30 Carbine questions.

[SP5315]

A few weeks ago I acquired a 30 Carbine along with several other long guns. After a little research I have found that it was made by National Postage Meter. A serial number look up shows it was made between September, 1943 - November, 1943. I thought it may have been re-arsenaled at some point as it has a Rockola barrel. Turns out MPN did not produce barrels for any of their rifles, so may be original barrel. The barrel is very clean with no pitting and only minor jacket fowling. No import marks on it. It has great looking wood on it with only one small ding in the hand guard.

I need to slug the barrel, but out of curiosity, I'd like to know what others have found diameter wise.

This came with around 700 rounds of what appear to be once fired military brass head stamped TW 52 and LC 56 along with a few 50 round boxes of the same military ammo. I think I'll hold on to the two boxes from Twin Cities for possible collectors value.

I've picked up a set of used carbide dies off of evilbay.

I like older Lyman/Ideal molds and I'm willing to put in some time looking for the older molds. My old Lyman handbook lists three molds that are suitable, the 311359 120 gr gc, 311576 123 gr gc, and 311410 130 gr pb. I would like some input on what mold others have found that seem to work best in the 30 carbine.

[lefty o]

i think your probably right that the gun has been thru an arsenal. most likely has its original barrel but 99% of carbines have been updated, most of those that are 100% correct now days have been made that way by collectors.

[rondog]

An NPM? Lucky man! Love my IBM, Inland and Plainfield carbines. Great fun! Little experience with cast though.

[WineMan]

My best loads have been with the 311359 and WW296. Both 309 and 310 shoot about the same. If you get consistent chambering (easy and no hang up) with 310 fatter is usually better. My Inland will digest anything in anyone's magazine. A friend's Underwood is the queen of "just right" only USGI mags and every round must be perfect. We had a batch of Rem factory with some undersized rims, no bueno. My Inland just gobbled them up. His is polite and throws the empties at 1:00, my Inland tosses them over my right shoulder and every once in a while, dings me in the head.

Dave

[Combat Diver]

Its almost impossible to get a pristine M1 Carbine as not one company made all the components. As far as being original what type of sights and mag release. A 1943 would have the "L" flip rear sight and cross bolt mag release. Also no bayonet lug.


CD

[Ithaca Gunner]

Being the lazy and cheap sort that I am, I shoot plain base boolits in my Underwood, even the LEE 100gr. rn intended for the .32 S&W revolver sized to .309/.310 over 13.5gr of 2400 and they shoot better than I expected. Plinking ammo for sure, but out to 50yds. shoot as well as the boolits from my Lyman 311410 mold. No jams, just a fun inexpensive load for close range shooting.

[John Allen]

SP5315,

My experience with a limited number of M1 Carbines has been that the barrels' groove diameter consistently measures out at .308", give or take half a thousandth. I find that a .310" diameter cast bullet has shot well in all of the carbines for which I have loaded ammunition.

I prefer a gas check design. I started out years ago with a Lyman #311359. I later changed over to the RCBS 30-115-SP design and still use it today.

You didn't ask, but IMR4227 is the powder I like best in carbine loads.

PB

I agree with Phineas. I have four and they all are about the same. Just load the sucker up and shoot it.

[Larry Gibson]

I have used cast in the .30 Carbine since '68. The 311359 is an excellent cast bullet for it. I use 13.5 gr H110 under mine for excellent accuracy at 1850 fps. If properly zeroed and regulated to the range setting of the rear sight it does very well to 300 yards.

I size at .309 because I've found some chambers won't allow chambering of .310/.311 bullets. I've mic'd numerous lots of milsurp carbine ammo and the bullets run .307 - .308. Remington's bulk 110 gr carbine bullets were .307 also. Never had a problem with any cast sized .309 and I've shot thousands of them through numerous M1 and M2 carbines, semi and full auto, over the years.

Larry Gibson

[Hang Fire]

This came with around 700 rounds of what appear to be once fired military brass head stamped TW 52 and LC 56 along with a few 50 round boxes of the same military ammo. I think I'll hold on to the two boxes from Twin Cities for possible collectors value.


You have the luck of the Irish with that milsurp brass. Unlike the corrosive 30-06 brass of that era, the .30 carbine ammo never used corrosive primers.

[jimb16]

Over the years, I've had 40 or so carbines. Only one didn't like cast boolits. It would lead up the gas port/piston. All of the others functioned flawlessly with a variety of cast. I've also used a variety of powders, the best being 4227, 2400 and H110. Throat erosion in carbines is almost nonexistent. The original caliber is NOT .308, but .3075. I normally size my rounds to .309 and never get leading. My preferred boolit is the Lyman plain base 130 grain. With carbine ammo still being fairly common, the collector value of the TW is very minimal. Most of us "collectors" would just go ahead and shoot it. It is very good ammo.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

I've used the RCBS 115 grain GC bullet sized .310 with 13 grains of 4227 and it has shot reasonably good groups. 14 grains somehow does not want to go into the case no matter how much jiggling goes on. Other powders work well also. Use a slight taper crimp so that the loaded round can headspace on the case mouth. Try and keep your brass trimmed to a uniform length. LLS

[dolfinwriter]

...most of those that are 100% correct now days have been made that way by collectors.

I'm no expert by any means, but I did a lot of research before I bought my .30 Carbine, also NPM with mfr within a date range that ended Dec '43.

The .30 Carbine is a bit quirky in this regard. There is no such thing as a "matching numbers" gun, because only the receivers were serialized.

In order to say something is "100% correct", you must define what "correct" is. There were ten companies that manufactured the .30 Carbine, and dozens of smaller companies that made only various parts which were assembled at one of those ten. Because it was war time, the guns were finished with whatever parts could be obtained at the time to get as many out the door as possible and into the hands of GIs in Europe, or Marines or GIs in the Pacific, which means most were a mix of mfrs parts, as originally assembled. THAT was their "correct" configuration.

Then some may have been re-arsenalized and shot out barrels or other worn out or damaged parts replaced with the latest available at the time.

Records are only haphazard and mostly only constructed after the fact by compiling data on those found in circulation, so there is no way to know for sure if a given rifle was originally assembled with a give barrel.

Chances are good that the original barrel may not have been made by the same mfr as the receiver, so one that has mixed parts is likely more "correct" than one that has all parts by the same mfr.

Some of the people who have bought "correct" mfr parts and installed them to make the rifles all matching may have been collectors, but also people looking to flip the rifles, calling them "100% correct" or similar, and charging a premium for something that is a lie, but which has no way to either verify or disprove.

I am interested in cast data on the .30 Carbine as well, but I will say that mine came with seven full boxes of 100 new .308 Speer bullets and one partial box, a handful of loaded rounds, a couple thousand SR Primers and over 150 LC brass, as the previous owner had reloaded for it. I also got his .30 Carbine die, and 9mm and .45 auto dies, and an RCBS press that needs some clean up, but is workable.

I haven't had a chance to go shoot it yet, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the .308 bullets. But for the price that I paid for all of this, I'll take 'em for plinking and teaching wife and son how to handle this thing.