M1 Carbine

[Brad in Idaho]

I'm going to be handloading for M1 Carbines. I will be using H110 powder, and 100 and 110 grain bullets of various manufacture.

I have some questions. Does military M1 carbine brass (LC) have a crimped primer? Should I use the CCI military small rifle primers, or just regular? Should I crimp the finished round? I have carbide dies. I have seen some say not to lube with these dies, and others say to still lube cases. What say you? This is my first time loading .30 caliber carbine so any other thoughts or tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

[rickgman]

Brad, I can't answer all of your questions but there are a few things I can tell you that might help. Firstly, I found that I had approx. 5% perforated primers when using Winchester small rifle primers. I switched to Federal small rifle match primers (which have a thicker cup) and the problem went away. I always lubed my carbine cases since they are kind of a long case and I felt that there was probably considerable friction while resizing as opposed to a relatively short straight walled case like .45 ACP or 9mm. Crimping is not necessary - neck tension hold the bullet in place and most seating dies remove the bell from the case mouth (assuming you use an expander die).

[Litt'le Lee]

always use lube as the case is not a straight wall case--even carbide dies-I listened to the wrong people and did not lube-resulting in case sererating and a ruined chamber-
I found WW cases need reaming but not LC--no crimp-adjust your #2 die to just hold the bullet

[Brad in Idaho]

"...adjust your #2 die to just hold the bullet" I'm a little confused about that, can you explain?

[joem]

The # 2 die is the belling die. Adjust it so you can place the bullet on top of the case and it should not fall off. As far as crimping is concerned, adjust the seat and crimp die to remove the bell. There should be enough neck tension to hold everything in place. Make sure you trim any case that is over spec length. If you have any questions feel free to post them. Good Luck.

[jimb]

The carbine seating die is a taper crimp die. Seating the bullet removes the bell and taper crimps the case at the same time. You don't need to lube every case, but I would lube every 4/5 case just to prevent sticking and allow for easier sizing. Piersed primers can occur, but you usually don't have that problem unless your firing pin protrusion is a little bit long or the tip isn't well rounded. H110 is a very good powder for the carbine. Winchester cases are the only ones that I know that have crimped primers.

[Johnny in Texas]

I like 2400 or H110 always check case length get a cartridge headspace gauge. Trim to minimum long cases can cause catastrophic failures if it fires out of battery. I have carbide dies and I lube my cases.

[Brad in Idaho]

Just REdiscovered that a majority of my cases are unfired LC72. I forget where I got these, but I probably should have gotten more. I'm thinking these are pretty much ready to load. Should I be doing any further case prep on these? How about deburring the flash hole, and uniforming the primer pockets? I measured a bunch already, and they are just below max trim length, I would make certain they all are before beginning.

I also didn't mention I am using Lee dies on this caliber. I've never used Lee dies before, only RCBS. Anything special to know about the dies?

[Chris W.]

I've posted this over on Castboolits as well, but here is my experience. I have 2 Winchester carbines I reload for. Have had several slam fires when loading as a single round only, and letting the bolt slam home on the round. Bolts were fully disassembled and checked out fine. Primers used in this loading were CCI small rifle bought in a lot of 5000. ( 1 case ) Rifles checked out so far, no faults found. Would be unlikely the same fault would be found on both rifles. Firing pin indent from closing the bolt was very small, but still enough to fire the round sometimes. In none of the slam fires did the hammer fall, both sears on both rifles checked out. Discharges caused by firing pin inertia only. When I load for the carbines again, will use the harder mil. spec primers to help prevent this. Also, thinking as some have said, loading from a mag slows the speed of the bolt down enough for this not to happen. What have I personally learned from this ?? First, mil. spec primers are a good thing. Second, always load from a mag.
Chris

[joem]

Lee dies are fine and I have many of them. The .30 carbine is a tapered case so I lube everyone. I don't bother with the flash hole and I make sure the primer pocket is clean. By the way I use AA # 9. Load to get approx 1900 to 2000 FPS and as stated above always load from the mag.

[kcw]

The # 2 die is the belling die. Adjust it so you can place the bullet on top of the case and it should not fall off. As far as crimping is concerned, adjust the seat and crimp die to remove the bell. There should be enough neck tension to hold everything in place. Make sure you trim any case that is over spec length. If you have any questions feel free to post them. Good Luck.

Your case mouth DOES NOT need to look like a trumpet mouth! Adjust your expander so as to "bell" the case mouth only to the minimum extent necessary to allow the bullet to enter the casing without excess force. There's no point in over belling the case mouth and, moreover, excess bell promotes stretch and a possible over length situation.

[kcw]

Remember, the carbine round is basically a pistol round. To that end I've used thousands of small pistol primes in the M-1 carbine without ever having a problem. Of course you'll want to check your firing pin protrusion. I've never been able to detect any difference in accuracy between one primer over another, however the most accurate bullet by far was the 100gr, Hornady "short jacket:.

[Brad in Idaho]

HELP please

OK, I've never used an "expander" die before. The brass needs some "belling" for the bullet to sit on them. I'm assuming I have to lube (mica) the case necks? The instructions with mine (Lee) show you adding the powder through the die. I'm thinking I should just run my cases through the expander die, then charge them with powder as I normally do other rifle cases. Am I on the right track, or no?

[kcw]

OK, I've never used an "expander" die before. The brass needs some "belling" for the bullet to sit on them. I'm assuming I have to lube (mica) the case necks? The instructions with mine (Lee) show you adding the powder through the die. I'm thinking I should just run my cases through the expander die, then charge them with powder as I normally do other rifle cases. Am I on the right track, or no?

I can't help you with the use of "through the die" die sets; I use the old, standard 3 die RCBS. As to lube, I use the RCBS roll pad and a liquid lube. I also lube the inside with the brush.

[joem]

OK, I've never used an "expander" die before. The brass needs some "belling" for the bullet to sit on them. I'm assuming I have to lube (mica) the case necks? The instructions with mine (Lee) show you adding the powder through the die. I'm thinking I should just run my cases through the expander die, then charge them with powder as I normally do other rifle cases. Am I on the right track, or no?

That's the way I do it. Expand the necks after the trim, clean, prime and load. I use a Hornady powder drop to charge the cases.