M1 Carbine

[Menner]

Hello again
a friend of mine has a M1 carbine it was light hitting and would not fire primers had a light indent in them. I told him I would look at it so I took it down and gave it a good cleaning took the bolt apart and found that the extractor plunger spring was weak and also appeared to be short.put it back together and still light hitting primers I also looked at the hammer and could see no signs of excessive wear. I ordered a bolt rebuild kit got it in this week today I reassembled the rifle ( and the new extractor spring is not weak at all ) took it out back and it ran good for about 5 rounds then miss fire ejected round and it ran for 2 then miss fire I asked him about the ammo and he said that his father bought it a long time ago I told him to run some new ammo through it and see if it helped and that I would ask here to see if anybody had an idea about intermittent light hits in an M1 carbine
any help would be appreciated
Thanks
Tony

[S. Galbraith]

Did you replace the hammer spring?

[Menner]

not yet
is that a common problem with the carbine?

[John Allen]

Replace the hammer spring I have seen this before myself. It is an easy fix.

[S. Galbraith]

Hard to say based on the age and manufacturer. The M1 carbine was manufactured by more companies that any other military issued firearm in US history......so occasionally some specs might be a little off. A weak hammer spring is the typical culprit for light primer strikes.

[Menner]

its a plainfield made about 1974

[S. Galbraith]

Plainfields were one of those early USGI copycats. Not as good as USGI, but pretty much all USGI part will fit in them.

[Menner]

Thanks I will get spring and we will give that a try

[nhrifle]

Might want to check it with some headspace gauges.

[Larry Gibson]

Make sure the bolt is fully closing on the ammo.

Replace the hammer spring and the oprod spring.

Larry Gibson

[jimb16]

Sounds to me like the extractor is all gummed up. That will prevent the extractor from slipping over the rim until the hammer hits the back of the bolt. No bang and only a very small mark on the primer. He probably needs to use some spray solvent on the extractor and extractor spring.