M1 Carbine stopped firing

M

motofabio

New member
I recently acquired a fantastic looking M1 Carbine from my grandfather-in-law and decided to take out for a spin. It had been in a case for years, but decided to run a few patches through it anyway. Not a thorough cleaning, just a check & lube; everything looked good.

Out at the range, I emptied the first mag (pic below - wife even got the ejected casing in the shot). Wow - what a rifle! A few minutes later I go for the second mag, pull the trigger and "click". Dropped out the mag and ejected the live round, which was chambered just fine. The back of the round was clean, no marks. I left that one out and tried again. Same click like a dry fire. Changed ammo, changed back to the original mag, no dice. Lots of clicks, noooo bang.

The dry fire action now feels the same as it did right after I cleaned it. Obviously something's broken or stuck. Any ideas?

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Yup.
Not a hard fix if you have a bolt disassembly tool. Might be worth it to have a GS do it so he can check the rest of it out for ya.

Great pic- please tell me you do some yote hunting out there!
 
Shucks, I was hoping for something other than having to take to the local gunsmith - but figured as much. Thanks, guys.

Oh, no coyotes... I was hunting soda cans!
 
Google for disassemble instructions and do it yourself,its easier if you have the tool for it,but i doubt that every G.I. that carried an M-1 had it too.Take your time ,do it right,and dont tear anything up.A friend swears you can take anything apart with vice grips.
 
Yup, almost certainly a broken firing pin. See the instructions above. Disassembly and reassembly is a pain. Mostly because you need 3 hands if you don't have the tool. I would recommend buying one when you get the firing pin. Most places that have one will have the other.

You can do it manually with some small punches. Be careful though. And do it somewhere where, when the tiny little ejector spring flies out and bounces off your eyeball, you will be able to find it.
 
Is the bolt disassembly tool I would use for the M1 Carbine a universal tool that I could use on another firearm or is it specific to this one?
 
I like to keep a sheet of plastic window glass substitute for this kind of job. Cut two arm holes in one side of a cardboard box, set the plastic sheet on it for a lid and do your disassembly inside it. When stuff takes off the cardboard stops if from crossing the room.
 
OK wow. I thought you guys were kidding about the springs flying. I'm not going to try to disassemble this beautiful rifle if I have to do it in a damn NASA vacuum chamber! I'll just take it to the local GS. I have a Marlin 22 rifle that I was cleaning and the trigger assembly pretty much expanded into a thousand pieces and now it's in a Ziploc bag. Would hate to have that happen with this one too.

Thanks again for the info!
 
Everything mentioned is possible.

In addition,if a carbine's bolt is not fully rotated into battery,the hammer will strike the bolt,not the firing pin.
What can cause that?Ammo with the case length a bit long,causing a tight head clearance condition.Using cast bullers,that are shaving lead onto the case mouth crimp issues,some hard stuck gunge in the chamber,gunge in the slide's bolt cam.Another spot to look for some trouble,gas cylnuts sometimes back out.

I second the idea of the box and flying springs.Been there!!

The bolt tool and a gas cylinder lock wrench are worthy tools to own.

If you will be using 30 rd mags,I highly suggest an M-2 mag catch.

Your mags will last longer.
 
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Get the bolt tool mentioned. It really is not as hard as it may sound to take the extractor and firing pin out and using the tool makes it very easy. You can find them on gunbroker or gun shows.
 
Hmmm... I suppose as long as I don't lose any parts, if I do it myself and can't get it back together, in theory it shouldn't cost me any more for the GS to reassemble it. There's a gun show this weekend I'm going to; if I can find the tools there then I'll give it a shot and will report back.

How do you like that flip-flop? Good thing I'm not a politician! haha
 
Having the bolt tool is a good idea, but first take the bolt out and see if the firing pin is, in fact, broken. As HiBC said it could just be something not letting the bolt rotate into full lock.
 
Give it a serious bath before you do anything else. Drop the bolt into a vat of solvent and leave it there for 24 hours. Chances are that the firing pin is fine, but the bolt is full of crud. Kind of odd that it'd fire one mag then stop though.
"...gas cylinder lock wrench..." Not required. The gas cylinder was never removed for normal cleaning.
 
What kind of ammo were you using? I shot some MagTech in my M1 carbine, and had a couple instances of spent primers falling out of the fired case...One fell into the action and prevented the bolt from closing.
 
I'm not sure what you are having trouble with.Generally,US service weapons are made to be field stripped easily.

When working on them,do not force parts.If force is required,stop,look,think.

At the , end of the recoil spring nearest the muzzle,draw back the spring and guide .

Note the groove in the side of the reciever the slide rides in.there is a notch in that groove just behind that square corner of the opening in the top of the receiver.If you pull the op handle back tothat notch and lift up and out,it will come free easily pull the bolt forward,up,and to the right,and it will lift right out.

On the underside of the barrel,note the notch through the groove on the nautical port side of the rifle.That notch allows the slide to roll off couterclockwise.

Look over these pieces and see the features,Understand how they work,and it all gets very simple.

A test many,if not all,troops learned ,is to be able to fields strip and reaasemble their weapon in under 1 minute,blindfolded.

If you have some plain old tan lubriplate automotive grease,put a little on that cam where the bolt and slide fit together,and on the rails where the slide fits the barrel.A little oil in the spring ang guide is good,just generally look at where metal rubs metal and lube a little.

But,not in the gas cylinder under the barrel.

I suspect your carbine has no broken parts,it just needs good ammo,good mags,and to be clean and lubricated.

There are repro army field manuals available ,and there is one for the carbine.
 
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