Announced in early January of 2022, Federal Premium released a completely new caliber, 30 Super Carry. This round was designed to be more effective than 380, and provide more capacity than a 9mm.
Coming in with a .312-inch diameter projectile, 30 Super Carry undercuts the .355-inch 9mm round.
380 Auto (top), 30 Super Carry (middle), and 9mm Luger (bottom)
Per Federal’s website, standard 9mm Luger pistols will carry “two more” additional rounds in “initially available handgun models.” So for every 10-round mag of 9mm, one would get 12 rounds of 30 Super Carry.
Boasting almost identical energy as a 9mm, the 30 Super Carry is a hard-hitting contender. While a 124gr 9mm Luger HST moving at 1,150fps has slightly more energy at 364 ft-lbs, a 100gr 30 Super Carry HST moving at 1,250fps comes in very close with a total of 347 ft-lbs of energy. This provides deeper penetration with a slightly smaller diameter wound channel.
The 347 ft-lbs still is significantly more than the 223 ft-lbs provided by a 99gr 380 Auto moving at 1,030 fps. Recoil is again almost identical to 9mm, but firing a few rounds side by side, the 30 Super Carry seemed to kick ever so slightly less.
Currently, both Smith & Wesson and Nighthawk Customs have designed pistols chambered in 30 Super Carry which should be available soon. These models include the Smith & Wesson M&P Shield Plus, Shield EZ, Nighthawk Custom President, and Nighthawk GRP.
Ammo availability and price are serious concerns for most consumers, so time will tell how production can keep up to satisfy both.
Federal, Speer, Remington, and Blazer are ramping up production and showed off some of their offerings at Shot Show 2022. Federal claims that the price of this ammunition will be comparable to 380 Auto loaded with the same bullet type.
Click HERE to learn more about 30 Super Carry.
Additional Photos from the Federal booth at Shot Show 2022:
Most everyone wants to be negative about this new round.
I’m using this as proof to write my republican legislature’s that we need to go back to a 10 round magazine
Apparently you guys don’t think capacity matters.
Really not a market for this round. Most 9mm handguns give you 15 + rounds. Can’t see many people move away from 380 as it has a cult like following. It really doesn’t offer anything new. I predict it last 3-4 years and then becomes obsolete. Also i bet ammo is gonna be hard to find and cost twice as much as 9mm.
Found it morbidly amusing, the idea of searching fellow patriots or former combatants for compatable ammo; vintage hollywood in mind, you toss your empty and just take their gun, not sit and unload found mags to reload yours with. Cooper’s sgt york had a luger, not ‘cos he ran out of ammo in no-mans-land, but the correct and preferred 45 wouldnt operate on blanks where the parabellum would. They also thought we couldnt tell an enfield from a springfield, thats another one on hollywood’s historic accuracy. Meanwhile, even compatable ammo may not work so nicely in your carry piece, so battlefield pickups are not a solid gold thing, tho one understands the desperation, AND why some people dont feel fully-armed even with two spare wondernine mags. Your concern for your defenses rises with your percieved need to use them. Oh, hey, the .30 luger/tokarev vs parabellum argument, keeps ignoring the shell has the same base as the nines, while this new number is comparable to the ancient and still beloved 32 browning. Naa trued a magnum of it, but made it as fat as a nine, which lost the “one-more-round” advantage of the 32 ins einen taschenpistolen
Hmm, they currently can’t produce enough ammo to satisfy the current demand but they invest big bucks in the development of a new caliber???!!! Who’s managing this company? It appears the bean counters are now in charge and they believe a new caliber which according to their own corporate communications is cheaper to produce. This thinking is what was the ruin of formerly great companies like Sears and General Motors. Please if profits are the most important aspect, produce more comment ammo and customers and profit will come. Whomever thought this new caliber would be a game changer should be let go.
Will somebody please tell the ammo makers to introduce a caliber that fills the gap between the 30 Super Carry and 9mm? We cannot allow a Caliber Gap !!!!! Wait a minute…I have a plan. I HAVE A…………..
Remember when they said the Probe would replace the Mustang? The 30 SC is the Probe and the 9MM is a Mustang.
It’s, “Mein Fuhrer, I have a plan…..”
so come out with a new round but yet can not produce enough of the other ammunition.
build more ammo plants and stop fucking around and raping the consumers!
lol – a 30 Carbine SHORT. Whee – NOT!
Just a theory but I’m thinking they had this in the process before the whole shortage thing and delayed roll out.
Now they are forced because they have so much in invested and deals made.
Just a rumor but a little bird told me at least one major ammo maker has started farming their work out to Russian companies to catch up.
And nine is fine. Bullet technology has mostly leveled the field as far as terminal ballistics are concerned. So the nine already gives us those extra rounds we used to wish we had back in the day.
My 2¢
Ok. Say you are in a battle for your life and you have one of these new super duper 30’s. And you run out of ammo. You will never find any of it amongst the dead or your fellow Patriots. The stores who carry the stuff will likely only have a couple boxes on the shelf and will limit your purchases and charge you more than it’s worth because you have a gun with “special” needs.
The thing to do is make the most popular ammo on planet earth easier to get not harder. Who thinks this stuff up anyway?
I agree. Before the big pandemic and other social incidences, the know-with-all’s said to buy 9mm handguns and AR-15 rifles, because if we’re in that battle for your lives, these will be the ammos of abundance. Ya right. It was the first two evaporate off the shelves.
Just saying..
How about working on the ammo shortage instead? What’s next? A 50 bmg that recoils like a 22, while being able to have a thousand rounds in the clip? Get the shelves full of ammo before you worry about prioritizing new rounds. I’ll stick with my 45 acp or my 357 magnum, thank you very much!
I agree 100% Great comment! I’m sick of paying two times as much for ammo. I think retailers are just taking advantage of the consumer. I’ve seen plenty of ammo on the shelves but the price is still twice as much.
One (accurate) shot is all you need. Correct . PER TARGET. Some people have greater odds of requiring mo’ammo than others of us. Most days, the bu/dao 45 will do. Once in a while i think it was a really stupid idea to trade off my para ord and extended mags for whatevertheheck i swapped it off for.
Need to make a mag-thru-the-grip double stack handgun in .30 carbine. 1980 fps with a 110 grain 30 cal slug is still impressive – if the bullet don’t get them the muzzle flash will roast ’em. Both my brother’s in ‘nam tossed their AR’s for M-2’s.
The battle between 30 and 9 was fought a long rime ago, between 30 Mauser and 9mm. 9mm won.
To those who say, “No Need”, this is simply not the answer THEY are looking for. Like, Bond’s ppk was in 32, not 380, because it held one more round; if you feel your accuracy ithob ( in the heat of battle) is up to it, then one more round is to your advantage. This is America, and you can get a doublestack 45 if that is what you are looking for.
Por example, the same size pocket revolver could hold 9-.22 magnum, 6-,38 spl, or 5-.357 magnum; youse pays ya money, and youse takes ya cherces. Some days/situations you may choose the 9-. 22mag over the 5-357. iViva America!
DUH, WHAT WAS IT CALLED.
Ah yes, the marketing department’s latest “this will make everything else obsolete” round! Dirty little secret–THE OLD STUFF STILL WORKS JUST FINE.
No thanks. There really is no need to fill the caliber gap between .380 and 9mm. Waste of engineering and marketing. The real need is to fix the ammo shortage problem and ammo components shortage problem. We gun owners can’t run what we have without having to worry about restocking what we shoot. Or if we want to compete, it’s even worse with the ammo shortage. I recently joined 2 shooting orgs to start competing and now I can barely keep up and have skipped a number of events due to lack of ammo or if it is available, the rediculously high pricing. Come on ammo mfg’s, it’s time to catch up with demand!
What “caliber gap”?!? They are the SAME caliber.
.355 across the board.
Amazing how things can be obvious to some but are not to others.
The idea is more capacity in the same size frame, with similar ballistics to the Nine, which pretty much makes the .380 ACP academic if not obsolescent.
I prefer the Nine for it’s so called ‘stopping power’ but like the .380 framed pistols for some carry situations.
I would definitely buy the .30 Super Carry and probably sell my .380’s
Why do companies keep creating new or different when they can’t even meet demand for established?
Hmm…Uh, no. I’ll stick with my 9 Makarov and the crate of Buffalo Bore ammo I have for it. And my 9mm. And should occasion arise where I need something heavier well, I got that covered as well. This appears to be the answer to a question no one asked. The 327 Federal is easier to come by and packs a decent wallop.
Two thoughts…
“Extra” rounds in a magazine is completely insignificant compared to a well-placed shot.
A bigger wound channel trumps more rounds in the magazine. Always has, and always will.
Call me “Old School.” I like the ability to refill my mags from my former opponents.
Great idea
Let’s produce a new caliber that no one can use and slow production of calibers that everyone uses !
First, “superior to the .380” is not much of a selling point, especially since the longer cartridge length means it won’t work in a small grip frame, like the Ruger LCP Max. It is, by the content of the article, inferior to the 9mm – “smaller wound channel”.
Second, when manufacturers can’t meet the demand for 9mm, diverting part of their production capability to a new, unproven and inferior caliber is plan and simple, foolish.
Sell that to all branches of military and Leo leave the 9mm to the people dang gov. Grabbing up all 9mm .and if you can SUPLY thousands of rounds to military an Leo there should be more than equal to the people ..just like some gum manufacturers if civilians can’t have No sale to that states Leo’s. Americans FIRST
Merica, you are discounting all the morons out there that think just because police and military use something, it has to be the greatest. For people who don’t have critical thinking skills, use by military and police is a deciding factor.
Another solution looking for a problem. Let’s see, I’ll need to buy a new handgun for this caliber, then get bent over for ammunition, and exactly what am I gaining? Yeah, zero point zip.
Fire the whole marketing department and whichever suit thinks this is a good move.
I am slap happy with the pistol calibers I currently use: 380, 9mm, 45acp, 38+p, 357mag & 22mag. I guess the 30 super carry falls between the 380 & 9mm. I really don’t see the advantage of this caliber over my above pistols. I guess if you build it, they will buy it but you can count me out out on this one.
Wow I’m so excited. Another gun you can’t get ammo for! Need powders, primers, brass. and bullets that you can buy now, not another paper weight!
Do you expect us to take you serious as a gun writer when you suggest this will make 9mm obsolete?
I have a 9mm, 38 Super, 10mm, and 45ACP.
I don’t need another pistol caliber.
Yawn…
Here we go again. For years Ive been hearing the 9mm will make the 45ACP obsolete. The primary goal of the marketeer is to make us unhappy with what we already have. Your not a cool kid unless you buy what they pedal.
So what do I do with all my 9mm firearms ???
can’t have this in CA… ever
If they have a brain in their skulls, hopefully you’d only have to change barrel, recoil spring and magazine to fire it in an existing 9mm.
Instead of offering all these new b.s. calibers Federal should be stepping up to produce PRIMERS. It’s been over two damn years now and none of these companies IMO have done nearly enough to meet demand.
I agree with K Moore start making more primers. retail price at an outrageous $69.00 to $79.00 per thousand.
That’s if you if you can even find any.. Same with Smokeless Powder. It’s all starting to sound like it done on deliberately just to get price way up. (and never come down)
Why another 9 mm like round?
I’ll stick with my Makarov.
Like the article says, about ammo availability, customers are concerned. No kidding, like for ammo to feed the deca millions of guns we can’t affordably shoot now. One more oddball round in the mix.
If you can’t stop the fools with a few rounds of Hornady 45acp from a 6 shot Glock 36, don’t carry hicap mags, it won’t help your shooting.
True, if you only have one assailant. I was living in Seattle during CHOP/CHAZ, and was happy to have hi cap reloads “just in case”. And no, I wasn’t looking for trouble, I worked downtown at the time. Happy to be able to escape to South Carolina…
Two more extra rounds speaks ‘spray and pray’.
SEEMS TO ME, THE ORIGINAL SUPER CARRY WAS THE 7.62X25MM TOKAREV…
85GR @ 1600 FPS…
327 FEDERAL NEVER CAUGHT ON, NOR 32NAA, WHY WILL THIS BE ANY DIFFERENT?
I am very excited about this round and can’t wait to try it out. Hopefully they can make enough ammo so that you can get ammo and a gun, instead of how it is now where you can get a gun but no ammo.
I just went from a 40cal Ruger SR40C to a 9mm Ruger Security-9 for my concealed carry pistol, and don’t see a significant advantage in investing in the 30 Super Carry. But that’s just me.