
The rifle came with an authentic sling, oil bottle, bayonet, and numerous original 15-round magazines. This gave the carbine a slicker appearance than mil-spec, but we liked it. The pores had been filled, and an oil finish was rubbed into the wood.

A small inlay covered a hole in the stock’s wrist. The stock had apparently been sanded to eliminate various severe dings, some of which were still visible. The previous owner had worked the gun over and the final result was attractive, though so much wood had been removed that in some areas the metal was higher than the wood. This carbine had the best-looking wood finish, and also had the finest trigger pull of the quartet. 22 caliber, loaded with a 40-grain jacketed soft-nose bullet ($519 with birch stock). 30 caliber ($538 with walnut stock and metal guard wood-guard version $552), and the other in 5.7mm Johnson Spitfire, which is the. Finally, we tested two versions of the carbine by IAI American Legend, Inc., one in the normal.

Another came from Fulton Armory, a fully reconditioned beauty looking just like it did when carbines were new and the world was young ($1,000). One was an early Winchester, which had been slightly worked over by its previous owner (about $550). We acquired four versions of the carbine. Today we can get soft-nose versions as well as FMJ, all of it having about the same ballistics as original ball. 30 Carbine round used a 110-grain FMJ bullet driven to just under 2,000 fps, and was powered by flake or ball powder. 32 self-loading round, absent the latter’s slight rim. The cartridge itself was an offshoot of Winchester’s. In short, original GI M1 carbines were very well made. The receivers and bolts were forged and machined of WD 4140 Special steel (WD, for War Department, was the fixed, mil-spec requirement on what was also known as SAE 4140 steel), and the barrels made of WD 1350 Special, all with lengthy heat-treat sequences to give specific tensile strengths (110,000 psi for the barrels) and hardnesses. Various manufacturers made M1 Carbines, all to stringent mil-spec standards. The initial version was semiautomatic only. Among them were also the M1A1 (folding metal stock for paratrooper use), M2 (selective fire), and T3 (receiver grooved for big sniper scope) versions, but they came later. 45 Auto, and thus always have a weapon on his person.) About 6.5 million carbines were produced by the end of WWII. (There was nothing to prevent a carbine-equipped soldier from also packing a. The carbine was not only accepted, but was built in enormous numbers, and served very well in its capacity. It was also felt that many servicemen who were commonly in cramped quarters couldn’t conveniently use the only other service weapon available, the over-9-pound M1 Garand, so a carbine made a lot of sense. Army brass apparently thought a short, light carbine would be a good substitute for a sidearm in that it would be able to reach farther and of course be easier to hit with than the. It was supposed to take the place of a pistol, i.e., be a better overall weapon than a handgun, for company and non-commissioned officers, communications personnel, some tank and artillery units, truck drivers, and support troops.
M1 garand stock crack series#
In a series of tests involving several manufacturers’ carbine designs, the Winchester version won out, and was adopted by the Army in 1941 as the U.S. It was a gas-operated weapon that used a short-stroke piston. Is that one better than this one? Well, maybe, and we’ll look at a few here, but first, let’s look at a bit of the history of these little rifles.īased on a design by David “Carbine” Williams, the M1 Carbine was developed by Winchester around 1940.

Can you still get one today? Sure, no problem. For whatever reason, lots of shooters like the M1 Carbine.
