30 Carbine and 300MP

[mtnman31]

This question was asked on a different forum and didn't get many replies but has me wondering. Has anyone done much with reloading .30 carbine and using any of the newer powders, particularly 300MP? H110 and 2400 are pretty standard for 30 Carbine but there are other, modern powders that would seem to work well. I shoot 30 Carbine in both the M1 Carbine rifle and in a Taurus revolver. Any thoughts or experiences are greatly appreciated.

[rintinglen]

I can't speak to 300MP, but I did load up about 50 30 Carbine 110 grain Mag Tech bullets with Win SRP and 14.0 grns of Lil gun. They shot just as good as any other loading from my 1944 Inland. They seemed roughly comparable to my normal 296/H110 loads. I have read that Lil gun burns hot and is not a first choice for rapid fire in revolvers as a result. But for my more sedate style of shooting, it worked just fine. Might not be the hot set up for mag dumps, but for 5 shots in 2 minutes, it seems OK.

[Larry Gibson]

I recently tested Lil'Gun under the 311316 (115 gr) up to 15 gr in my M1 Carbine. While it did "ok" the ejection pattern indicated inconsistent internal pressures as di the ES/SD chronograph measurements. The velocity was no improvement over H110 and the ES/SD were twice as much. No experience with 300MP.

[35 Whelen]

I have not tried any 300MP, but I have delved into some less common powders.

Vihtavuori 110-

This is an odd powder in that it's extruded so it takes up quite a bit of space in the .30 Carbine case, but seems to work about like H110/W296. 14.0 grs. of it sends your typical 110 gr. jacketed bullet out right at 2000 fps. Accuracy seems about the same as any similar powder.

Accurate #4100-

MidSouth had some of this in stock a couple of months so I sucked it up and bought a pound. It's a really, really fine ball powder that meters very well and is quite energetic. Western Powder's manual shows a starting load of 14.0 grs. with a 110 gr. Hornady FMJ for 1980 fps, my load averaged 1966 fps out of my IBM Carbine. 14.5 grs. averaged 1985 fps out of my Universal and 2044 fps out of the IBM. 15.0 averaged 2025 fps out of the Universal, 2044 fps out of the IBM and 2088 fps out of an Inland. Their loading guide shows 15.5 as a maximum with a velocity of 2164 fps, but I didn't go that high.



One thing to note is that AA4100 and Ramshot Enforcer are the same powders.

But I guess my new favorite powder for the Carbine would be Alliant 410. I bought a can because 1) I knew, since it's loaded in the .410 shotshell, it'd be similar to 2400 and 2) It was all one of the local shops had in stock. So far, this stuff has been the berries with cast bullets. It seems to burn a little faster than 2400 so I've endeavored to keep charges below what I use with 2400.
My most used cast bullet for my Carbine's is from an RCBS 30-115-SP mold, and I got some really good accuracy with this powder and bullet-



I recently happened onto a couple of Lyman 311576 molds which casts a RN bullet weighing around 125 gr., checked and lubed. Here's a shot of the bullet from this mold-



This bullet and AL410 seem to have been made for one another as accuracy is quite good.



I did nudge this load up to 12.0 grs. which upped the velocity to right at 1900 fps.

I recently joined the ranks of the retired, so hopefully I'll have time to do some more testing.

35W

[mtnman31]

Excellent feedback and responses. Thank you.