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SO...what became of the 30 Super Carry?

I have a Shield Plus 30SC, it shoots well. If you look around online you can find ammo for a similar to 9mm prices. So far, outside of S&W, Nighthawk and Hi Point, nobody offers one. That's a big issue, it's not popular because nobody offers guns it and it will never get popular until they do. Not really sure if it has any real world advantages to it, seems like capacity is the biggest plus. A G19 sized 30 SC could probably hold nearly 20rds. Ballistics seems adequate and I'd venture a guess to say that it's pretty good a hard barrier penetration.

I'll probably hang on to mine, got it for a bit over $300 and I wouldn't get much out of it if I traded it in and nobody's gonna buy the ammo....so I do carry mine just because.
 
SDGlock23 said:
Not really sure if it has any real world advantages to it, seems like capacity is the biggest plus. A G19 sized 30 SC could probably hold nearly 20rds
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I have done testing with G19 magazines and they will hold 19 30SC rounds without any changes to the follower. I am quite sure 20 rounds will fit with a follower designed for 30SC.

An additional 1 or 2 rounds in a single stack is not worth it to me. I was able to get 1 more round of 30SC into a Glock G43 magazine and 2 more rounds of 30SC in a 1911 9mm magazine.
 
amd6547 said:
Because I think a Ruger LC carbine and 5.7 pistol combination would make a good pair.

Ruger® LC Carbine™ Autoloading Rifle Models

ruger.com ruger.com
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I am unimpressed by the ballistics of 5.7 in handguns and if I wanted a lower recoiling, high capacity pistols I'd go for the .30 (would be nice if companies would make an accessory barrel and spring to run .32 French Longue) and if I wanted a lightweight semi auto carbine I would opt for .22 Mag instead.
 
Prefer:
- A pistol that is big enough to fight with.
- A round that requires the fewest hits, and therefore misses.
- Subsonic.

The Sig P938, with standard pressure 147 gr. hollow points, does that.
 
thunderbyrd said:
SO...what became of the 30 Super Carry?
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That caliber just didn't excite me ... Meh.

amd6547 said:
Because I think a Ruger LC carbine and 5.7 pistol combination would make a good pair.
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Now if you are talking about 9mm "Magnum", the 9mm Major, that got me excited ... made fashionable by John Wick. Paired with 9mm Major carbine? :oops: Now you are talking 😁 - https://americanhandgunner.com/discover/whats-9-major/



My PCCs add about 200 fps for my 9mm pistol rounds ... So 9mm Major 124 gr bullets doing around 1400 fps out of pistols would be doing around 1600 fps out of 16" carbine barrel ... Beyond .357 Magnum "Serious business" 👍

 
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You have to design a new gun for cartridge it doesn't answer any questions asked. Now if they just put it in a gun already in production that would be a different story. Revolver cartridges have the ability to shoot the newest latest in greatest in addition to all of their sub cartridge, that's not so with a semiauto.
 
I'm convinced that 30 Super Carry was conceived solely to maximize magazine capacity in small guns in states with restrictive magazine-capacity laws.

Playing to a super-niche market which wasn't paying attention anyway.

It may lurk as a short-term option for those places.

But it is the answer to a question that hardly anybody is asking for now.
The magazine of the Shield EZ holds 10 rounds.

Anyone with a Shield EZ is probably only buying two boxes of ammunition in their lifetime.
So as far as marketing goes, that seems like a problem.

The 30 Super Carry is mainly a "proof of (failure of) concept" work.
 
DT Guy said:
It'll be popular when manufacturers start building guns to the slimness the cartridge will allow; up until now we've only gotten the equivalent of 9MM pistols based on .40 designs.

A pistol that is 1/8" thinner than a 9MM could be would be pretty interesting, IMHO.

Larry
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I've always wanted a slimmer 1911 in 5.7.
 
thunderbyrd said:
i've not been paying much attention to the wonderful world of guns the past few months, way too involved in health issues in my family and myself. and when i was paying attention several months ago, a hot topic was the (relatively) new 30 Super Carry. but i see no new discussions on the forum. so, has it's day already passed? is it forgotten? was it judged and found ridiculous and unnecessary? or is there a secret cult developing around it?

the only reason i even remembered it is because i saw i big pile of 30 SC at the rural king the other day. but they didn't have one in the case to sell.
Click to expand...

It was DOA for me. I didn't even read the release media.
 
drobs said:
I'm still waiting for the 41AE to make a come back.
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A buddy sold his Jericho .41 AE pistol on GB a while back and gave me a bunch of once-fired reloads for it. I am slowly pulling the JSP bullets for my .41 Mag/Spl, when (if? 😬) I ever get done I will post the primed .41 AE cases on the for sale board.

It was a cool idea, but like the .45 GAP the .41 AE just never caught on.

Stay safe.
 
I think managed expectations are the issue here. .30 SC was never going to replace 9mm or even .380 ACP. Some of you guys are complaining and crapping on each other's opinions in a very non-HR (or what used to be HR) way. Having more options is always good. I don't think it's going to take off even as much as 5.7 x 28mm did, but maybe it'll sit in that comfortable .327 Federal range as an low-production alternative that never quite fades away.
 
Madcap_Magician said:
I think managed expectations are the issue here. .30 SC was never going to replace 9mm or even .380 ACP. Some of you guys are complaining and crapping on each other's opinions in a very non-HR (or what used to be HR) way. Having more options is always good. I don't think it's going to take off even as much as 5.7 x 28mm did, but maybe it'll sit in that comfortable .327 Federal range as an low-production alternative that never quite fades away.
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.30 Super will be a heck of a lot easier to reload than 5.7 ever will be.

It's still young in its life cycle and if someone is ever able to make a pistol that holds 25 or 30 rds of .30 Super in a standard length magazine and a low weight, high velocity soft armor penetrator load, then people may start gravitating to .30 Super.

As long as only S&W makes one in the lame M&P platform and there's not a variety of loaded ammo choices, it's going to struggle.
 
Actually S&W makes two pistols chambered in 30SC, the Shield Plus and Shield EZ. Then there is the super expensive Nighthawk Customs 1911 and the Hi-Point 30SC carbine.

As I have stated before, what is hurting the 30 SC is the lack of different brands/models chambered for it.
 
Meh... ANOTHER Solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

If you buy one, make sure you get an extra set of dies and PLENTY of cases. This one is going nowhere fast.
 
trigger puller said:
As much as I like a .45, the GAP may have been the worst bullet ever.... Especially since you cannot use it in any other firearm.
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Not to thread-hijack, but .45 GAP is probably one of the best cartridge developments in .45 calibre since the 1911. You obviously have never owned one, much less shot one. It was unfortunately proprietary to Glock, but that is how the gun business operates sometimes. The G37 puts .45 ACP ballistics in a much better handling pistol than the G21, and a much lighter pistol than the 1911. The accuracy of the G37 is outstanding, reliability 100% and as fighting tool it is an excellent choice.

The .45 GAP, while still around, was unfortunately subject to the same issues as the .30 SC: ammunition price/availability, existing prejudices amongst shooters, and limited firearms adoption. The .30 SC had the added problems of poorly planned timing and marketing.

I think the .30 Super Carry is a very useful cartridge, and I've had two of these guns since they first came out. It has less recoil and slightly more capacity than 9mm, and reasonable power for a defensive cartridge. Reloading for it is easy. I'm also a .32 nut, so it also appeals to me on a subjective level. But having said all that, I think the cartridge is going to be dead sooner than later. It failed to gain traction initially for a number of reasons, and that window is long closed.

1. Ammuniton Crisis. It was introduced in the middle of the worst ammunition crisis in our lifetimes, when shooters, hunters and gunsumers could not obtain existing calibres. This did nothing to endear itself to the market, and highlighted the of arrogance of the Vista Outdoors domestic ammunition monopoly.

2. Limited Firearm Selection. It lacked wide-spread industry acceptance, as only one manufacturer chambered guns for it (Niche Nighthawk does not count). If you did not care for MIM-laded S&W plasticated autos, you weren't looking twice at .30 Super Carry.

3. Pricing. For a new cartridge trying to gain traction, the ammunition was grossly overpriced. Even as 9mm ammunition became available and the prices dropped (largely due to imports btw), .30 Super Carry range ammo was considerably more expensive than 9mm. When you are looking at two calibres at the sales counter - in otherwise identical guns - and the ammunition for one is 50% more than the price of the other, nearly every "gunsumer" (who is the majority buyer) is picking the cheaper ammo.

4. Cranky Old Farts. Curmudgeons - of all ages - that don't care for anything that upsets their personal world-view, pooped all over .30 Super Carry as "not doing anything my (Insert favorite cartridge/gun) already does". Well guess what, that is true of the majority of cartridges of all types, as there is massive overlap in practical capability. If you were a dictator and solely interested in Soviet-style utility, you could eliminate 90-95% of all cartridges on the market. While that isn't the point of either the shooting industry or the shooting community, the Cranky Old Fart argument did influence a number of people to not even consider the .30 Super Carry. Just like .45 GAP.

5. Marketing Debacle. Finally... the marketing was terrible. Incredibly bad timing, and even the YouTube shills they had pushing it looked pained to be involved with it. It was oversold with hype, which didn't jive with the actual performance or package.

If Vista had 1) waited a year or two until the ammo crisis eased and the gun-buying market cooled down somewhat, 2) lined up more manufacturing partners, and 3) put the ammo out at attractive prices, it would have gotten more traction.
 
TTv2 said:
.30 Super will be a heck of a lot easier to reload than 5.7 ever will be.

It's still young in its life cycle and if someone is ever able to make a pistol that holds 25 or 30 rds of .30 Super in a standard length magazine and a low weight, high velocity soft armor penetrator load, then people may start gravitating to .30 Super.

As long as only S&W makes one in the lame M&P platform and there's not a variety of loaded ammo choices, it's going to struggle.
Click to expand...
That's true. I think it's too early to say it's going nowhere or that it's the New Hotness. It does fill a niche, though, and I find it hard to believe that it'd go entirely away.
 
I went with a KelTec P50 and a Ruger 5.7 in 5.7X28mm for fun plinking. I usually carry a five-inch 1911 in either 45 ACP or 10mm.
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