Need help buying an M1 Carbine

[dogrunner]

The French stuff that I had personal experience with was headstamped "VE". U.S. Lake City stuff is good to go and is not Berdan primed. In fact I have quite a few of that LC so dated that I've loaded for years. Far as the French crap, the stuff I had was in 50 rnd boxes as I recall and was dimensionally identical to the U.S. ammo I was using......way b ack a good friend's nephew "acquired" two full pillow cases of the stuff plus emptys while stationed at Ft. Hood. That was way back in '67......the French ammo, from what I could determine was loaded with the corrosive primers due to the fact that the French were involved in several colonial endeavors in tropical areas and the corrosive priming proved more reliable.........that said, rest assured that the VE stuff is rattlesnake venom to barrel steel. Further, it is my understanding that NO U.S. carbine ammo is corrosive....other calibers tho are suspect into the mid 50's.............worth a check on the CMP forum if you are interested.

I almost lost a 3/44 M1A1 bbl to that crap........caught it in time and dumped the ammo in a salt marsh. No experience with the ChiCom LC, but have heard its a no go.

Load your own, cheaper and a lot more satisfaction shootin' cast anyway. I get 100% function with 120 cast using 2400......both full and semi auto.

[Larry Gibson]

The Chicom LC 30 Carbine ammo is also corrosive Berdan primed. Definitely a communist conspiracy to mess up the decap pin/rod on your dies......

[GONRA]

GONRA sez don't forget this Japanese manufactured varient (looks a little "different"):
.30 Carbine HOWA (Japan) M-1 Carbine, Thailand National Police 1960's,
Thai sword & shield crest. Replaced recoil spring for proper functioning.

[Texas by God]

GONRA sez don't forget this Japanese manufactured varient (looks a little "different"):
.30 Carbine HOWA (Japan) M-1 Carbine, Thailand National Police 1960's,
Thai sword & shield crest. Replaced recoil spring for proper functioning.

And don’t forget the rare Howa Sporter from the 1960s. Very nice Carbine.


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[Bmi48219]

…..A barb-b que gun, and a daily bang around in the truck gun!…..

The demand for them has pushed carbines out of the ‘bang around in the gun’ category, at least for me. I’m seeing decent condition Inland carbines retailing for $1,300.

[John22193]

Rock-ola top
Inland bottom



After scrounging up some money I bought the pair of em! My friend and I agreed to $2550 for both of them and bayonet. Overall I’m happy with them so far. My dad and I looked them over for worn or broken components and we did not find anything except some dried up grease/gunk keeping the bolts internals form working smoothly but after we disassembled and cleaned them they work great.

Fortunately my dad has always been an m1 carbine fan so he has reloads already made up and a bunch of factory ammo from old gun shows. He also has quite a bit of the corrosive ammo/berdan primed stuff when is was dirt cheap and it wasn’t as widely known of what it is.

So thank you all again for giving me advice and what to look for in the guns themselves and what ammo to avoid and I learned as of today that a second page was added due to the number of responses so after reading them I now know more about berdan primed ammo and the dangers of it.