30 carbine loading issues.

[dippmaster]

So, I have about 500+ once fired 30 carbine brass, I've resized and trimmed the cases, but my problem seems to lay on my cast bullets and the bullet seating die. I use the Lee die set and the Lee C309-113-F bullet mold. It drops .309 flat nose bullets, which I size down to .308 using a layman sizer.
When I seat the bullet it's pretty tough to do so and it screws up the end of the bullet in the process, causing feeding problems in my M-1 Carbine.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[TNsailorman]

Without pictures I am just guessing. But I bet the seating die has a round nose stem in it which is deforming your flat nosed bullets. A picture of your seating stem out of the die showing the seating cavity would sure help. james

[jcwit]

I have reloaded for the .30 Carbine for years. I use the Lee Mold 90301 which is made for 32/20, 32 S&W Long, & 32 Colt. It dropps a .311 bullet, 100 grain, #2R flat base bullet. Shoots great feeds perfect being as it is a round nose, and weights the same as jacketed bullets. I size mine to .310.

[Larry Gibson]

Is the Lee 30 Carbine set a basic 3 die set with die #2 expanding and flaring the case mouth?

Larry Gibson

[dippmaster]

Without pictures I am just guessing. But I bet the seating die has a round nose stem in it which is deforming your flat nosed bullets. A picture of your seating stem out of the die showing the seating cavity would sure help. james

that is exactly what is happening.


I have reloaded for the .30 Carbine for years. I use the Lee Mold 90301 which is made for 32/20, 32 S&W Long, & 32 Colt. It dropps a .311 bullet, 100 grain, #2R flat base bullet. Shoots great feeds perfect being as it is a round nose, and weights the same as jacketed bullets. I size mine to .310.

I'll have to look that mold up.


Is the Lee 30 Carbine set a basic 3 die set with die #2 expanding and flaring the case mouth?

Larry Gibson
Ya, but I use the RCBS universal expanding die for everything.

[Ithaca Gunner]

I have reloaded for the .30 Carbine for years. I use the Lee Mold 90301 which is made for 32/20, 32 S&W Long, & 32 Colt. It dropps a .311 bullet, 100 grain, #2R flat base bullet. Shoots great feeds perfect being as it is a round nose, and weights the same as jacketed bullets. I size mine to .310.

I also use this mold for my GI carbine and it works very well! Better in fact than my Lyman 130gr rn.

[dippmaster]

I also use this mold for my GI carbine and it works very well! Better in fact than my Lyman 130gr rn.

Ive got the 6 cavity Lee mold 90308 for my 32acp. it drop 93grn bullets, think it would work?

[dippmaster]

Oh, and in case anyone is interested its a Universal M-1 Carbine, from either early 70's or late 60's. before they screwed it up. I inherited it recently from my grandfather.

[jcwit]

Never tried it, but it sure wouldn't hurt to try it, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Give it whirl and let us know the results.

[Three44s]

All in one nutshell, you need to bell the mouths of your cases enough .........

And ......... you need to make sure you have the right nose punch for seating your bullets.

I have found that if you are not belling enough, it will increase problems with a nose punch that's not quite kosher. Certainly you don't want to overbell you brass as it will develop neck splits more quickly. But other problems with not belling enough will cause bullet shaving and that's a bummer as well.

Best regards

Three 44s

[dippmaster]

All in one nutshell, you need to bell the mouths of your cases enough .........

And ......... you need to make sure you have the right nose punch for seating your bullets.

I have found that if you are not belling enough, it will increase problems with a nose punch that's not quite kosher. Certainly you don't want to overbell you brass as it will develop neck splits more quickly. But other problems with not belling enough will cause bullet shaving and that's a bummer as well.

Best regards

Three 44s
I widen the case mouth enough, But LEE dies generally don't come with different nose punches.

[dippmaster]

Hmm, just id some tests with that 32acp mold It drop .309 bullets, and they seat much smoother than the original bullets I tried, however the seating die stem still deforms the nose, creating a ring on the bullet. I also tried flipping the stem and using the flat side, but that created a flat point on the tip just enough to cause a jam in my M-1. Perhaps I should try another brand seating die?

[dippmaster]

Or maybe I should try hard casting bullets? thats where you drop them into a bucket of water, right?

[dippmaster]

Heh, I just got it working. I swapped out the seating stem with one from my 32ACP die set, it seats well once the bullets are sized to .308, and they chamber perfectly.

[Ithaca Gunner]

Ive got the 6 cavity Lee mold 90308 for my 32acp. it drop 93grn bullets, think it would work?

Mine is a 2 cavity for .32 S&W long round nose. It only weighs a few grains more than your .32 ACP and works well. I think your boolits would work well also. Mine are slightly larger diameter though, that may be the only factor as to accuracy, but the little carbine was never known to be a match rifle. For the cost, I get a bunch of fun for very little money per shot. Best part is it bunches the brass up behind me very neatly. I'm using IMR 4227, would have to check just how much.

[Ithaca Gunner]

Or maybe I should try hard casting bullets? thats where you drop them into a bucket of water, right?

I size, (no lube) and bake mine on a cookie sheet in the oven at around 425 for half an hour then dump them into a bucket of cold water.

[dippmaster]

Mine is a 2 cavity for .32 S&W long round nose. It only weighs a few grains more than your .32 ACP and works well. I think your boolits would work well also. Mine are slightly larger diameter though, that may be the only factor as to accuracy, but the little carbine was never known to be a match rifle. For the cost, I get a bunch of fun for very little money per shot. Best part is it bunches the brass up behind me very neatly. I'm using IMR 4227, would have to check just how much.
Hmm, that will be the powder I use, and if they stack neatly I would really like to know you load!

[Ithaca Gunner]

I'll post the load for you later when I get out to the shop. Your results may vary, I'm using a GI carbine, it's been the 1970's since I owned a Universal. As I remember though, it was a pretty good gun, some differences from the GI's but it worked well.

[dippmaster]

I'll post the load for you later when I get out to the shop. Your results may vary, I'm using a GI carbine, it's been the 1970's since I owned a Universal. As I remember though, it was a pretty good gun, some differences from the GI's but it worked well.

Thank you, Ive done some research on mine, and based upon the differences from a GI I've determined it was built before Universal started screwing with the design and making them unreliable. I have a friend that owns a newer universal, it has a tendency to miss feed every few shots.

[jcwit]

I also use 4227, impossible to double charge with that powder. I use 12 grains with complete satisfaction.

As far as the ring on the round nose bullet from the seating die, as long as it not a deep groove I fail to see how it would creat a problem, I have a few cast bullet loads that do the same, off hand I cant remember which ones, but they are a non issue as far as feeding or chambering.

[dippmaster]

I also use 4227, impossible to double charge with that powder. I use 12 grains with complete satisfaction.

As far as the ring on the round nose bullet from the seating die, as long as it not a deep groove I fail to see how it would creat a problem, I have a few cast bullet loads that do the same, off hand I cant remember which ones, but they are a non issue as far as feeding or chambering.
How does your brass fly?

[jcwit]

You mean how does it eject I'm sure. Just fine. The range I belong to has benches at the firing line and benches to the rear about 3 to 4 feet. I usually staple a furniture blanket to the benches at the rear to keep the cases from going off into the dirt, the benches are waist high and this works super for me, seldom if ever loose a case.

I could load higher, 14 grains of 4227, but I see no increase in accuracy or function so I've backed off to the 12 grain load, get more loadings per lb this way.

[Ithaca Gunner]

I pulled the boolits from 3 cartridges loaded with 3 different cast boolits. The LEE 90301 100gr. rn contained 12.5gr. of IMR4227, the Lyman 311410 130gr rn contained 12.5gr Of IMR4227, and the LEE 90364 120gr rn gas check contained 12.5gr as well. All sized to .310 and lubed with Lyman Orange Magic.

I function tested these loads a few weeks ago when I put a "Super Spring" from Gun Parts in my 1942 Underwood GI carbine. The shooting was done at 50yds offhand at a 3" circle simply to test function with the addition of the stronger spring. The only single failure was with the 100gr LEE 90301. The bolt cycled and ejected. but short stroked and failed to pick up the next cartridge in the magazine. Both LEE boolit loads grouped in the black while the Lyman 130gr load shot a bit high and scattered, but again it was a function test, not an accuracy test. Had the original GI spring been in the gun probably 100% functioning would have occurred with all loads. All empties were found about 6' behind and to my right, making brass pick up easy.

I did notice I have many more .30 Carbine loaded with the LEE 90364 gas check than the other non gas check designs. I started loading it with the LEE 90301 after I got the Underwood, tried the Lyman and settled on the LEE 90364 120gr, rn, gc as the best of the bunch. I'm sure your LEE 90308 will work as well with IMR4227, you should find good functioning between 11.5-13.5gr.

[dippmaster]

I pulled the boolits from 3 cartridges loaded with 3 different cast boolits. The LEE 90301 100gr. rn contained 12.5gr. of IMR4227, the Lyman 311410 130gr rn contained 12.5gr Of IMR4227, and the LEE 90364 120gr rn gas check contained 12.5gr as well. All sized to .310 and lubed with Lyman Orange Magic.

I function tested these loads a few weeks ago when I put a "Super Spring" from Gun Parts in my 1942 Underwood GI carbine. The shooting was done at 50yds offhand at a 3" circle simply to test function with the addition of the stronger spring. The only single failure was with the 100gr LEE 90301. The bolt cycled and ejected. but short stroked and failed to pick up the next cartridge in the magazine. Both LEE boolit loads grouped in the black while the Lyman 130gr load shot a bit high and scattered, but again it was a function test, not an accuracy test. Had the original GI spring been in the gun probably 100% functioning would have occurred with all loads. All empties were found about 6' behind and to my right, making brass pick up easy.

I did notice I have many more .30 Carbine loaded with the LEE 90364 gas check than the other non gas check designs. I started loading it with the LEE 90301 after I got the Underwood, tried the Lyman and settled on the LEE 90364 120gr, rn, gc as the best of the bunch. I'm sure your LEE 90308 will work as well with IMR4227, you should find good functioning between 11.5-13.5gr.

Okay, thanks for the info. I'll probably load with 13grns.

[jcwit]

That will be a load to start with, work up & down from their in 1/2 grain increaments.

[DLCTEX]

Lee 125 gr. RN casts .311 and I size .311, lube with Ben's Red, seat over h-110 at COL 1.55 Universal Carbine shoots good.

[abunaitoo]

My GI had a worn barrel.
I was going to change the barrel, but decided to try cast in it first.
I'm using a 120gr NGC round nose. Unsized to 314!!! It chambers fine.
Probably because of the worn barrel.
Blue dot.
Shoots as good as any carbine I've owned.
Jacket bullets shoot all over at 50yds.

[dippmaster]

well, with anything larger than .308 it wont chamber in my Universal.
I ran a test today of 30 rounds with a new Korean 30-round mag. on the first 10 rounds on every other round I had miss feeds, mostly snags on the feed lips. I think this is due to how stiff the rounds where held at full capacity in the new mag. the other 20 shot fine. All the brass landed around me. a number landing on my head.

Also at 25 meters all shots were on a 12" target, But I didn't really bother taking time to aim.