I had my M14 carbine in 30 Rem at the recent Tonto Basin get-together. I brought it to the firing line for show-and-tell. Some of the fellows hadn't seen one before. I didn't have an African big-bore to share like some of the fellows did, so I brought my little carbine that someone before me had modified to replicate the rare Rem14 carbine version that was made for a specific contract-buy from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about a hundred years ago.
My rifle has a cut-down barrel to 18", a slim pistol-grip stock, with a sturdy, non-adjustable peep sight on the rear of the receiver. After I worked up a good handload for the rifle I replaced the front sight in order to bring the point of aim and the point of impact together at 100 yards.
There was a paper-plate-sized steel gong hanging 124 yards out from the portable shooting benches. (Thanks, Jeff).
My five seconds of fame came when I hit the gong with the first shot. I decided I would quit while I was ahead and save my limited ammo.
One of the fellows stated, "Well, I guess you can call that rifle sighted in!"
Years ago I took a couple of nephews to the range. We were shooting Marlin 30-30's and I had the 30 Rem carbine along, also. While a nephew was shooting one of my 30-30's I saw a fired case partly extract as he cycled the action. He shook the rifle for a second and the case fell out.
He fired again and the same thing happened. I said "Hold it, let me take a look", suspecting a broken extractor. The gun looked okay, so I picked up the fired case and realized it was a 30 Rem case.
My nephew had grabbed a box of 30 Rem by mistake and loaded the 30-30 magazine with 30 Rem. They fired fine with no harm to the case or gun, and hit the target as expected. The extractor just couldn't hang on to the rimless case to extract well. The cases forward of the rim are almost identical.
Moral of the story: Pay attention to the ammo you are using. In a survival situation 30 Rem will work in a 30-30, but not the other way around.
I have a M141 in 35 Rem, also. They are nice, handy rifles.
