Who here is a fame on the M1-Carbine
- Thread starter DUDE
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I've got a rebuilt mixmaster Rockola. What I like about the M1 Carbine is: It's light and handy, cheap to feed, it's got good sights, it's rugged and simple to field strip, it's historically significant and has sentimental cache, if you want to research it there's a number of web sites devoted to just the Carbine and dozens of good books written about it, my G.I. Joe had one, there are tons of surplus replacement parts and goodies, and my dad carried one in Vietnam. -- Kernel
Collectability aside, and considered as a combat weapon, it is necessary to remember the purpose of the carbine, which was to arm persons who would have normally been issued a pistol. The carbine thus provided the capability of making hits at distances and under conditions for which the pistol would have been useless. Less training was needed and far more soldiers learned to use the carbine than could have ever been trained to equivalent ability with the pistol.
The effectiveness in combat was far below that of the M1 rifle, but that was acceptable in the circumstances. There is a belief that carbines were issued to "rear area" soldiers; this is most emphatically not true. The most common issue was to squad and platoon leaders, who definitely were in combat, and who would have carried pistols under the pre-WWII TO&E.
Jim
The effectiveness in combat was far below that of the M1 rifle, but that was acceptable in the circumstances. There is a belief that carbines were issued to "rear area" soldiers; this is most emphatically not true. The most common issue was to squad and platoon leaders, who definitely were in combat, and who would have carried pistols under the pre-WWII TO&E.
Jim
Jim is right, many of these little rifles were carried by Platoon leaders. Unfortunatly it has been discovered that when these people have rifles there is a regretable(but understandable) tendency for them to get involved in fighting with the enemy rather than leading the platoon or squad. Which is why the services still issue so many pistols to officers and others who should be doing thier jobs while the troops fight off the bad guys.
They are nice little plinking guns and with soft or hollow point ammo are reasonable defence rifles too. I've got an Inland and one of the less exact copies by Universal. Both perform about the same, pleasant to shoot, with reasonable accuracy, I guess I'll keep them.
Don in Ohio
They are nice little plinking guns and with soft or hollow point ammo are reasonable defence rifles too. I've got an Inland and one of the less exact copies by Universal. Both perform about the same, pleasant to shoot, with reasonable accuracy, I guess I'll keep them.
Don in Ohio
dick w. holliday
New member
one of those guns that you absolutely have to have. Carbine Williams (The designer) used to live close to my home in NC..lots of folks in the area have carbines that he would autograph with some type of steel marker. i was too young at the time to even have one. My first one was a Plainfield and have several since but the one i wish i had kept was a Winchester with old style everything. mine now is a GI gun i got via the guns that came back from China or somewhere, but what to heck i love it anyway and it shoots good. if i'm shooting somewhere and see any carbine brass on the ground you can bet it is going home with me. i love to reload the stuff although you've got to be careful with it...As a matter of fact a $9.95 Lee loader in 30 carbine was the start of my reloading addiction....Dick
The military history of it, availability of high cap USGI mags along with the light weight and ease of handling as others have mentioned. It is part of my back up battery makarov and M1 carbine vs mini-14 and .45 auto. I have a new IAI one and love it. Maybe this is an old topic but....I have heard and read that carbine williams developed the action but not the complete rifle. That was a team at Winchester Arms at the time. Is this true or am I misinformed? Buying the M1 carbine instead of the HK USC I also wanted left $$$ over for a new mountian bike this spring. Got two cakes and ate them both
---DAROGUE1
---DAROGUE1this is all the info you will need about the M1-Carbine i got this out of an old gun book that i have, and i put it in an e-mail to a friend a long time back
in 1940 the Ordnance department provided a set of specifications
and called for designs to meet them. these were to be semiautomatic
(and later also full automatic) carbines. in this instance an entirely new
military cartridge was developed for the short lightweight weapon whose
weight was specified originally at 5.5 pounds. curiously the cartibge developed
was almost identical with the original commercial .32 Winchester autoloading
cartridge of 1905 except the bullet was shorter and lighter.
Guns made by Auto Ordnance, Harrington and Richardson, Hyde, Savage,
Springfield Armory, Winchester, and Woodhell were submitted. the locked-breech
Winchester with it's short stroke action was selected, partily because of it's highly
efficient lock action which resembled the Garand quite closely. the gas operating
system, however, was the type used in the Winchester 1940 rifle.
when adopted, this carbine was cataloged as the U.S. Carbine, Caliber 30 M1.
it has since gone through numerous modifications,including paratroop models and
full automatic designs.
The .30-Carbine cartridge was developed in 1940 by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company at New Haven at the direct request of the U.S. Ordnance Department. the company was furnished with specifications calling for a compact, rimless cased cartridge with a bullt of 110 grains, developing a velocity in the neighborhood of 1800 feet per second from an 18-inch barrel.
the cartridge as originally produced by Winchester had an overall lenght of 1.67" with a case lenght of 1.29" inches.
became our .30 Carbine M1.
it is a most unusual coincidence that the cartridge developed was actually one very close to the .32 Winchester Self-Loading Rifle cartrideg developed by the company for use in it's model 1905 Self-Loading rifle. This is a short, semi-rimmed cartridge case with straight side wall. The slightly altered version was issued to several developers to use in producing carbines for the Government tests. Entered in the tests were two versions of carbines developed by John Garand. Among others Winchester had developed a 7 1/2 pound carbine or experimental rifle for this cartridge. it proved so successful that Winchester undertook the development of a 5-pound carbine to handle the newly accepted cartridge.
they developed the frist handmade sample carbine in the record-breaking time of 14 days. the initial carbine brought out several bugs as was inevitable in such a rush model. by working round the clock for 34 days, the Winchester organization rushed through the model which became the U.S. Carbine Caliber .30 M1. samples of this new Winchester were tested on September 15, 1941 against improved models from Springfield, and by Hyde and Reising, as well as a gas-operated rifle by R.J. Turner. the outstanding superiority of Winchester design was clearly demonstrated.
CARBINE CALIBER .30 M1, M1A1, M2, AND M3,
the carbine was developed to replace the pistols in use by noncommissioned offcers,
special troops, and company-grade officers.
Manufacturers of the carbine were:
WINCHESTER: 809,451 M1 Carbines, 17,500 M2 Carbines, and 1,108 M3 Carbines.
INLAND Maufacturing Div. of General Motors: total of 2,625,000 carbines including
M1s M1A1s M2s and a few M3s.
UNDERWOOD Elliot Fisher: 545,616 carbines.
NATIONAL Postal Meter: 413,017 carbines.
ROCK-OLA Manufacturing-Corp: 228,500 carbines.
STANDARD Products: 247,155 carbines.
SAGINAW: 739,136 carbines.
IBM: 346,500 carbines.
there were more Carbines produced then any other United Staters weapon.
the variations of the carbines are as follows:
Carbine M1-semiautomatic, originally made with L-type flip over
sigth which was replaced with a ramp-mounted aperture adjustable for windage,
sporter-type stock.
Carbine M1A1-same as M1, but has folding-type metal butt stock.
Carbine M2-selective fire, usually found with fixed wooden stock.
Carbine M3-receiver grooved for infra Red "Snooper scope,"
otherwise identical to the M2.
in 1940 the Ordnance department provided a set of specifications
and called for designs to meet them. these were to be semiautomatic
(and later also full automatic) carbines. in this instance an entirely new
military cartridge was developed for the short lightweight weapon whose
weight was specified originally at 5.5 pounds. curiously the cartibge developed
was almost identical with the original commercial .32 Winchester autoloading
cartridge of 1905 except the bullet was shorter and lighter.
Guns made by Auto Ordnance, Harrington and Richardson, Hyde, Savage,
Springfield Armory, Winchester, and Woodhell were submitted. the locked-breech
Winchester with it's short stroke action was selected, partily because of it's highly
efficient lock action which resembled the Garand quite closely. the gas operating
system, however, was the type used in the Winchester 1940 rifle.
when adopted, this carbine was cataloged as the U.S. Carbine, Caliber 30 M1.
it has since gone through numerous modifications,including paratroop models and
full automatic designs.
The .30-Carbine cartridge was developed in 1940 by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company at New Haven at the direct request of the U.S. Ordnance Department. the company was furnished with specifications calling for a compact, rimless cased cartridge with a bullt of 110 grains, developing a velocity in the neighborhood of 1800 feet per second from an 18-inch barrel.
the cartridge as originally produced by Winchester had an overall lenght of 1.67" with a case lenght of 1.29" inches.
became our .30 Carbine M1.
it is a most unusual coincidence that the cartridge developed was actually one very close to the .32 Winchester Self-Loading Rifle cartrideg developed by the company for use in it's model 1905 Self-Loading rifle. This is a short, semi-rimmed cartridge case with straight side wall. The slightly altered version was issued to several developers to use in producing carbines for the Government tests. Entered in the tests were two versions of carbines developed by John Garand. Among others Winchester had developed a 7 1/2 pound carbine or experimental rifle for this cartridge. it proved so successful that Winchester undertook the development of a 5-pound carbine to handle the newly accepted cartridge.
they developed the frist handmade sample carbine in the record-breaking time of 14 days. the initial carbine brought out several bugs as was inevitable in such a rush model. by working round the clock for 34 days, the Winchester organization rushed through the model which became the U.S. Carbine Caliber .30 M1. samples of this new Winchester were tested on September 15, 1941 against improved models from Springfield, and by Hyde and Reising, as well as a gas-operated rifle by R.J. Turner. the outstanding superiority of Winchester design was clearly demonstrated.
CARBINE CALIBER .30 M1, M1A1, M2, AND M3,
the carbine was developed to replace the pistols in use by noncommissioned offcers,
special troops, and company-grade officers.
Manufacturers of the carbine were:
WINCHESTER: 809,451 M1 Carbines, 17,500 M2 Carbines, and 1,108 M3 Carbines.
INLAND Maufacturing Div. of General Motors: total of 2,625,000 carbines including
M1s M1A1s M2s and a few M3s.
UNDERWOOD Elliot Fisher: 545,616 carbines.
NATIONAL Postal Meter: 413,017 carbines.
ROCK-OLA Manufacturing-Corp: 228,500 carbines.
STANDARD Products: 247,155 carbines.
SAGINAW: 739,136 carbines.
IBM: 346,500 carbines.
there were more Carbines produced then any other United Staters weapon.
the variations of the carbines are as follows:
Carbine M1-semiautomatic, originally made with L-type flip over
sigth which was replaced with a ramp-mounted aperture adjustable for windage,
sporter-type stock.
Carbine M1A1-same as M1, but has folding-type metal butt stock.
Carbine M2-selective fire, usually found with fixed wooden stock.
Carbine M3-receiver grooved for infra Red "Snooper scope,"
otherwise identical to the M2.
Dude... where's "Postal Meter"? My dad has one.
I plan to grab one of the IAI carbines, since they get such rave reviews...
One thing I would love to see for an M1 Carbine is a "scout" style scope mount. Something that attaches firmly to the barrel, with a modified handguard, with a weaver rail so I could attach a red-dot site... That would be a QUICK firing little toy! MUCH less recoil than my M4...
I plan to grab one of the IAI carbines, since they get such rave reviews...
One thing I would love to see for an M1 Carbine is a "scout" style scope mount. Something that attaches firmly to the barrel, with a modified handguard, with a weaver rail so I could attach a red-dot site... That would be a QUICK firing little toy! MUCH less recoil than my M4...