The Humble US Carbine, Caliber .30, M1...

I can't think of many rifles that are this darn entertaining. Enough pop so that it feels more serious than a .22, almost zero recoil, and adequate plinking accuracy. Throw in the sense of history and you have a winner.

Not really great at anything, but just a hoot to shoot.


Any other fans out there?

I love the m-1 it is a great little rifle that can GETRDONE!

Great little weapon for personal defense in a "When the Sh*t Hits the Fan" scenario.

As useless as it is, I took my first deer with one- Borrowed from a friends dad.
Loved to plink with it, cheap surplus ball ammo was everywhere.

Thanks for the memory jog!

I recently traded an M-1 with an iffy bore for a like-new Universal carbine, and consider that I made a good trade. I'd shot other people's over the years but never could pry one away in a trade. It was a good trade - the guy who got my M-1 rebuilds them, and it just wasn't a shooter without some serious work I couldn't do myself.

Here's the irony, though - I've not yet shot my carbine, not this one. I moved from a small city (+/- 60k pop) to a rural county several years ago, and while I had three public free ranges, a gun club (I belonged) and two indoor ranges in the city, here I've been unable to find any place to shoot. Life's funny, ain't she?

The problem with the M1 Carbine is that they are so cheap to shoot, and so good as a trainer rifle for the youngsters, and so much fun to plink with, that most of them you see for sale are pretty well shot out. But they certainly were a fun little gun.

Of course I much prefer its big brother, the Garand, and its big cousin, the M-14, which I have to qualify with every year. But they are in a different category and have a different role altogether, and it's not so much comparing apples to oranges as apples to prime rib roasts.

If you live out in the country, you should be able to find a place to shoot. Ask around. There may be an informal "range" somewhere, where folks plink at cans and such.

If you're ever in Raleigh, the museum in town has David "Carbine" Williams' (the inventor of the M-1 carbine) entire workshop on display. His is a fascinating story.

Taipei Personality said:

If you're ever in Raleigh, the museum in town has David "Carbine" Williams' (the inventor of the M-1 carbine) entire workshop on display. His is a fascinating story.

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Didn't they make a movie about that guy, with Jimmy Stewart? What was the name of it?

I fired one about a year ago. It belongs to a friend who, like me, enjoys classic military firearms. I liked it, too. My Garand is my favorite.

When I was a kid, I owned a M-1 carbine BB gun. It was made by Crosman, and it was awesome.

Don

Slash McCoy said:

Didn't they make a movie about that guy, with Jimmy Stewart? What was the name of it?

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Yep, it was "Carbine Williams" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044480/

My son has a Garand I love to shoot. We make our own cartridges so it isn't too expensive to shoot. I would love to have the carbine. You can get a new one for about $650. My guess is they are more fun to shoot than an AR-15.

steveclarkus said:

My son has a Garand I love to shoot. We make our own cartridges so it isn't too expensive to shoot. I would love to have the carbine. You can get a new one for about $650. My guess is they are more fun to shoot than an AR-15.

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Don't get offended, but I'd just as soon throw rocks as shoot an M1 Carbine. How about a .25 auto pistol? A bag of marbles and a Wrist Rocket would be more effective. Actually, a four foot wooden stick would embarrass all of the above (in the hands of a skilled person). Not the Garand. That's a rifle.

The AR-15 is a much better weapon than the M1 carbine.

Topgumby said:

I can't think of many rifles that are this darn entertaining. Enough pop so that it feels more serious than a .22, almost zero recoil, and adequate plinking accuracy. Throw in the sense of history and you have a winner.

Not really great at anything, but just a hoot to shoot.


Any other fans out there?

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I'm a fan and I own one.
It is cheap to shoot, compared to the Garand.

JB


FFL

PS I sold my AR-15's I had in stock and kept my Ruger Mini-14, which to me is a superior to it's military cousins for my varmint hunting.

I like the rifle; but I don't like the caliber. My father-in-law has one of these with a folding butt stock brand new in the box.

Bit2 said:

PS I sold my AR-15's I had in stock and kept my Ruger Mini-14, which to me is a superior to it's military cousins for my varmint hunting.

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Yes, now THERE'S a nice little rifle! I had one of the first ones in stainless steel. The only prob it ever gave me was that the grooves for the bolt lugs had a pretty tight tolerance, and ANY fouling in there would sometimes cause the bolt to not rotate completely, and prevent the gun from firing. It was sweet to carry, felt and looked like a real rifle, and was tolerably accurate. Not as cheap to shoot as the carbine, but still not bad. Of course, I was somewhat prejudiced in its favor because of the similarity to the M14.

DavyRay said:

Don't get offended, but I'd just as soon throw rocks as shoot an M1 Carbine. How about a .25 auto pistol? A bag of marbles and a Wrist Rocket would be more effective.

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Not offended but I disagree - ballistically, it's a high power .357 mag but it's fired from the shoulder with next to no recoil (makes a Marlin 336 feel like .416 mag in comparison). Pretty effective IMO. Great for home defense (modern soft point rounds).

Yeah, I've never understood that, either. How you get from "The Garand fires a more powerful round" (very true) to "The Carbine isn't a good combat round" (debatable) to "Might as well throw rocks" (downright silly) is beyond me, unless the intent is satire. Even a quick viewing of "Infantry Weapons and Their Effects" (a WWII vintage training film well worth a Google) should convince any but the intractable that the M1 Carbine was, and is, a close range weapon to be reckoned with.

The War Department didn't mandate the manufacture of six million Carbines because they couldn't get enough wrist rockets or four foot sticks. It did what it was designed to do, provide a handy close range personal weapon that was much, much more effective than a pistol in the average GI's hands. Within a couple hundred yards, it would be tempting to go for the increased capacity and ease of handling that the Carbine offered, even over the vastly more powerful Garand, and many soldiers and Marines did just that...although I'm sure that there were an equal number eager to ditch it for the heavier M1 rifle.

I don't know why, but the same guys who try to convince me that the Carbine was a harmless pipsqueak, even when I show them the 1/8" steel plate I Swiss Cheesed with a Carbine, will then usually be the first to observe that the .45 M1911A1 would knock down even the most fanatically berserk foe with a single round, even if it only clipped the pinkie.

Man, I haven't had a good gun rant in years! (used to work retail firearms sales in a former life).

I'm pretty good, but a pinkie on a moving target is a pretty tough shot.

luvmysuper said:

I'm pretty good, but a pinkie on a moving target is a pretty tough shot.

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Oh, I dunno. I'm watching a bunch of realy early John Wayne oaters, and the young Duke seems hip shoot sixguns out of dastardly hands pretty regularly.

Just think what he could do with a Carbine, with that increased sight radius..."Picking off Pinko Pinkies with his Pipsqueek Plinker, The Duke goes to Korea to deliver M1 manicures to the Reds in The Carbine Cowboy vs. Callused Commies, an RKO film that shows that John Wayne is brutical to the collectivist cuticle..."

The 30 cal M1 Carbine seems unappreciated.
It is light to carry and cheap to shoot.
Here is a history.
And here

John

P.S. Remember the M2 is fun to shoot as well!!