Bored - so here's 3 more favorites

[Mike Venturino]

I'm bored tonight so I'm posting a photo of three more of my favorite military rifles. Top is Winchester M1 circa 1943 and its been examined right down to taking the pins out and its all Winchester. Middle one is a "faux" M1A1. Instead of paying 3K for a "real" M1A1 I bought a Saginaw barreled action in a new reproduction stock. Bottom is another Saginaw barreled action converted to M2 with the M1 overstamped. All three are good cast bullet shooters - at least as good as with jacketed.

One of those DCM M1 Carbines was my first centerfire long gun back in '65 so I guess I'm returning to my "roots."

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/MLV1/12-29-08068LargeWebview.jpg

[StarMetal]

I'm bored tonight so I'm posting a photo of three more of my favorite military rifles. Top is Winchester M1 circa 1943 and its been examined right down to taking the pins out and its all Winchester. Middle one is a "faux" M1A1. Instead of paying 3K for a "real" M1A1 I bought a Saginaw barreled action in a new reproduction stock. Bottom is another Saginaw barreled action converted to M2 with the M1 overstamped. All three are good cast bullet shooters - at least as good as with jacketed.

One of those DCM M1 Carbines was my first centerfire long gun back in '65 so I guess I'm returning to my "roots."

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/MLV1/12-29-08068LargeWebview.jpg

Mike,

I'll bet you watched Combat on TV too huh? Nice collection. I'm jealous of your full auto guns.

Joe

[Mike Venturino]

Joe: you are absolutely right. That Tuesday night in September of 1962 when COMBAT came on I was in the floor there in front of the TV. I was 13 and in the 8th grade.

Believe it or not I stumbled onto that Winchester/M1 in a combination gun store, liquor store, and gas station here in Montana.

[45nut]

Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms,, the nearly perfect store.

Nice guns Mike, I had a Winchester M1 Carbine.........*sigh*

[NickSS]

I have owned a lot of carbines ( I wish I had them today as I owned at least one of every maker product. I sold them when the price got to what I considered ridiculous but only a third of today's prices. I looked at the originals becoming available with thought of getting one but I could not get myself to pay the price for a very warn gun. I did buy a Auto Ordinance M1. It has no collectors value but I can shoot it and not worry about it. It shoots darn well too in fact better than any GI one I ever owned as well as several Plainfield and Iver Johnson ones I have owned as well. Last time I took it out I shot five five shot groups that averaged right at 1.25 inches at 100 yards.

[Farmall 1066]

Making me jealous, all I have is a Universal. Never should have got it, just makes me want a "good" one. Mine is "minute of old refrigerator" at 100 yds on a good day! Roughest barrel I have ever seen, so I'm afraid to even try cast in it.

Andy

[EOD3]

Joe: you are absolutely right. That Tuesday night in September of 1962 when COMBAT came on I was in the floor there in front of the TV. I was 13 and in the 8th grade.

Believe it or not I stumbled onto that Winchester/M1 in a combination gun store, liquor store, and gas station here in Montana.


IIRC, Vic Morrow was SGT Striker??? One of my favorite shows. :D

[Charlie Sometimes]

I looked at an Inland today in a pawn shop- it had Essex, Gardner, MA stamped on the barrel perpendicular to the Inland markings overlaped.
It had a bayonet lug, and military wood stock with the armory markings visible, but someone had refinished it and rounded the stock badly where the stamped steel butt plate laps the wood.
Shiney finish, too.
Funny thing about it- it had tick marks on the underside of the forearm (8 or 9) that they didn't remove either.
Maybe someone was keeping track?
Also had 15 magazines with it 20's and 30's.
I forget the price.

I already have an original in my safe that I don't shoot much, so I don't really need another.

[StarMetal]

IIRC, Vic Morrow was SGT Striker??? One of my favorite shows. :D

Vic Morrow was SGT Saunders.

Joe

[EOD3]

Vic Morrow was SGT Saunders.

Joe

They say memory is the second thing to go but I can't remember what the first thing was. :-?

[stubshaft]

Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms,, the nearly perfect store.

Nice guns Mike, I had a Winchester M1 Carbine.........*sigh*

45nut, I have a Winchester Carbine I traded a Rockola for it. :groner:

[Potsy]

Grandad's got a .30 Carbine. A post-war model that's kinda pretty and is accurate enough for me to have killed a couple of groundhogs at 75-100 yards with when I was a teenager.
Fedral Softpoints were pretty hard on them.
A friends Grandfather always said he never understood the .30 Carbine's reputation for lack of stopping power. One of his very few quotes about his time in combat was "every Jap I shot with mine went right down".
I never understood it either. A .30 Carbine has twice the bullet weight, two thirds the velocity, and a fourth more frontal area than the .223.
Always wondered if it wasn't a bullet construction thing.
Not to hijack the thread, but does anyone have any input on that?
They re-ran "Combat!"on Saturday mornings when I was a kid (mid 80's). Loved it.

[BarryinIN]

A friends Grandfather always said he never understood the .30 Carbine's reputation for lack of stopping power. One of his very few quotes about his time in combat was "every Jap I shot with mine went right down".

I have a theory on that. It's probably wrong, but I have it.

I wonder if a lot of it had to do with where it was used, and who it was used against.
I've noticed that it seems like most of the complaints I've read or heard were from the Korean War. There were complaints from WWII, but I read and hear more failure stories from Korea. The comments from Korea run much more toward hatred than the near-even split between love/hate in WWII.

And that made think about this:

In the Pacific in WWII, the opponents were often half-starved, ragged-clothed Japanese. They were often suffering from Malaria and other tropical diseases from having already spent months or years on some remote island. They couldn't have weighed very much or been very healthy.

In Korea, the opponents were North Koreans (at first) or Chinese. In the case of the Chinese, they entered the war quickly and were probably in pretty decent physical health and condition. They were often whipped into a frenzy by either opium or trumpets or whatever it took. They wore those heavy insulated uniforms that absorbed bullet impacts.
I also wondered if those bulky uniforms made them look larger than they were, which made some US soldiers think they hit them when the bullet actually passed through nothing but clothing. That might explain some of the "I hit him but he didn't even slow down" stories.

I just think the effects of any bullet on an already half-dead Japanese and on a healthy, opium-fueled, thickly-clothed Korean, will be different. I'd expect the Japanese soldier in that condition would be easier to stop than the NK or Chinese solider, no matter what you used.
And that could explain a lot of what I hear and read.

But in the European Theatre of WWII, I don't see such a strong love/hate pattern. I just don't seem to see or hear as many stories about the Carbine either way there. Audie Murphy loved it. Patton hated it. Some didn't like it because it didn't have the range. But the opinions don't seem so firm or as opposing as in the Pacific.
I think a lot of that is because it wasn't used as much in the ETO as in the Pacific. At least, that's how it looks from photographs and from talking to people. (I mean in the regular infantry. The Airborne, MPs, tankers, etc had the need for the Carbine either for compactness or reduced need for a rifle). It seems like the pictures of infantry show mostly Garands.
In fact, I've read in a few places that troops in Europe avoided Carbines just because they drew fire. It started out that platoon leaders and officers had Carbines, and the Germans quickly picked up on that. Whether that changed, or if the Germans ever got the word, I don't know, but I have read a few books that talk about that.

So I wonder if the reason I see less about the Carbine's worthiness or worthlessness in the ETO was because there weren't as many in use there. I have never seen any numbers for this, and don't know if there are any.
I am pretty sure that if given the choice, I would be less likely to choose a Carbine if I were in the ETO than if I were in the Pacific.

[Snapping Twig]

My FIL carried it in the Pacific and the Aleutians - Army COE.

He never said a kind word about it - ever.

Near the end of his days, I showed him my Mini 30 - an early version with a .308 bore and the 150g ammo I load for it.

We agreed that this was the rifle he should have carried - or at least the round his carbine should have chambered.

He told of several occasions where he was either out of range to return fire or hit and did not disable the sniper.

I don't own one, never have, but if I understand correctly it is a .30 caliber bullet of @ 110g and has the power of a .357 - like a pistol in rifle form, easier to shoot for support personnel.

With that in mind, it appears to be proper for its intended purpose. Looking like a rifle makes folks want it to be one, which causes the issues as far as I can tell.

[mto7464]

I read online (so it must be true) that if the carbine is marked m2 it is still considered a machine gun. If yours is so marked I would look into it and if it is true be very careful.
Here is a link where it is discussed.
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240380

Of course this is me assuming yours is not a registered m2.

[Mike Venturino]

mto7464: Its not quite clear as to whom you are addressing your comment. If its me then my M2 is duly registered.

MLV

[mto7464]

Mike,
The comment was directed at you and like I said I was assuming it was not a registered m2. I know there are a lot of m2 marked carbines out there that are not registered but also are not fully auto anymore.

I also made this comment without knowing who you were, I understand you are a gun columnist.

Anyway I was just trying to help.

I plan on going by the bookstore and check and see if they have the hand loading magazine that you have an article in.

MIKE

[Mike Venturino]

Mike: I appreciate the thought anyway. Back in 2008 I bought six WW2 and Korean War era subguns and the M2. All are registered with all the tees crossed and eyes dotted.

Just for information way when you're at the bookstore if you pick up any copy of HANDLOADER, RIFLE, GUNS, or THE AMERICAN HANDGUNNER there will be both a column and a feature by me.

Thanks
Mike V.

[KCSO]

My great Uncle traned and qualified in the States with a Garand and when he got off the boat in England he was re issued an early carbine. He thought it was a *** compared to the Garand and hated it but it was due to the safety. The early ones had a push button safety and the green troops had a problem with pushing the safety button only to find they had dropped out the magazine. This led to my Uncle's first bronze star when later in the hedgerows a german tried to drop a grenade into their 1/2 track and the Lt. dropped the mag out of his carbine. Uncle had to pop up and shoot the German with his 45 and killed him just as he was tossing the grenade. He caught part of the shrapnel from the grenade and ended up with a purple heart, a bronze star and was demoted from Sgt to Private when he called the Lt a dumb SOB after it was over.

In 1955 Dad carried an M2 as a patrol rifle (New Idea HUH) with the Sheriff's Office. They got them surplus from the govt. And he thought highly of the little gun for duty work but around the farm it was pretty uselesless as it was too much gun for small game and not enough for anything over coyote with the ammo available at that time. I have shot several variations of carbine from mil surp to universal and also a Johnson 22/30 but was never impressed with the accuracy or lack ther of and so I have never hankered to own one. We tested one when we got patrol rifles in 2003 and where they failed for us was on overpenetration as compared to the 223. A223 bullet will break up in just about any solid wall but the carbine had more penetration than the 9mm.

[oldhickory]

I picked up my latest carbine about 3yrs ago from a guy who needed money to pay for hs new Mustang. I paid for it without really looking close at it, it's a Underwood, I figured, big deal, it's just for plinking around anyway. I got it home and started to realy look it over and discovered it's the 69th carbine Underwood made! Barrel date, 10-42. If not first day production, darn close!:mrgreen:

[Gee_Wizz01]

My Dad carried an M1 carbine in WWII. He loved it, but he was B-24 crew chief and also flew flight engineer on various occasions. He trained with an 03 Springfield which he loved. In Hawaii he was issued a Thompson, which he hated. He disliked the Thompson because it was heavy bulky and he had to carry two drum magazines. He said it was always in the way when working around the aircraft, and the two spare drums were heavy and clumsy. Most of all he said it was not accurate and difficult to shoot well. My Dad is all about accuarcy and not wasting ammo thats why he loved is Springfield ( too this day he gets aggravated if you can't hit your target on the first shot). He loved the carbine because it was light easy to carry and did not snag on everything around the airplane. He never had to fire in combat, but he said he was confident he could hit an enemy soldier with it. He always told me it wouldn't be very good for hunting deer, and Dad is a first class deer hunter.

G

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I obtained an M1 carbine thru the DCM in the early '60s. It was made by Inland Div. of G.M. I think it cost about 19.50. It was in excellent condition. At the time I belonged to a gun club that was so large in membership that we had the buying power of wholesalers. I could buy 110 grain plinkers for a little over a dollar per hundred. I bought loading dies, loaded a batch of ammo,went to the range and found the gun was quite accurate dispite all I had heard to the contrary . I never fired the gun again. I traded it for a beautiful German single shot hunting rifle that looked very much like a 3/4 size Ruger #1. It was chambered for the 8.15x46 cartridge an it had set triggers that were a work of art, as all those rifles seem to have. Sadly I never fired that gun at all. I sold it to a friend for seventy five dollars. Turned a big profit. Years later he was disposing of his gun collection and I tried to buy it back. He had a price of fifteen hundred on it, so I passed . Should have kept the M1.

[Mike Venturino]

Gopher Slayer: I got my dad to sign up to the NRA and get one of those surplus MI Carbines. I remember cost as $20 even. It came in May 1965. By July '66 I sold it for $65 to buy a S&W K38. I guess that was a good move because by December of '66 I had my first bullet mould - Lyman #358432 - for a 160 grain wadcutter. The rest is history. I still haven't gotten bored with casting.

Mike V.

[Ricochet]

I was given an Ideal 2 cavity #358432 160 grain wadcutter mould years ago. It's my favorite boolit for the .38.

[Ken O]

I had one quite a few years back, a Saginaw. A handy rifle, but didn't shoot as good as I expected, so I got rid of it. Then a couple years back or so the CMP had a Carbine match at Camp Perry. I shoot High Power and CMP week so I borrowed one to shoot. It was a Saginaw also. It didn't shoot real well, real sensitve to sling pressure, I got a bronze which is the bottom of the barrel for CMP shoots, and a T-shirt which everyone gets, and all the shoots there are a good time.

I can't believe the price of these now.

[WineMan]

In regards to the poor showing of the Carbine in Korea, they were mostly M2's and with the high rate of fire would quickly run out of ammo. In addition the cold temperatures and the low power of the cartridge made them sluggish when first fired. Recommendations were to not bring them inside where condensation would form and then freeze when out on patrol or in a firefight.

There were many PPSHh-41's in the hands of the North Koreans and Chinese troops and ballistically it is pretty close the the carbine, although low enough to be blowback and not short recoil. More suited to the tactics they used, had they had Carbines they probably would not have known the difference.

My feeling is that the M1 Carbine was a awesome display of what the USA could do when pushed: six million in 1941-1945. It was a long pistol and even today many feel that any pistol caliber without a four in the name is not really enough stopping power.

They are tons of fun, accurate enough at effective ranges for what they were designed for and immortalized at the Iwo Jima Memorial. As Mike said, it was also my first centerfire rifle when my dad got a DCM/NRA Inland mixmaster in the early 1960's.

Wineman

[JesterGrin_1]

I think they are a decent ranch rifle easy to carry and short. I had a couple of them as a kid that were made by Singer yep the sewing machine company lol. Even had a Ruger blackhawk in .30 carbine and it sure would put on a show and was LOUD lol.

But since I was a kid I did not like them much as the best I could do with the Iron sights was around 3 to 4 in groups at 100 yards. So my Father sold them and got a Rem 600 MoHawk in .243 which is good for 1/2 in Groups and better at 100 yards. I still have that one lol. :)

[Mike Venturino]

Used to be I always packed a handgun of one sort or another with me around the place here in Montana, but at age 60 now I have to have my special glasses to hit anything with them. So instead I often have this handy. Its not a "genuine" M1A1. Its a Saginaw barreled action dropped into a reproduction stock.

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/MLV1/9-14-09059LargeWebview.jpg

[Mike Venturino]

Somebody above mentioned the PPsh41. General Hal Moore that wrote the book about Vietnam "We Were Soldiers Once And Young" referred to it as the most effective infantry weapon on either side in Korea. He was a Captain, a company commander then.

Its downside is that with the drum fully loaded with 71 rounds it weighs about 12 pounds or about twice as much as the M2 Carbine. And of course the carbine was not intended, at least in the beginning, as a front line fighting weapon. It certainly became that, though.

My PPSH41 is shown here. It actually sounds like a chain saw when you turn it loose.

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/MLV1/9-14-09007LargeWebview-1.jpg

[WineMan]

Mike,

Thanks for the post with the PPSh-41. Maybe the M1 Carbine was too powerful. There are still plenty of 9 mm (Luger, Parabellum) SMG's around but hardly a 45 or Carbine to be found. What is that old saying "Jack of all trades but master at none". As you said the Carbine was never intended to be a front line arm but became one because it had a rare combination of light weight, perfect balance, reasonable (borderline) ballistics and there were plenty of them.

Many of the more powerful SMG's Thompson and PPSh-41 are really heavy at least in their early versions. Blowback (the Thompson eventually became one) is easy but you pay for it either in low power or more weight.

I have never seen the great advantage of the SKS except that it had two more rounds than a M1 Garand (for the same weight), was more powerful than a M1 Carbine (at twice the weight and five to 20 fewer rounds). The 500 fps and 200 yards better ballistics than the Carbine is definitely a plus for a battle rifle and carrying twice the ammo for the same weight of a M1 and stripper clips also have some attraction.

The battle rifle debate will continue and there may never be the ultimate answer. The AR and AK platforms seem set to be with us for a long time to come.

The Carbine you carry with SP or HP ammo is probably all anyone needs for what you carry it for.

Love your articles and collection of toys.

Regards,

Wineman

[Mike Venturino]

Wineman: I think you are right, the debate about worthiness of battle weapons could go on forever. That there were so many different ones is what makes a study of them so fascinating. Nowadays, it seems like one side has ARs and the other AKs and they don't interest me much. But then again I'm not being shot at by any of them, I'm merely a student of historical firearms.
MLV
PS: When carrying that M1A1 repro around I load it with soft point handloads.

[Mike Venturino]

By the way, if any of you would be interested in reading about how cold affects some weapons I recommend the book LAST STAND OF FOX COMPANY. Its about a company of Marines guarding a pass in North Korea during the fighting around the Chosin Resevoir.

There's quite a bit about weapons function and performance in it and having lived here in Montana for over 35 years now and being familiar with COLD I simply cannot understand how those Marines stayed in foxholes in that weather day after day.

MLV

[Three44s]

As I recall, Ret. Col. Oliver North did a special on the "Frozen Chosen".

Very Very bleak times!

Former soldiers interviewed from that battle said they kept their Garrands running with Vitalis and human urine.

Three 44s

[Bret4207]

Mike- could you please explain this thing, this "bored" that you speak of?

Thank you- Bret4207, farmer, woodcutter, home repair expert, mechanic, gunsmith, horseman, shepherd, father of 5, grandfather, chief cook and bottle washer, political activist and voracious reader of the printed word.

[budman46]

star metal,

sgt chip saunders...great series, greatly missed!

budman

[Mike Venturino]

Bret4207: Let's see, I had already written my quota for the day, feed all the dogs, cats, and horses twice for the day. cast my BPCR bullets for the day, prepped a couple hundred cases for military rifles, watched the rain and snow all day, did my cardiac exercise class at the hospital, packaged books for shipment and wrote invoices to go with them, cleaned a couple of rifles, measured chamber mouths of several revolver cylinders with plug gauges, stared at the wall while drinking coffee to dream up more writing ideas, answered all letters and e-mails, built a nice wood fire.

Then I sat down to watch the History Channel and it was "The History Of Sex." So, yeah, I was bored.

MLV

[budman46]

for years i considered the .30 carbine inferior to the .357 magnum, but recently learned the foreign legion in vietnam considered it a superior stopper that killed way out of proportion to its size and velocity despite its anemic ww2 reputation. i never thought much of the french military...with the exception of the foreign legion, so now i wonder.

budman

[Bret4207]

Mike- you need kids. I've got some extra around here I could mail you for a small fee....

[danski26]

Mike......sounds like its about the perfect time to grab the little lady!

[Patrick L]

Let me state right up front I'm no combat expert, I've never worn a uniform and I've never fired a shot at anything more dangerous than a 120 lb whitetail deer.

That said, whenever I'm at the range shooting my carbine and some historian invariably starts lecturing me (with enthusiasm) on the FACTS that those little guns were worthless, underpowered, couldn't stop the North Koreans etc. I have a standing offer I repeat to them:

Pace off 50 yards, turn around, bend over, and I'll shoot you in the a$$ with it. Hell, this little .30 carbine probably won't even break the skin!

Still no takers!:D

[Patrick L]

Mike,

I understand the boredom thing perfectly.

What some people don't get is that boredom and inactivity have absolutely nothing to do with one another. I'm often bored, but I always have plenty to do!

[Herb in Pa]

We were bored a couple of Sundays ago..................so a shootin we went

[MtGun44]

Mike,

I have a friend that is a serious student of submachine gun use (police firearms instructor,
recently retired). He has taught at some of the bigtime shooting schools as a guest instructor,
and I respect his opinion a lot. He has told me that he thought the M2 carbine was one of
the best submachine guns ever made. Since you have a bunch of them and have had a
chance to compare, how do you rate them as to effectiveness as weapons of war?

I have fired the Uzi, MP5K, Reising, S&W76 and MP40. The MP5K (stockless super shorty)
was useless beyond 5 ft IMO, the Reising was interesting but I only shot a couple bursts,
I hear it jammed a lot if dirty, the S&W 76 is fun to shoot, seems a little awkward. The
Uzi with the stock unfolded was really easy to hit with and the MP40 was revelation! Of these
guns, with my very short chances to try them, the MP40 and Uzi were head and shoulders
above the others for ease of hitting what you were aiming at very quickly and easily with
short (3-4 shot) bursts. The slow cyclic rate of the MP40 seemed just perfect. I'd love to
try out a PPSh-41 some day.

Bill

PS
You are looking pretty good there in those pix. Does the knee work any better with less load on
it? I have a knee starting to give me a bit of 'feedback' due to an old motorcycle accident, so I can
relate when you comment about knee trouble. ;-)

[Mike Venturino]

Bill: First off, let me state that I have had absolutely no training with subguns, have never been in the military, and served as a sheriff's deputy for 8 hours to help out the locals one night in 1982. I consider myself a "shooting historian."

With that said, if I was going to pick up one of my subguns in an emergency it would be the M2, as long as I had magazines that I trusted. All my 15 round magazines work great, some of my 30 rounders work great, and others are problematic regardless of how many rounds are loaded in them. I like the ability of the M2 to deliver some precision out to 200 yards in semi-auto fire. That's because it doesn't fire from an open bolt. My second choice would be the MP40.

If I was in my house and zombies were trying to break in the doors then that PPsh41 would be like a buzzsaw. That would be as long as your magazines held out. Those round drums take a while to load.

These things sure have been educational, and lots and lots of fun!
MLV

[WineMan]

Mike,

Nice thread. I also cannot contribute to having been on a front line or even a REMF but I do enjoy the research and education that all of these great people contribute to. My father who had been a USMC reservist when I was a wee lad, preserved and eventually got to the Navy reserve. In 1991 he got an all expense trip to Q8 as a cargo handler. At 55 he finally was there. His generation worshiped the WW2 men and today his tribute it to do a Firing Party at graveside for those great warriors who have gone on to their last formation.

I just found out that my boss is a total "Combat" addict. He let me borrow his DVD"s and the memories of watching it in the 60's are nothing like being able to watch it with the eye of 40+ years. Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders carried the M1 Garand in the Pilot which aired as episode 11 in the first year (1962). At the end of that episode he picked up a Thompson SMG. In the actual third episode he carried a M1 Carbine. After that he stayed with the Thompson. The actors complained of the weight of the weapons especially the Garand and Thompson. The Carbine was Rick Jasons favorite and Morrow carried a wood mock up of a Thompson as it was lighter. It is interesting that on a set, not cold in a foxhole 6,000 miles from home at -20 degrees they complained about having to carry the real thing.

Wineman

[OBXPilgrim]

If I was in my house and zombies were trying to break in the doors then that PPsh41 would be like a buzzsaw.

These things sure have been educational, and lots and lots of fun!
MLV

Sorry to take you bit out of context there, but, that sir, is one of my most common excuses when my other half starts on me about "another gun". Must be prepared for the "night of the living dead" scenario. I've never seen any one do it in print, but I think it would be a great idea for an article (if you ever run out)(would need to come out in a November issue around Halloween, though). Of course, lots of folks have other names for it, SHTFgun, BugOutGun, etc.

By the way, I went to a machine gun shoot once, that was invite only by a local Class 3 dealer & had one of the best times of my life. M60 MG, MP5K, French Famas (spits in your eye), Thompson 45 SMG (ex-FBI w/a violin case), 1919A4 (jammed on the first shot- ripped off case head), Ruger KAC556, and my most hated of the day - M14 (what a waste). The Thompson, Ruger, and M60 were about a tie for my "most fun".

[Mike Venturino]

Herb in PA: I forgot to say that it looks like you guys had plenty of fun with that array of stuff. Wish I had been there!

Although it wouldn't be my first choice among subguns if I actually needed to use one, this is a photo of the one that got me started. Like the fellow posted above I watched COMBAT from the very beginning. It started the fall I was 13 and it made me want four things: an M1 Carbine, an M1 Garand, an MP40, and a German helmet.

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/MLV1/5-28-08010LargeWebview.jpg

My wife has never once given me any grief about gunbuying, mainly because I've never taken a cent from my "job" to buy them. But you should have seen the look on her face when I walked in after a gun show and told her I was buying this MP40 and paying substantially more for it than we paid for our first house. She blinked a couple of times and then said, "That's nice."

MLV

[Herb in Pa]

Mike..it was a great time the BAR is a later model with the 2 rates of fire, the MP40 runs like a train, the MAC 10 and PPSh go like buzzsaws as does the Glock. The AK74 is probably the most controllable of the lot. Some of these belong to a good friend and fellow writer you may know.....Frank Iannamico.

[Mike Venturino]

Herb: I've corresponded a little bit with Frank when ordering his great books. Say hello to him from a fan.

MLV

[Herb in Pa]

Herb: I've corresponded a little bit with Frank when ordering his great books. Say hello to him from a fan.

MLV

Will do Mike, Frank got me started on this hobby in the early 90's....Herb

[Potsy]

That MP40 is just cool. One of the few full autos I ever REALLY wanted to own.
"Combat!" kinda warped me for life.
I had the opportunity to hold one about 15 years ago. Didn't get to shoot it as it would have brought unwanted attention from the neighbors.
Lots of military guns I've held don't feel as good as they look. That was not the case with the MP40.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Mike V. , I have a holster for the paratrooper carbine . It was made by the Atlas Awning Co. in 1944. Since they wore it on there belt, I have often wondered what kept the carbine from either hurting the trooper when they hit the ground or sticking the gun in the mud. Do you suppose they ever tried to quick draw with that combo?