Just got notified by Sportsman's Guide that they have Fiocchi .30 Luger ammo in stock. Well, the FMJ anyway, not the soft points.
www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=606389

Also, I'm working up a batch of handloads with Hornady .30 Mauser bullets, 86 grain .308Φ. I noticed when I seated them to crimp the mouth of the case at the cannelure, it exceeds maximum cartridge OAL. I'm loading them with 5 grains of Unique. Anyone else have experience with this load? What cartridge length are you loading them to ensure smooth feeding? I might wait until UPS delivers my factory ammo and load them to that length.

Don't exceed the max. oal. I seat mine within the oal listed, but it puts the cannelure below the case mouth. It still crimps allright, however. Try it and see if it works for you. KW

I don't know if you fellas are interested or not, but there is an ad in the "for sale' section for new Winchester 30 Luger brass for sale. I am pretty well fixed for brass, but perhaps you guys might be interested.

30 Luger brass
 

rhuff- thanks for the info on the brass for sale. I sent the guy a PM, but haven't heard back yet. Bill

This is some good information about reloading .30 Luger. Do you use the crimp with the seating die, or do you crimp separately with a crimp die (like the Lee?) I have mixed brass, some Winchester, some Starline, some Fiocchi. They're not all the exact same length, so I have to set the crimp on the seating die to the longest case lest I crush the shorter ones. Yeah, I know, I SHOULD trim them all to the same length! I'm trying the Hornady .30 Mauser 86 grain round nose (soft point) with 5 grains of Unique.

Copied and pasted from an email I sent to a gun show vendor:

I came across a small quantity of Speer 30 cal, .308 Φ, 110 grain, hollow point Varminter bullets. Can you recommend a load for me with Unique? According to your notes, 4.5 grains of Unique was too light for the 110 grain round nose bullet. What would be a safe load for this Speer bullet (#1835?) I just want to send some rounds down range at 25 yards with my 1920’s alphabet series commercial Luger.

I have the same information from Bob Shell's blog. I have always wondered about trying the .308in M1 carbine 110gr bullet in the 30 Luger brass. I have a lot of the carbine bullets(own a couple of carbines), but have never tried to work up any loads. I suppose if one were to take Bob's info and try to sneak up on a load with Unique, a successful combo could be reached.

I am a bit concerned about this info, since Bob considers the 4.5gr of Unique a soft load with the 110gr bullet, when Lymans show 5.1 gr of Unique a Max load with a 96gr FMJ bullet. One would need to walk a fine line here, I think.


I seat and crimp in separate steps on my press. The Lee Factory Crimp Die is a collet crimp die (used on all bottleneck brass), and not a roll or taper crimp die. It does not really matter about length variation of the brass with this crimp die.