have contributed to the leading. Or if he ran 30 round mags as fast as he could.
I have found the bullets should be .310" at least.
I get no leading from my M1 carbines and very good groups.

[runfiverun]

1 lino and 4 ww is just 80's ww's with a bit more tin.
you're runnin on the edge to begin with.
lube failing size wrong gun issue brass squeezing cases and 30 other things.

[beagle]

I ran about 2,000 rounds of cast through mine when I was researching the article, Cast in the M-1 Carbine on Castpics. This was mixed GC and PB bullets with most being PB.

At the end of this project, I pulled the piston and there was mostly carbon fouling. No noticable lead slivers.

In the 60s, I had an old Inland carbine and shot a lot of 311359s out of it without GCs and 2400. These bullets were sized .311 according to Lyman's philosophy of the day. I mined lead out of that thing every couple of range sessions.

I'm thinking the OS bullet diameter was the culprit.

But, go ahead and shoot cast. It works well but get a piston nut wrench as you need one anyway./beagle

[armed_partisan]

I've been doing this for a few years now (I've only had my Underwood for a few years!) and I've had no problems. I use 1 part Linotype to 2 Parts Range Lead with a SAECO 302 sized .312 (my bore is about .312") and gas checked. I use about 14.0 Grains of LilGun and it gives me better accuracy at 200m than my Russian SKS does. Groups open up about 2.5 to 3x the size when I use Jacketed bullets, so they aren't even an option for me.

[AmishWarlord]

I've been using Lee 100gr 32 Auto plain base bullets in my 30 Carbine. Cast with WW. I'm using a light coat of strait Johnson's Paste Wax as a tumble lube. I size them to .309 and have not got any leading and acceptable accuracy for a carbine with a paratrooper folding stock. I'm useing a load of 11.6gr of Winchester 296 powder over a small rifle primer.

[AmishWarlord]

What mold did you use to cast those with Don?

My Carbine LOVES cast boolits! The alloy consists of A LOT of monotype with a little WW, and they are sized to .310". Powder of choice is 2400.

Don

[Blintersifrid]

I've been using Lee 100gr 32 Auto plain base bullets in my 30 Carbine. Cast with WW. I'm using a light coat of strait Johnson's Paste Wax as a tumble lube. I size them to .309 and have not got any leading and acceptable accuracy for a carbine with a paratrooper folding stock. I'm useing a load of 11.6gr of Winchester 296 powder over a small rifle primer.

This makes me wonder if a person could coax an M1 into accepting SWCs.
I bet that one of those would work *beautifully* on any number of pests, and would probably be cheaper than .22s right now.

'Sifrid

[AmishWarlord]

Yeah, I wonder if these would work. Though it's hard enough to get the M1 to feed RN bullets. Watch Youtube videos and you will see 90% of them jamming at feeding or extraction.

http://www.midwayusa.com/Product/128...semi-wadcutter

[AmishWarlord]

Here is a loading of 90g FNHP 30 Carbine ammo so I guess it's possible to have the SWC work in the 30 Carbine.

http://www.underwoodammo.com/30carbi...ntboxof50.aspx

[Larry Gibson]

The Lyman 313631 SWC and the 311316 FN will feed through most M1 Carbines. I've found best to use 15 round mags and the lips my need a little tweeking. If you've just a shooter M1 Carbine then you can also polish the feed ramp. A couple have rquire "ramping" where the bullet 1st hits the feed ramp coming out of the magazine. My M1 Carbine shooter feeds both with 100% reliability. My stock M1 Carbine will only feed the SWC reliably.

Larry Gibson

[Blintersifrid]

Oh yeah............

Sorry, let me wipe up the drool a bit.

Those are definitely what I was thinking of.

Yeah, mine M1's a repro, so it's definitely in the "shooter" category. Unfortunately, in our state we are now, not just "safe," but "NY SAFE," and my GI 15-round mag is a felony (so I sent it to live with my brother in Florida until this idiocy blows over). Fortunately, the 10-round mag my carbine came with is steel. (The five-rounder that I thought I had to purchase, on the other hand, is not...) It's a 2/3 length GI mag as far as I can tell, so mag lips could be moved.


Damn!

Now I HAVE to start loading for my M1!

'Sifrid

[Blintersifrid]

Darn it!
Out of stock! http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/...productId/8013

Now I gotta wait...

'Sifrid

[dudel]

Not a problem with my carbine. I use the Lee C308 113gr FN. Run straight WW, water dropped, alox, add a gas check, alox again and done. Loaded with Lee dies, on a Dillon 550b. Using 2400.

Cheap and fun. Haven't run them past the chronograph yet, but plenty accurate.

[AmishWarlord]

Damn, go with Midway, $10 cheaper!

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/447...set-30-carbine

and use the money you saved to buy the Factory Crimp Die.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/222...die-30-carbine

Darn it!
Out of stock! http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/...productId/8013

Now I gotta wait...

'Sifrid