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Greetings Liberty Lovers;
This week’s firearm is the M1 Carbine
Prior to WWII the army realized the full-size M1 Garand was impractical for service oriented troops, like drivers, supply people, medics, etc. Alternative weapons such as the M1911 pistol or the Thompson machine gun were effective at close range but limited at 75 to 100 yards. The army decided a new weapon was needed. Something that didn’t add a lot of weight and would have a range of 300 yards.
The M1 Carbine filled the gap between short range pistols and the long range fire power of the M1 Garand. In 1938 the Army requested the Ordnance Department to develop a light rifle or carbine. This led to a competition in 1941 by a variety of manufacturers and designers. The prototype for the M1 were chambered for a new cartridge, .30 Carbine. This was smaller and lighter than the 7.62 (.308) or the .30-06 that was currently being used. The .30 Carbine round is straight walled and looks like a long pistol round or old style rifle round.
Through a variety of trials the M1 took on the Garand-style rotating bolt and operating rod style. Therefore, it looks like a scaled down M1 Garand. Aside from size another big difference was the M1 Carbine took a box magazine versus the enbloc clip used by the Garand.
There are several variants of the M1 Carbine including a folding stock, select fire and specialized scopes.
There were lots of manufacturers of the M1 Carbine:
General Motors/Inland
IBM
National Postal Meter
Quality Hardware and Machine
Rochester Defense
Rock-Ola Manufacturing
Standard Products
Underwood-Elliot-Fisher
Winchester
Mine is a GM, barrel dated 5/1945.
I have shot mine. I’m not sure how anyone got 300 yard shots off on it. I shoot it at 100 yards with no consistency with groups. It will get bullets down range quickly. Fun to shoot.
Big Mullet