Difference between factory ammo and my own reloads

Liberium

    Never reloaded for the 30 Carbine, Wished I had. Allow me to Yap a bit...
Over the many years, I've shot many a 30 Carbine round ,basically every manufacturer too. Back in the day I exclusively shot Winchester white box as it was plentiful and absurdly cheap as compared to today (6 bucks a box retail, 1984 in California). 30 Carbine remained relatively cheap up until late 90's or so.
    I doped all my GI rifles with this ammo with excellent groups to 50/100/150/200. Basically my standard was 4" round target on man silhouette at 50 & 100Y and 6" at 150 & 200Y. In the prone all rounds in the black. (and these guns were Blue Sky import Inlands) If I had a rifle back then that couldn't perform to this, I sold it.
     As to be expected - When shooting many other high quality US brands of ammo (110 grn FMJ), with the same set dope, each shot their own patterns just as tight but off POA by 4" - 6 " or some patterned very open, as much as a foot+ at 100y. There most definitely will be variables.
    Haven't shot like that in the last 10 years however, so I would imagine the factory 24/7 mass produced ammo is doing the same, worse or much worse. Yap Over. JB    

Not likely 30-carbine ammo is being introduced on any current battlefield, but you can enjoy a carbine just as much with a caliber-conversion to something that is more plentiful and just as reloadable….and you won’t modify or destroy the integrity of a 100% USGI carbine in the process. You can pay for the conversion pretty quickly with 7.62 x 33 at $1.00 a round, if you can find it.

thirtyround wrote: Can you provide any details on this "conversion" I'm assuming its a chamber insert to utilize 7.62 x 25. what are any other mod'd? Sounds interesting. Unfortunately it will not be cheaper to shoot however.

No butchering involved, I would not stand for that either. Shot out GI barrels are re-bored and chambered for 9mm, a used or import marked 30-caliber barrel can be re-chambered for TOK and a commercial bolt can be used. That’s all there is to it, everything else 100% USGI. If one can’t obtain 9mm or TOK either, I agree it’s not worth the effort other than for a fun and interesting project.

one in 9mm would be interesting then you can use the same ammo in your pistol and carbine, if it's done with a warn out 30M1 that would be a way to at least keep them in working condition and 9mm ammo is a lot cheaper than .30M1.

Out of a Carbine barrel a 9MM will get you European 357 Sig velocities. 

Edit….I misspoke on the 350 Legend loads. I have loaded those to 1310fps. 1500 might be pushing chamber pressures a bit. 

The 30-carbine is a great little gun as-is and I have a few. We all have our particular little quirks and one of mine is ammo availability. If I can’t readily find a source for what I am shooting, all I have is a club. The carbine is a perfect platform for converting to other calibers and 9mm can be found under about any bush (even in the current environment) still at less than half the cost of 30-carbine. The 9mm is on the bottom end of what the carbine will cycle, but it affords the ability to load-up to a level of +p+ and even beyond that. I am firmly in the camp of not destroying an heirloom and my conversions don’t. I agree with David that it seems US loadings generally are under-powered when compared to European loadings in some calibers. Some real crazy warm loads have been developed for the 9mm, just need to have a gun strong enough to handle it. The carbine can handle it handily. I have considered a 357 SIG conversion, but the 9 can be loaded or purchased off the shelf hot-enough to suit my needs….for now.