.30 carbine question

[jcw1970]

the lyman book says you should size to .308 on the carbine no matter what your bore. i kinda find this hard to believe. if this is true, could someone explain this to me?

[mpmarty]

For accuracy you need to size to bore diameter plus one or two.
For reliability in the little Carbine .308 assures the cartridge will chamber properly.
Ya' pays yer money and makes yer choices.

[HeavyMetal]

Question is are you shooting a carbine or one of the pistols chambered for 30 carbine?

Each gun is a rule unto itself! I'd make small batch's of boolits / loads and see what the gun in question liked.

[Larry Gibson]

Carbine cases have pretty thick necks and headspace on the case mouth. Many , actually most, carbines won't take .311" bullets in all cases. I've run into several that won't take .310" bullets reliably. I routinely size cast bullets used in the .30 M1 Carbine to .309" which has proven to be reliable in numerous M1 Carbines with the mix of cases I have.

Reliability is the reason Lyman says .308".

Larry Gibson

[mooman76]

The M1c 30 carbine can be very picky about loads and lead bullets. Some bullets do not work well at all in them and cause chambering issues. It's best to pick a bullet somewhat similar to the original designed bullet.

[jcw1970]

did a test today with my lyman 311576 sized .308 and .309. No difference between the 2 at the range. no problems loading or leading.

[beagle]

My M1 Carbine will take .310" sized bullets but not .311s. The .310s shoot great and I get good accuracy (for a carbine) and good functioning. From my experience, the accuracy is not there with either the .308s or .309s./beagle

[Patrick L]

I agree with Beagle. My carbine printed patterns, not groups, with .308-.309 bullets, even at 25 yds.

I get great accuracy sizing to .311, and possibly a bit better going unsized/LLA with absolutely no reliability issues.

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Carbine/GunStuff020.jpg

[gds]

I had a problem with failure to chamber the lee 120 grainers as cast. I think they were casting around .311 maybe just slightly smaller. I put them through a sizer that got them to .3095 and chamber problems went away.