Happy Birthday 30 Super Carry!

[shooting on a shoestring]

One year old and counting!

It was a year ago that 30 Super Carry made its debut at Shot Show. Followed by a half dozen gun writers breaking the news.

When I first read about it I got excited. A 32 caliber pistol round that can go to 50,000 psi. Wow! What a big step up in 32 caliber.

Well, here we are a year later and all those people who worried about 30 SC replacing 9mm can calm down and rest easy. 9mm is still in production! 30 SC didn’t replace their favorite carry round.

Matter of fact I don’t think 9mm will ever be replaced. Not even Johnathan Browning’s 45 acp replaced it! Nor did his 380 acp. Heck 9mm even survived the 40 S&W decades. Yep it has nothing to worry about being kicked to curb by 30 Super Carry.

30 Super Carry is a wonderful cartridge though. It’s great for reloading. Great for pushing cast boolits really fast out of short barrels. What it needs is a couple of good pistols chambered in it.

The S&W Shield EZ showed that a 9mm sized gun can stand up to higher pressures of 30 SC. I’m wishing for a better gun for 30 SC. There’s Nighthawk. They still catalog a couple of 1911’s in 30 SC. But I doubt I’ll get to own one. They’re currently about $3500 for the cheap one and $4500 for the expensive one. Out of my price range.

I hope, dream, wish that Sig would do a 30 SC. I would even try a Glock in 30 SC.

I’m not real fond of the Shield EZ. I do like the easy load magazine. That’s super cool. I like that the Shield EZ will feed my big old out of the case 117 grain wadcutter (Accurate 31-117E) and drive it over 1200 fps. I like that the Shield EZ is hammer fired (internal hammer like a Colt 1903) and has a decent trigger for a polymer reciprocator. But I broke the firing pin stop in mine. MIM part. It jammed the firing pin. S&W wouldn’t sell fire control parts so the pistol had to go back to them to get a new firing pin block. Good enough service, took about two months. No charge to me. But it really chilled me on depending on the little pistol. It’s a real fun range gun.

But the 30 Super Carry cartridge, to quote Tony the Tigger, “it’s GGGGGRRRRRRREEEAAATTT!”

Happy Birthday 30 Super Carry!

[BC17A]

I agree! I'm already enjoying my 30SC Shield+ much more than any of my 9's, including hand-loading for it. I hit the range again yesterday and have more brass to de-prime and clean. I'll update the reloading thread later. It's disappointing that we haven't yet heard about other manufacturers offering something in 30SC. Should be an easy mod to many of the 9mm offerings already being produced.

[FergusonTO35]

Surprisingly, .30 SC ammo is pretty easy to come by here. A Ruger single action so chambered would be sweeeet.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Well all the 1911 and 2011 being chambered in 9mm kind of stole it's thunder. The 9mm is significantly faster than the .45acp, noticeably so. Shooting flatter out further is nice in a pistol. Probably why so many 9mm carry guns have elevation fixed sights. I wouldn't mind trying one though, particularly in a 5" 1911.

[HumptyDumpty]

My interest would b in developing a load utilizing a Lehigh Xtreme Defense bullet, from a full-size pistol (at least 4.5" barrel). In my experience, those projectiles do amazing things when pushed fast.

[35remington]

Have a Shield Plus in 30 with a Holosun 507KX2. Nice combo and the flat trigger is definitely an upgrade. A bit less recoil than 9mm but not a lot and the pistol was not near as loud as I expected.

Have Gold Dot, HST and Remington HTP defensive ammo. Only the Gold Dot is 115 grain; the rest are 100.

[HumptyDumpty]

I know it can be difficult to see sometimes, but is there much of a fireball?

[Bigslug]

So, you're able to find Federal .30 Super Carry, but I currently have to wait about 16 months between placing and receiving an order of Federal buckshot for my agency - which probably nets them more money than all the .30 Super Carry sold west of the Mississippi.

Glad you're having fun, but all I'm seeing is a case of corporate RCI - Rectal-Cranial Inversion.

[rintinglen]

Well there's a lot of people who want 12 gauge slugs. The 9 guys who are reloading 30SC have the market to themselves.

[kerplode]

30SC is dead, it just doesn't know it yet.

My boss went to Shot this year and reported seeing no new pistols being released for 30SC and nobody talking about it. If you shoot it, start hoarding brass now...

[dverna]

30SC is dead, it just doesn't know it yet.

My boss went to Shot this year and reported seeing no new pistols being released for 30SC and nobody talking about it. If you shoot it, start hoarding brass now...

That is wise advice.

BTW, want to relate a story. A couple of months ago my fiancé decided to get a CPL. I told her I would not "help" her decide what gun to carry. Encouraged her to go to ranges that rent guns and try a bunch out and to talk to the people selling them at the gun stores. (I know, many of those people give bad advice, but I would have interceded if things had gone that way).

Anyway, none of the people she talked to recommend the .30SC. I was a bit surprised at that. I thought for sure someone would suggest the latest and greatest offering.

The "good news" is she decided on a Sig 365X in 9mm.

[376Steyr]

30SC is dead, it just doesn't know it yet.

My boss went to Shot this year and reported seeing no new pistols being released for 30SC and nobody talking about it. If you shoot it, start hoarding brass now...

I checked the Starline brass website, and they do not list it. Not a good sign.

[35remington]

I have not shot it in the dark, but I notice nothing untoward in the daytime.

Color me bored witless with 9mm everything. Occasionally something else is offered to the public. It’s sorta like 10mm. Everyone talks about it and has for years but when it comes to selling ammo I see little movement. If you look at something like Cabela’s about 70 plus percent of handgun shelf space for ammo is devoted to 9mm while the other calibers fight over the tiny allotments left to them…which are shrinking. Only 380 is an exception but less so than one might think because apparently 380 owners don’t shoot them much.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Thought about playing with the 327 and 45,000 psi, but just couldn’t justify gearing up for one more caliber from scratch when I already have everything for 357 and 44 mags. Glad you are enjoying yourself! I’m looking forward to more results!

[35remington]

I don’t know about the chicken or the egg, but a 20 plus shot M and P compact with 3.6 or 4 inch barrel would be something I’d be interested in. Bigger pistol, within reason, and easier to shoot than a micro.

Ultimately it is primarily about the cost of the ammo, not about how many it holds or the caliber. Cheap sells.

[FergusonTO35]

I'm not interested in a 50k cartridge in anything other than a bolt action rifle. Now, a Ruger single action in .30 SC would be really kewl and should take to cast no problem. At this moment in my locale, .30 SC ammo is much easier to find and cheaper than any other .32 caliber round. I can't imagine it would be much of a special trick to get .32 mag performance from the round in a Single Six or Blackhawk.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Yeah after you mentioned a Single Six I thought about it.

I’ll bet the Single Seven cylinder could hold the 50,000 psi. It has the bolt notches cut between the chambers. But, then it’s 327 brass is already considerably longer than 30 SC and max pressure is very close at 45,000 psi. So for going fast, 327 would probably win there.

I’ve pushed the Single Six in 32 H&R up to 1400 fps with the RCBS 98 wadcutter. So it can definitely be run harder than published data. But again, the 32 H&R brass has more powder capacity.

But…..I’d buy one anyhow!

I’d really like to see a Sig 365 in 30 SC.

[Bigslug]

30SC is dead, it just doesn't know it yet.

My boss went to Shot this year and reported seeing no new pistols being released for 30SC and nobody talking about it. If you shoot it, start hoarding brass now...

Even being careful NOT to call it a .32 couldn't save it from dying before its first birthday!

I dunno. . . History is a pretty good guide for cartridge success and longevity. It has to do ONE task supremely well (.30-30), do A LOT of tasks well (.30-06), come packaged in a truly world-beating firearm that (optionally) participates in some legendary exploits (.45ACP/1911), offer game-changing firepower (wondernines and intermediate AW rounds), or be produced in such VAST numbers and reasonable cost (Post-Cold War supremacy of U.S. and Soviet options) that it renders any similar choice moot.

That a choice was made to introduce the "almost as good" .30SC at the exact moment the world had accepted that the 9x19 successfully checked about all those boxes really makes me scratch my head.

[35remington]

People gotta try. Some Problem Du Jour will occur in the future to make us rethink how we do things. One thing that sees a lot of variants is pistol cartridges. If nobody ever tries to introduce anything ever again because all questions have been Perfectly Answered by 9mm, my, what a boring future we have before us.

It is entirely possible something may come along. Won’t happen if they don’t try. Encouraging the industry to just give up isn’t my thing and I wouldn’t think it benefits anyone else either.

[FergusonTO35]

I'm a big 9mm fan but don't like most factory loads. It's a dandy with a .358 130 grain RNFP from Arsenal Molds at 1020 fps and so that's what I feed 'em. Also like a 115 grain Hornady XTP at 1160 fps, a standard pressure load which actually exceeds the claimed velocity for the Hornady factory load with this bullet.