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I have a .30-06 I'm thinking of selling for a like for like .30 variation.
I quite fancy one of the M1 carbines built as a straight pull bolt action.

As well as shooting it on longer ranges I'd also like to be able to reload to shoot it on my club's indoor gallery range.

We can't shoot jacketed bullets on our range. We are also limited to a max muzzle energy of 475 ft/lbs and a muzzle velocity of 1705 ft/s.

I gather the standard muzzle energy of the .30 carbine round is about 967 ft·lbs and muzzle velocity around 1,990 ft/s
So I'd need to use .30 lead bullet heads and a much reduced load. I wondered if anyone has done this and what their recipe is?

I cant speak with authority but I would treat it as a target load along the lines of 357 target loads.
About 4 gns of a fast pistol powder would probably do it.
Edit. Just checked on reloaders nest and there is one load of 3.4gns Bullseye with a 110gn fmj.

Heck of a coincidence. I've also been looking at selling a fullbore rifle to replace with an M1 carbine for gallery range shooting, but also have the same restrictions as Dark Skies regarding velocity and lead bullets.

I have been shooting a .300 blackout handi rifle (16inch barrel) for the last year or two, I use 167gn (ish) lead bullets and 5gns of Unique and that gives me about 800-900ft

If you want specifics, then I would have to root out the exact load data for you.

Regards

115gr cast lead boolit - RN or RNFP - with 4 to 5 gr Viht 310 should do the job nicely

dodgyrog wrote:115gr cast lead boolit - RN or RNFP - with 4 to 5 gr Viht 310 should do the job nicely

Almost the same, I have been doing this for 5 years now and got it passed for our range, I use 5gr of N320, the same powder I use in my Marlin. The problem I now have is we have a new club secretary who is trying to stop me using stating that it is a "Rifle" cartridge and the range cert apparently doesn't allow it so make sure you can use it before you buy one, I believe the NRA HAS classed .30 Carbine as a pistol cartridge so I need to try and convince them.

dodgyrog wrote:

115gr cast lead boolit - RN or RNFP - with 4 to 5 gr Viht 310 should do the job nicely



Almost the same, I have been doing this for 5 years now and got it passed for our range, I use 5gr of N320, the same powder I use in my Marlin. The problem I now have is we have a new club secretary who is trying to stop me using stating that it is a "Rifle" cartridge and the range cert apparently doesn't allow it so make sure you can use it before you buy one, I believe the NRA HAS classed .30 Carbine as a pistol cartridge so I need to try and convince them.

You need to get your self a new Club Secretary.

Cheers everyone. Useful info for starting loads.

lasbrisas, I will check but I think I'll be fine; our club sec has printed out a table for various load stats and as far as I can see the only thing that concerns him is that ammo falls within the limits set out.

Alpha1 wrote:

dodgyrog wrote:

115gr cast lead boolit - RN or RNFP - with 4 to 5 gr Viht 310 should do the job nicely



Almost the same, I have been doing this for 5 years now and got it passed for our range, I use 5gr of N320, the same powder I use in my Marlin. The problem I now have is we have a new club secretary who is trying to stop me using stating that it is a "Rifle" cartridge and the range cert apparently doesn't allow it so make sure you can use it before you buy one, I believe the NRA HAS classed .30 Carbine as a pistol cartridge so I need to try and convince them.

You need to get your self a new Club Secretary.

I think I need a new club !