modern use for an m1 carbine

The M1 Carbine is the best fish gun I have ever used (Yes...Vermont has a 60-day fish shooting season)...

A guy I know uses one for Whitetail...I have used one for Coyotes out to 100 yards...

I have an IBM that was 'sporterized' in the 60's, so I do not feel bad about it wearing a scout rail and a Millet 1x Red Dot for HD...
 
Can't use a semi-auto for hunting in my state , and .30 carbine ammo is kinda expensive these days for plinking. (I recall paying $4 for a box of 50 USGI surplus carbine ammo) And M-1 carbines aren't exactly known for accuracy. It's a decent enough home defense weapon with modern hollow-point ammo. I too can't see why they bring the prices they do. I have one (Inland) simply to round out my US military firearms lineage.
 
I am not a carbine fan though I own a couple of CMP carbines.

Every year my gun club has a Garand, followed by a carbine match using the 100 yard reduced targets.

We have High Master shooters who will bring out match grade Garands and shoot somewhere between 450 and 470 out of 500, or we have HM shooters who bring out rack grade Garands and they will shoot up to the 440’s.

Then we shoot the carbine match. These same shooters are lucky to break 400. For decades the high score was in the 420's. A good carbine will just hold the 5.75" black at 100 yards.. A carbine is hard to shoot well as it is light and twitchy, the triggers are awful and no one has figured how to get a match trigger pull.

Shooters have brought out commercial carbines and they shoot better than GI. I am of the opinion that WWII carbine barrels are of poor quality, better quality barrels will tighten up groups.

Shooters have tried all sorts of bedding techniques but no one will call their carbine a match rifle.

This carbine was shot by the match winner and is interesting as you can see some of his modifications. This a National Ordnance carbine and National Ordnance had old rusted out carbine barrels and new M1903A3 barrels. The gas system on a carbine barrel is integral to the assembly so to use the rusted out barrels they drilled and reamed the barrel out of the carbine barrel end , turned down an A3 barrel, then soldered to the A3 barrel inside the shank. The match winner claims this shoots better than a standard carbine barrel.

IMG_1560NationalOrdnanceCarbine.jpg


IMG_1561NationalOrdnanceCarbine.jpg


Carbines were created as a pistol substitute and the hit probability with a carbine is much better than a M1911 pistol. But the carbine remains a pistol substitute no matter how much people want to expand its capabilities.
 
I inherited one from my father that he mail ordered from some Army surplus outlet back in the 70's. The reciept was in the box, $55. It's a great little shooter and very reliable and FUN. Don't think I would take it hunting but in a SHTF situation I would feel well armed with it.
 
Slamfire nailed it on the Carbine I think. I enjoy shooting mine and go through several hundred rounds a year, but it's not my go to rifle by any means.

A mil-surp collection is not complete without one. I really enjoy the paratrooper Carbine.

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M1 carbine; designed from the beginning as a tool to be light & easily handled with little recoil & lightweight ammo and to kill 175 lb animals.
Its primary purpose was to replace the 1911 pistol and to kill 175 lb animals.
Ballistically it is right around or slightly above a 357 magnum pistol, but FAR more easily controlled and FAR easier to train soldiers to shoot effectively than a 1911. Its accuracy as many have noted is ~ 4" @ 100yds or minute of man out to 300 yds.
A varmint rifle? Not unless they are real close. A target rifle? With its heavy trigger, light weight and poor barrels, no way.
However it will hit 175 lb animals with boring reliability out to 300 yds with minimal training.
It is also a fun plinking rifle with minimal muzzle blast and light recoil. Easy to shoot and a very good financial investment as their prices continue to rise, even for poor examples.
Here's one that has been extensively customized:

carbinear12-11003.jpg


Roger
 
Legit use of M1 Carbine.

Small Game Hunting
Home Defense
Truck Gun
Informal Plinking
Target Rifle: (CMP GSM Carbine Matches, also can be used in the Garand
Match)

Training: Great transition rifle for moving kids from 22s to high power rifles.

USGI Carbines are extremely reliable.

History: (if you're into military history it's a "must have")

Ammo is relatively cheap: Surplus Ammo from CMP $200 per 500 rounds, factory ammo, $225 per 500 (CMP sells both at those prices.

Easy to reload for, works great with cast bullets making it cheaper yet to shoot.

My father fought in the Pacific in WWII and in Korea. He love the Carbine, he even tells me of killing water buffalo with his. I wouldn't call it a buffalo rifle but it is great for small game and deer size animals at reasonable ranges.

I don't think the question is "why own a carbine", I think the question is "why not"
 
Swampghost said
" gak, my oldest one was a gift from my next-door-neighbor who was a Marine in the pacific during WW II. He told me that they dumped the POC as soon as they could pick up a Garand or Thompson. His words."

This is tiresome. Like the 95% city council meetings where only the "against" folks show--usually the minority--the negative reports get the press. Good stuff and competence--which usually comprise the majority--goes unreported. In reality, for every GI/Marine who had a bad report, there's another three or four with the opposite experience, wanting to trade out their limited capacity and clumsy-reloading Garand lump of concrete for a carbine with firepower and carryability. It ALL depended on the circumstances of combat what the stories might have been. If you're sitting there trying to knock off a machine gunner at 200+ yards, of course you want the Garand. You then want IT to immediately transform itself into the carbine when you start humping and hitting the trenches. In the Pacific Theatre, Thompson users regularly were known to call a carbine shooter over (or ask for his gun)--yes if no Garand or BAR readily available--to knock out a sniper in yonder palm tree he couldn't hit (accuracy and range). The carbine was a much better "long(er) range" weapon than the Thompson, as the Garand was a much better longER range-yet gun than the carbine. In the trenches or clearing buildings, caves and bunkers, the Garand was no comparison to it. Carbine shooters thanked their lucky stars for the capability of rapid fire and quick refill rate. Jungle humping is another instance.
You've got to be kidding.
Yes, some of the above are direct words as well.

Always fit the right gun to the right circumstance. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't (regarding all firearms). When the carbine failed, like ANY gun, it was due to a mismatch for that requirement. Many--Korean War GIs preferred Garands 'cause/when they dealt with long ranges and winter cold which the Garand handled better. Stories that carbines couldn't penetrate the heavy wool Chinese clothing have been told over and over (and refuted (see ballistic tests in archives in this forum or elsewhere re the carbines prodigious penetration capability). In those instances--in Europe, the Pacific or Korea--where an enemy combatant didn't DRT, I think it may be more accurate that the rounds went through 'n through w/o dumping enough energy. (See my turkey comments in a different post). The carbines--again like all guns'--effectiveness is/was entirely dependent on the circumstance. It excelled in many of those circumstances. When it didn't, it was a poor fit--never bring a knife to a gunfight.
 
++1 GAK Just watch films from the Pacific Theater in WWII. You sure see alot of men carrying the M1, especially in the jungles.
 
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Good uses for the M1 Carbine...

home defense with a lighty polisehed feed ramp to minimize stuttering of soft-nose ammo.

Particiapated in a winter vintage rifle shoot in SW Michigan in 2006, first five sighter were two right and one up all in a line with 1/8" spacing.
Took the first place in Carbine group.

have used for deer in NW Michigan, as my 100 lb (dripping wet) daughter wanted to go with me. had handloaads using the Speer 100gr half jacket and she used that I was back-up with M70 .308. Didn't see one, tho.

Having fun with a dirt pile! :D

Take a pulled M2 bullet and insert into muzzle,
3/16 or more gap between the barrel end and the cannalure is GREAT,
If the bullet is aswallowed then rebarrel time.
 
well the mini 30 certainly has more power, but it's also larger and weighs an extra 2 pounds. if you're not carrying it than sure but then it would also make more sense to get an M1a over the Mini 30.
 
xxxleafybugxxx said:
"So basically, it would make more sense for anyone to get a m30 instead of an m1 carbine?"

I don't know that's a conclusion I necessarily see here. It again depends on what you want to do with your gun in the roles these choices suggest. Both are excellent for their respective areas of "expertise," but I think they're apples and oranges to a degree. Comparatively, the carbine is more a pistol "type" cartridge carbine (though that technically is not true) with the virtues and demerits that suggests. If I could only have one gun, I'd choose the Mini 30 for its extra power and range. It is a more effective deer round, essentially being a rimless .30-30 for autos. (I still like .30-30 better for a "dedicated" deer gun but they're not that far off for this discussion's purposes), and would be more effective at fending off the zombies--outside. But with that comes extra weight--at least a pound--and more sturm und drang...in short a bit more of a "big deal" in negative (and positive) ways. The carbine is handier, more wieldable, and (my guess) a better choice--between the two--for an urban/indoors HD weapon and recreational short range plinker. Had I been a Japanese combatant on Iwo, I'd rather have the .30 carbine rounds slung at me than x39. That is no ding on the carbine as the Ordnance department didn't make that choice available. There's always something theoretically better you *could* have used had it existed. The Mini 30 did not..
 
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