Slugging M1 Carbine barrel

[GSSP]

Just took possession of a sweet M1 Paratrooper Carbine. I believe I should slug the barrel to make sure I buy the correct sizer die for the RCBS 30-115-SP mold I'm buying. Here are my thoughts. Please advise accordingly.

Clean and oil barrel well.

Obtain some Hornady .315 (32 cal) pure lead muzzleloading balls. (Thoughts on using .310" instead?)

Diss rifle and remove bolt.

Oil a .315 ball and gently, using either a plastic or copper faced hammer, gently tap a ball, swaging it, into the muzzle.

Taking a fiberglass cleaning rod of appropriate dia., gently tap/push ball all the way through barrel until it exits the chamber end.

Measure for diameter.

Thoughts?

Alan

[NSP64]

That pretty much covers it.
I shoot .310 from mine with no leading
I locked bolt open and pushed rb from muzzle down. I didn't disassemble.

[GSSP]

It worked! I had some .310's sitting on my bench. I ran a few through but they were too small so I took a few more, squashed them with my little hammer so they bulged out a bit to around .315". I them pushed them through and kept coming up with .3095".

Hah!!!

Alan

[SAJTU]

I've got a few M-1 carbines and shoot lead out of all of them. I tried an number of molds (Lee and Lyman) that cast carbine boolits but the NOE 311-115 RN mold is really outstanding. It seems to cast better than any mold I own and since it's a 4-banger, it'll cast up a pile of carbine boolits in a blink.

On the bore diameter, I've slugged all mine and they seem to run .3085 to .309. I size all my carbine boolits to .310. I do have a Saginaw Gear carbine that slugs out at .3095 and tends to lead slightly near the bore with boolits sized at .310. It brushes out easily so I just don't worry about it.

SAJTU

[leadman]

You may want to cast some boolits with the RCBS mold first to see what it drops at. Most of my 30 cal. RCBS molds cast at .309" or less.
My one carbine with a .309" bore shoots better with .310" than .309".

[koehn,jim]

I use the Lyman 311410 in my carbine no gas checks to buy, makes it cheap to shoot.

[WineMan]

Even though there was a number of barrel makers for the Carbine program, they all seem to be right around 0.309. The use of non corrosive primers and lower pressure of 38k CUP seems to have helped keep them in good shape. I would be interested to see how M2 barrels looked after they came in for overhaul.

Dave

[zomby woof]

NOE 311115 with 296/H110. You'll never look back.