30 carbine

I've always wondered about that. The .32 H&R is a 21,000 PSI round while the .327 is a 45,000 PSI round. I'm no gunsmith, but I do reload quite a bit of ammo and am sorta familiar with the SAAMI specs involved. I'd bet that no gun manufacturer would condone reaming the H&R chambers to accept the .327 rounds. Heck, the .30 Carbine is "only" a 30,000 PSI round. Any thoughts on that? :unsure:
I've converted 32 H&R magnums to 327 FM over the years. Same frame and cylinder size as the Single Seven Ruger. No issues. I would not recommend Loads over the standard.
The .30 carbine Blackhawk is on the large frame Blackhawk with small holes in a hugh cylinder. I'd have no concern at all.
 
I’m curious why people think it’s THAT loud.
Ever shoot a.357mag with a 125gr JHP over 21gr of H110?
The .30Carb uses 15.0gr and a 110gr bullet.
My experience is that the .357 is louder, and has a greater concussion than the .30Carb.
Loud compared to a.22lr? Yes!
My Single-7 in .327Fed w/American Eagle 100gr Spt @ 1,500fps (10gr less bullet, 1.5gr less powder at same pressure) is just as loud!
I think folks just like to brag on the .30carb BlackHawk. I’m rather fond of mine!
I agree, loud, but it is a centerfire pistol, what do they expect. When I was a young deputy, we did a Hogans alley night shoot. I was shooting a 6" GP100 .357 at the time. I touched off the first round, and the fireball was 15' and the concussion was so loud I was out of the fight. It was 125gr Remmington. My .30 carbine Blackhawk has nothing on that. Because of that I started looking at the 10mm and Glock had just released the G20. I have been a 10mm fanboy ever since. I still love my .357 and .30 carbine, but each has their place.
 
The .30 carbine Blackhawk is on the large frame Blackhawk with small holes in a hugh cylinder. I'd have no concern at all.

Nor would I. I believe Bill just chambered the round in the Blackhawk because of all the surplus .30 Carbine ammo available at the time. I like my OM. 😁

An option, from Gary Reeder . . .

"This is our 300 GNR. This one is simply a shortened 30-30 and intended for revolver use. We took the old 30 Herrett and shortened it 1/10 of an inch and made the case a bit straighter and the shoulder a bit sharper. This one will put a 110 gr. JHP out of a 7 inch barrel at 2200. No set back problems with this one either. Can be rechambered from a 30 Carbine Ruger."
1771953581212.png


It's the one on the right. I don't have one. :)
 
Last edited:
"I wonder if there's a handload significantly less loud?"

I never give out my handload information. That's what manuals & personal testing is for. What works for me, may not work for someone else.
Not trying to be a smart-alek,, just safe.
I wouldn't give out specific handload info either but how about what specific powders might give less noise? I'm wondering if lower pressures might help give less muzzle blast?
 
I went down the rabbit hole earlier. Looking for other guns chambered in .30 carbine.

M1’s (and clones)
Blackhawk
Kimball pistol (very few made)
Taurus Raging 30 double action revolver
Marlin levermatic M62
Armalon AL30c bolt action (doesn’t show up in a google search).
Excel x30r
IMI Magal (Galil)

The Ruger Blackhawk and Marlin levermatic are the only ones that were successful. As far as I can tell.
You forgot the AMT Automag III.

Some random thoughts on the .30 Carbine Blackhawk.
  • Yes, it's loud. About like shooting a .357 Mag from a revolver, which is also loud but nobody makes a big thing of it. Wear hearing protection.
  • Mine is incredibly finicky on case length. Just barely too long and it binds up the cylinder. A hair shorter than just right and I get light primer strikes. I'm not sure if this is specific to Old Models, New Models, or both. I appear to have a transitional model with the lock work of a NM, but the chambers cut to fully encase the case head.
  • I'm not sure if Ruger uses a barrel cut for .308" bullets or .312" bullets. They are known to use a .308" bore for their Mini-30, and other manufacturers are known to use the "wrong" size barrel for their .30 or .32 barrels. For example, I have a factory T/C Contender barrel chambered in .32 H&R with a .308" barrel. I find it shoots either size bullet equally well. I expect the Ruger to do the same.
  • I find if staying within published load data, the .30 Carbine has a very slight velocity advantage over the .327 Fed. That could just be the difference between the 7.5" barrel on the .30 C vs. the 5.5" barrel on my .327 Fed Blackhawk.
  • I was going to sell the .30 C after getting the .327 Blackhawk, as I had other .32 caliber guns and didn't want to stock both .308" and .312" reloading bullets in essentially the same weight. But I kind of like the .30 C and ended up getting a carbine to go with the Blackhawk. So I still have both.
PiNLIZV.jpeg
 
Yuk they used enough plastic box.
I could gut everything that doesn't hold a revolver, hell half of everything that doesn't hold a revolver, and still carry a 1000 rounds of 30 carbine ammo in it.
It's getting the heave.
I've carried suit cases that were smaller.
Homeless people could live in this pistol box.
Good lord.

Eta: I did locate my stash of 30 carbine. Procured from GI brass a great place back in the day to get surplus powder, ammo, brass and reloading supplies
 
Is there a source for an Army size grip frame?

Yeah , with that long snout they do feel like they need a bigger grip.
Mine got a SBH that was just laying around here. I couldn't stand it on anything that recoiled.
Being steel it helps with the balance and with the low recoil there is no knuckle bashing problem.

100_0997.jpg
 
Last edited:
I'd love to stumble onto a spare cylinder as well.

That's sweet, a roomier grip and is that a Bisley hammer?

There will be some smoothing and spring changing with my new revolver
 
I just bought a brand new one.
Lawd hep mehh.
Is there a source for an Army size grip frame?
Yours is the Army size.
Did you mean the SBH grip frame? And if you want the same size but with a round trigger guard instead of the square back, there's the SBH Hunter grip frame if you don't mind stainless steel.

Source what you want on this forum's Classifieds, Gunbroker, and Ebay. Get a take off, not a new one (way more fitting needed).
1775529635933.png
 
Or a newly made Fulton Armory M1 carbine. Pricy but excellent quality.

I used to own a surplus Winchester M1 carbine, but I sold it (I know, not too smart). A while back, I decided I wanted to do something with all of the 110 gr RNSP bullets I had left over for loading M1 carbine ammo. A decent carbine costs more than I want to spend now, so I'm loading those 110s in .300 Blackout cases I make from 5.56 range brass (a lot cheaper & easier to find than .30 Carbine brass). I haven't actually clocked them, but the manual suggests their going maybe 200 fps faster out of the .300 BLK AR15 than they did in the Winchester (which isn't bad), and the whole setup fit my budget...
:)
 
I used to own a surplus Winchester M1 carbine, but I sold it (I know, not too smart). A while back, I decided I wanted to do something with all of the 110 gr RNSP bullets I had left over for loading M1 carbine ammo. A decent carbine costs more than I want to spend now, so I'm loading those 110s in .300 Blackout cases I make from 5.56 range brass (a lot cheaper & easier to find than .30 Carbine brass). I haven't actually clocked them, but the manual suggests their going maybe 200 fps faster out of the .300 BLK AR15 than they did in the Winchester (which isn't bad), and the whole setup fit my budget...
:)
As long as you're satisfied that's what counts. Can you post a pic of a loaded round?
 
The .30 Carbine Blackhawk is about the only Ruger that is still on my bucket list, (well, maybe a #1 in 45-70 or 45-90).
I like to take a companion pistol when I'm hunting, and I'm thinking this year to take my vintage IBM M1 Carbine. I know that it is a little underpowered for deer, but I'd never take a shot at more than about 75 yards with it.
 
I've always wondered about that. The .32 H&R is a 21,000 PSI round while the .327 is a 45,000 PSI round. I'm no gunsmith, but I do reload quite a bit of ammo and am sorta familiar with the SAAMI specs involved. I'd bet that no gun manufacturer would condone reaming the H&R chambers to accept the .327 rounds. Heck, the .30 Carbine is "only" a 30,000 PSI round. Any thoughts on that? :unsure:
The .30 is 40,000psi, not 30,000. The only reason Ruger put the .30 in a large frame Blackhawk is cylinder length. The only problem with rechambering a .32H&R Single Six to .327 is that the cylinder is not long enough. The .32's pressure was kept low for the H&R revolvers that originally chambered it. No problem with any Single Six, be it an Old Model, New Model .32 or factory Single Seven. The Bearcat has even been converted to .327Federal.
 
I've converted 32 H&R magnums to 327 FM over the years. Same frame and cylinder size as the Single Seven Ruger. No issues. I would not recommend Loads over the standard.
The .30 carbine Blackhawk is on the large frame Blackhawk with small holes in a hugh cylinder. I'd have no concern at all.

Acknowledged that the .30 Carbine is a 40,000 PSI round and so edited. :oops:
 
Last edited:
The only problem with rechambering a .32H&R Single Six to .327 is that the cylinder is not long enough. The .32's pressure was kept low for the H&R revolvers that originally chambered it. No problem with any Single Six, be it an Old Model, New Model .32 or factory Single Seven. The Bearcat has even been converted to .327Federal.
You're right, thx! I mis-spoke that the .32 cyl is a bit shorter than the .327, so bullet length can be a minor issue, but bullet lengths vary by brand and bullet weight/shape. If you stick to the shorter exposed bullet lengths, some fit and some only protrude from the chamber about .003". So with a barrel to cylinder gap of .005 or more, they will clear the barrel throat and work just fine in reamed .32 H&R cylinders. Of course if one reloads it's easy to run factory ammo thru the bullet seater and seat them a couple of thousandths deeper. I've done that with a new load or brand I wanted to try.

I don't recommend hotter than standard .327 loads in reamed .32 H&R chambers. There's a reason the Single Seven .327 has 7 chambers; an odd number of chambers results in the cylinder stop notches (the weak point of any cylinder), normally over the chambers, moved to between the chambers.
 
Last edited:
Cool.
And they load and cycle fine in an AR mag?
I suppose they must, or you wouldn't do it :rolleyes:

So far, so good. Before I started working up a load for the 110 gr RNSP, I did some internet searches. Some guys posted that they had issues with jams and bullet setback, which surprised me because I had been cycling dummy rounds through my AR with none of those issues. Then I noticed that the posts reporting problems were 15 or 20 years old - I think the early .300 barrels might have had standard M4 feed ramps. My barrel (probably most current barrels) has 30 cal feed ramps, which no doubt help prevent feed issues.

Regarding dummy rounds, I tried a bunch with OALs from 1.850" (Hodgdon internet data) down to 1.800", looking for both minimum bullet setback (when pushing the nose of a loaded round against the table top) and minimum bullet jump when chambering a round (if the case neck doesn't have a good grip on the bullet, the OAL can actually increase a few thousandths on chambering). With my components and no crimp, 1.820" worked best, obviously YMMV.

I've been using a couple of 10 rd AR mags for firing test loads (started low & worked up in 0.2 gr increments using Hodgdon data for Ramshot Enforcer), and had zero feeding problems. Now that I've got a hundred plus of my preferred load, I guess I need to fill up some 20 & 30 rd mags and make sure the short OAL doesnt cause issues down in the bottom of the mags (don't remember the last time I did a 30 rd mag dump, not my focus I guess ;^).

And sorry about contributing to thread drift - I guess anybody reading this thread already knows .30 carbine reloading components (& surplus mags also) aren't as cheap & easy to find as they used to be, and the M1 carbines seem to be mostly collector's items now. (For some reason, kind of makes me wonder if a .30 Blackhawk cylinder has enough length to handle those short little .300 rounds I'm loading - but who needs more muzzle blast... ;^)
:-)
 
Last edited:
don't remember the last time I did a 30 rd mag dump, not my focus I guess
What sort of gun nut enthusiast are you?!?!? ;) :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

While completely useless in the real world, mag dumps, rapid fire, etc. are just plain fun! Hell.. just for <poop and chuckles> I decided to see how quickly I could shoot and reload an No. 1 (effective fire, not just blasting). Got the barrel so hot I still have a scar on my arm from where I accidently touched it. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Before anyone says anything about how expensive they are.. It's still cheaper than a night at the bar.
 
Back
Top