I just purchased a 30 Herrett carbine barrel for a Contender and I need some advice on case forming, loads, and bullets. Also, does anyone know what velocity I can expect out of a 22" barrel with this cartridge?

Pretty sweet that you have a carbine length bbl.

I have a Super 14.

Two ways to form case:

1. Use a FL die. Run the cases thru the die w/o the decapper/expander. I made a jig out of a piece of wood. I found scrape piece of wood (slightly thicker than neck length) then drilled a hole slightly larger than the o.d. of the neck. Tweaked things so that when I cut the excess with a hack saw, the OAL would be a bit long. Did the finishing touches on the cases trimmer.

2. Use an RCBS form and trim die. After doing it the "hard way" I picked up a F&T die on eBay. You just run thru the die, use a hack say, then smooth things out with a file.

I have some decent loads for the Super-14, but don't have my data right now. You should beat book pistol loads (Sierra Handgun has 14" bbl velocites) by 200-250 fps I imagine.

I make a rough cut with a dremel tool and a fiber reinforced cutting wheel. Make sure your cut is on the long side then run them through your FL resizing die and finish up on your trimmer. Fireform and you're ready to go.

quote:

I make a rough cut with a dremel tool and a fiber reinforced cutting wheel. Make sure your cut is on the long side then run them through your FL resizing die and finish up on your trimmer. Fireform and you're ready to go.

+1
About 20 years ago I formed some cases just using my Forester Trimer. Won't make that mistake again.

The 30 Herrett is very close to a rimmed 7.62X39 in capacity. Check out that round to see what ballistics you will get. Most loading manuals do not load the Herrett as hot as the Russian round though.

Back in 1980-81 when I made my case from Win 30-03, I ran the cases through the FL die w/o the decap rod in place. Then took a pipe cutter to trim down to a tolerable length. I ran them throught the FL die again, but this time with the decap rod in place. I then trimmed to length on my Forster trimmer. Favorite load was with IMR 3031 and the Hornady 130 spire pt.