For those of us who have been reloading for years, we all have seen loading data change from loading manual to loading manual. I have been told that this is because as years go by, better and more sophisticated instrumentation has become available to the powder and bullet manufacturers.*
But.....I can remember getting into one of these .30 carbine discussions years ago. Probably on this board but I don't remember that part of it. Anyway, I made the statement that the .30 Carbine was inferior to the .357 handgun. One of the moderators jumped all over me. I said, OK, well......here is a link to the Alliant Powder website which lists a load for the .357 using a 110 grain bullet and Blue Dot powder that fires that 110 grain bullet at a higher velocity than USGI .30 Carbine ball ammo when fired out of the carbine. And before you tell me that that data was obtained using a test fixture, I loaded and fired this load out of my 6 1/2" Ruger Blackhawk and here is my detailed data that I obtained personally out of my own gun and my own chronograph.
And, as is typical in these discussions, he just pretended he hadn't read that and kept right on posting.
Facts didn't fit in with his agenda.
*The reason for that first paragraph is that this load is no longer found on the Alliant website. I am not sure why, but it may have been over pressure for the .357 Cartridge. That being said, I loaded and shot quite a few of them. It made a great jackrabbit load.
EDIT: just for the heck of it, I looked up Alliant's website today to see what they say for a 110 grain bullet. The fastest load they list for .357 is using Blue Dot at 1680 fps out of a six inch barrel. The .30 Carbine USGI ball ammo is commonly listed as having a muzzle velocity of something just over 1900 fps and I have never seen any reference as to what they used to obtain this number (carbine, test fixture.......). So using today's loading data, a 6" barrel in .357 can fire a 110 grain bullet to within under 200 fps of USGI .30 Carbine ball ammo. However, this can then spin off into a discussion about who recommends a 110 grain bullet in .357 as a defensive load.........................
As an interesting side note, the Alliant website only lists one load for a .30 Carbine 110 grain bullet and using their load of 2400 powder, it produces 1675 fps out of a 18" barrel. I realize this kind of discussion is filled with variables but this load out of a 18" barrel, is 5 fps less than their .357 load out of a 6" barrel.
The .30 Carbine in THE sacred cow of the shooting world.