Range day,
First sunny weekend in a month of Sundays here in north-central Calif. Did some shooting with a few guns and cast bullet loads prevailed. Found out that M1 Carbine does like cast bullets. We had a batch of Oregon Trail 115 gr. bullets that I bought years ago but were too small for my other .30's. Ahead of 13.5 gr. H4227, they put in a pretty good show at the 50 yd. line. We shot a few FLGC loads we bought at the entrance and were'nt really impressed. The best shooting loads out of the carbine were some unlikely sounding 130gr. Lee Round Nose Gascheck that also measured at .309 unsized. With 11.5 gr. H-4227 they grouped into 1 1/2 and 2". I left some 115 gr. Pointed gaschecked loads at home by mistake so never had the chance to see how they would do. Was the "funnest" gun we shot all day. Got some good grouping out of a single-shot .30-06 with 28 gr. RX-7 and a 165gr. RCBS Silhouette (1/2" @ 50yds.). I had some loaded up with 30 gr. but will try them next time. There's only so much you can do in a day.
At any rate, I think that carbine is going into my fun-gun cabinet. After 150 shots, I found some "scuz" on the gas piston which came right off with a shot of brake-kleen and a rag and then a dab of anti-sieze on the piston & screw the retainer back in and I'm done. No sign of leading in the barrel or shavings in the port. All bullets were water-dropped wheelweights with Lee liquid alox.
Anyhow, a fun day at the range.
Newtire

I had (before I traded it off) a Marlin camp carbine in 45acp. With a scope it would shoot minute-of-coffee-can groups at 100 yards. I burned a lot of lead through that gun. Guns like that are great fun to shoot.

I like the 311359 PT GC Lyman in the .30 Carbine. Lubed and with Gas Check mine weigh ~120 gr. With 12 to 13 H 4227 and WW primers they are surprisingly accurate.

More fun and usually cheaper than 22 rimfire!

OK C1,
Thanks, got that mold & did load up a bunch of those with both 11.5gr & 13 gr. of the H-4227. Those are the ones I axidently left at home! Anyway, gotta spend the next couple free sunny weekends putting the roof back together on my garage/casting/loading/happy place & then gonna give all my guns a workout. Will post the results. Newtire