Finally got myself an M1 Carbine

[mckenziedrums]

(Back story... Yes I'm bored! ;) )

I grew up in a family where guns were pretty much a dirty word. When my uncle gave me a BB gun for my 16th birthday I came home the next day to find out my mother had tossed it. When my wife and I were dating her father (retired Army) invited me to shoot Sporting Clays and set the hook deep for the love of firearms. My next outing was him teaching me some basic rifle shooting on his "correct grade" CMP purchased carbine. Since then I've been on the look out but with prices on most of the nice USGI ones I've passed up quite a few.

The other night I saw one on a facebook group that looked pretty good and came with a bayonet, sling, and ammo pouch. Made him an offer $200 less than his asking price and he said yes. One minor detail... He lives 250 miles away and won't hold it for me if someone else shows up with the cash. ****. So after a discussion with my wife, we packed up our 3 week old son and we all got in the car at 4am to drive the 4 hours to go pick it up. Our thinking here was that he likes to sleep in the car and she might actually get some sleep. As it turns out that's the best sleep she's had since we had the little bugger! :) When we got there I couldn't have been more happy about the condition of the gun. It is nearly flawless and appears all correct.

Long story slightly less than longer... It's a 45 GM Inland with correct stock and barrel. I need to pull it apart and check the insides but I'm pretty confident i'll find that it all matches up. Stock is GORGEOUS and I'm sorry my photos don't do it justice. Unfortunately the bayonet is one of the reproductions made in the early 90's by the same knife manufacturer that made the original ones. Almost had me fooled to be honest. Now I need to get my hands on some brass, a mold, and get to loading! I've got some proper pull down powder around here somewhere....

86069
86067
86068
86066

[groovy mike]

CONGRATS! And BTW - that wife is a keeper!

[mckenziedrums]

So she tells me... often! :mrgreen:

I thought about using this as trade fodder to a collector because it's almost in too nice of shape to shoot but once she saw it she told me I'd better hold on to this one. Normally she doesn't get too excited about guns (exception being my PSL) but I think she's right. This one is going to stick around and hopefully I get to tell our son about the trip to pick up the rifle that I'm handing down to him!

[Garyshome]

Shoot it! No point in having a gun that doesn't shoot!

[mckenziedrums]

I did say "almost"... It's going to get shot, I'll just be a little more careful than I am with some of my other already dinged up milsurps.

[Larry Gibson]

You'll find that M1 Carbine should do quite well with cast GC'd bullets of which several good moulds are available for it. Lots of us love the little M1 Carbine and shoot lots of cast through them......they are a joy to shoot.

Larry Gibson

[rattletrap1970]

Yup, mine loves cast boolits. Cheap to make and shoot forever on the cheap.

[mckenziedrums]

Any mold recommendations?? :)

[rattletrap1970]

I use either of these: 311465 (weighing in at 128 gr) and 311359 (Weighing in at 119.6 gr) (thats with loob and GC)

[mckenziedrums]

Cool, thanks! I checked NOE just on a whim and they don't appear to have any of the carbine ones in stock. Bummer. Probably a good thing since I've already got two JT molds coming and another NOE this week. Probably best to not spend a ton of money on another one for a little while.

I take that back... I guess this is a reproduction of the 311465: http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=433

Might have to check that out after all.

[rondog]

Congrats! You're going to love it, they're neat little rifles!

My advice is - don't sweat the "correctness" aspect, or the repro bayonet, it's really not that big of a deal. Love it for what it is, and shoot the snot out of it. Those carbines have been rebuilt so many times in their service life that finding a "correct" one is nearly impossible, unless you find an old GI selling one that he smuggled home from the war in his duffle bag. If you find one of those, stop and buy some lottery tickets on the way home!

[mckenziedrums]

I'm not 100% sure of the history on this other than the gentleman that owned it passed away a couple years ago. His wife tried to give it to their son and he apparently wasn't interested in it. (WHAT?!) In any case that meant I got a great deal on a beautiful rifle. I have my C&R and love my old war horses. This one is just a lot prettier than the rest so I'm dying to know if the internals are all correct. Really don't expect them all to match but if they are all from the same general time frame I'll be happy.

[historicfirearms]

My Inland is one of my all time favorite guns. These things are really fun to shoot, and easy to reload and cast. About the only gripe I've got is that the little 30 carbine brass is really hard to find in the grass.

[Combat Diver]

Congrats on a great piece of American history.


CD

[jimb16]

Mine like the Lyman plain base 130 gr bullet.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

IIRC there were 9 manufacturers/makers of the US Carbine. The original design had a different kind of sight that was replaced by the one that is on your carbine. It is adjustable for elevation and windage. The mfg markings are tough to see as they are under the rear sight, but the rest of things are all the same. There were variations such as the paratrooper stock, the switch for full auto fire and other accessories (if you can afford them). The carbine is a fun gun to shoot and there is a tendency to go through a lot of ammo without realizing it, but keep it clean and well oiled. Good shooting. LLS

[Multigunner]

Heres an excellent site with information on all sorts of M-1 carbines, variants, commercial clones, and even a CO2 powered training carbine.
http://bavarianm1carbines.com/rifles.html

[rondog]

Any cartouches/stamps/markings on the stock and/or handguard?

[mckenziedrums]

Has the right mark in the sling well and a very faint cartouche. Hope to get it apart today and will check hand guard

[HighHook]

That's one of the best all time best plinkers and surprisingly more accurate with cast boolits. Enjoy...

[Newtire]

311359 and 12.5 gr 296/H-110=cat's meow in my M-1. Read Beagle's article on M-1 carbine. http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/ByFireArm/Cast%20in%20the%20M1%20Carbine.pdf Sizing is important. Mine likes .309" boolits (smaller than my usual .310-.311 for other .30 cals. I have. Clean gas jet and piston every 500 rds or so. Lee 120 gr. round nose shoots well in my carbine also. I never had any luck with the 130 grain Lyman plainbase but others have had good luck. Not much bearing surface on that one I think. Have fun.

[zomby woof]

Sounds like you have a nice rifle. They love cast boolits, very economical to shoot. The only pain is trimming brass.

I don't remember the CMP offering correct grade M1 Carbines. They were offered in service and rack grades.

[Newtire]

[QUOTE=The only pain is trimming brass.
[/QUOTE]

The carbine round has a tapered case and most brass turns out short of "specs". I would check them for too much case length but they all seem to shoot great as long as not too long-not my usual approach to things but goes for the carbine. Have shot more than a few thousand. Sorry, not bragging here-just my experience. Read
Beagle's article on Castpics I tell ya!

[Multigunner]

A gun shop owner asked me to testfire a M1 Carbine to figure out why it jammed tight about every sixth round. When it jammed the only way to clear it was to remove the magazine and kick the charging handle with your heel.

I finally figured out the problem when I miked the ejected cases. About one in six cases were .006 longer than the rest.
I also found that the right hand lug recess had a lumpy looking spot right in the center. That lump fit into a matching dimple in the bolt lug surface.
I worked down that lump a bit with a whet rock. After that the carbine worked fine, no more jams.

When they rebarrel a carbine they normally use a short chambered barrel, a finishing reamer then used till the headspace is within specs. If the chamber isn't cut deep enough the case stretches a bit on firing and if already over long it jams the bolt tight.

[Okie73]

Congrats on the purchase! I love these little rifles. Another mold to consider is the Lee C309-113-F aka Lee soup can.
My commercially made carbine loves this boolit.

[roverboy]

Congratulations. You practically stole that thing for $200.

[mckenziedrums]

Oh I wish I paid $200... that would be stealing it. I got him down under $800 and was plenty happy with this one.

[whelenshooter]

I have an underwood that likes the Lee C309-113-F and C309-120-R with a proper amount of Accurate #9 underneath.

David

[303Guy]

Sounds like you have a real gem there - your wife I mean.

[gew98]

Back in the 80's I had bought a couple of those $139 ex korean US M1 carbines. I had one with a really worn looking bore. I was buying fred rolston plated cast 110's at the time - .3095 sized if I recall . That carbine loved them !. I took shotshells and stick them in the picket fence where at about 50 feet could set them alight with a round through the primer again and again. Was alot of fun , but with ball ammo that carbine may as well have been a shotgun. The pwder I used then was Herculese 2400.

[Multigunner]

Some of the Korean import carbines had bore damage from a too heavily stamped marking on the barrel.
The stamping deformed the surface of the bore.

I'd like to see a properly done updated clone of the Carbine come on the market, not that there aren't some good ones out there.
If someone went through the design and studied all known issues and the know issues with some clones and weeded these out, then built a receiver of the highest quality alloy they could chamber it for a multitude of cartridges suited to the action size.
The .357 auto-mag and 9mm Winchester Magnum come to mind.

I ran across an article on accurizing the carbine many years ago. Most of the methods were not that intrusive, though the full house job altered the carbine more than I would wish to.

The easiest thing on the list was glass bedding the hook and drilling and tapping it for two small set screws, so that once the receiver is hooked in place tightening the set screws locked it down tight.
You would not want to do that to a mil spec stock but a synthetic stock and spare after market hook could be modified with no loss.

[mckenziedrums]

At this point I'm just hoping to get time to shoot the thing! Hoping for Wednesday