The M1 Carbine

American shooters have a love affair with the M1 Carbine and have had since the day it was introduced. From a purely logical point it is hard to understand why. It isn’t particularly inexpensive to buy or shoot. The cartridge is marginal at best for anything larger than coyotes and the gun isn’t accurate enough for use on varmints smaller than woodchucks. Yes, I know people that have shot deer with it and I’ve even seen .30 Carbine used on prairie dogs, but I can say the same thing about .22 LR.

Just because a thing can be done doesn’t mean it should be. Given all that, we still have a love affair with the M1 Carbine and the only reasons I can give are that it’s fun to shoot and it was carried in combat by some relative of just about everyone, including my father. The story of its development and manufacture is pretty well known but there persists some misunderstood facts, so I will briefly cover the history before getting into the mechanics.

Let’s get the most commonly circulated and "known" fact out of the way first. The M1 Carbine was NOT invented by David Marshall "Carbine" Williams while he was in prison. What Mr. Williams invented was the short stroke gas operating system that was used in the Carbine and later on the M14. His involvement in the development of the M1 was very limited. He was hired by Winchester to work on a program but it proved so difficult that Winchester assigned two of its engineers to do the development work and Mr.

Williams quit. The U. S. Army Infantry formally requested the Ordnance Corps to develop a light carbine to replace the 1911 pistol in 1938. Ordnance was opposed to its development because they believed the standard service rifle was sufficient for all U. S. troops. This was most likely their position due to budget limitations and logistical concerns over having to supply two front line rifles with different ammunition and maintenance.

In 1940, the Infantry once again requested a carbine or light rifle from Ordnance and with war having already broken out in Europe, the Secretary of War backed up the idea by creating the U. S. Light Rifle Program. This was most likely due at least in part by reports that the 1911 had proven ineffective in the Great War that very few causalities could be attributed to the pistol.

The Carbine Created The first step in the development was to find or design a suitable cartridge that could be put into mass production in a very short time. The Ordnance department requested input from Winchester for recommendations of a semi-automatic cartridge and Winchester recommended their .32 Winchester Self-Loading. The services got together and agreed on the general specifications of what they wanted in a carbine and put together a rather long list of specs that I will only touch on here.

First, it was to be a semi-automatic light rifle/carbine no heavier than five pounds, including the sling. It was to be effective out to 300 yards shooting a cartridge similar to Winchester’s .32 SL, firing a bullet between 100 to 110 grains at a velocity of approximately 2000 FPS. The specs go on and on specifying things like a box magazine, a safety, that the design should be simple with as few parts as possible, and easily assembled and disassembled with the cartridge being the only tool needed.

The request was sent out and all sample carbines were to be delivered for testing no later than February 1, 1941 but delays due to changing dimensions of the ammunition caused the date to be set back to May 1, 1941. There were nine initial submissions from Savage Arms, Woodhull Corp., Colt, Harrington & Richardson,

Auto-Ordnance, Springfield Armory, and Bendix Aviation. Trials were held on June 16, 1941 and the overall results were not encouraging for several reasons. To make the weight restrictions, some models had hollow stocks or no forearm cover. None of the carbines were what the military thought they could use, with only those submitted by Bendix and Springfield Armory considered for retesting if modified in specific ways. All the others were dropped as ineligible for retesting.

Ordnance settled on September 15, 1941 for a suddendeath round of retesting to be completed by September 30. Interestingly, they allowed for new entries and improved models of the guns already dropped, so it effectively was still a wide-open competition. Winchester was aware of the Light Rifle Program but at the time was busy with a contract to manufacture the M1 Garand and other work for the Ordnance Department. The entire situation at Winchester was complicated.

David Marshall Williams was hired to work out These are often hidden under the later windage-adjustable sight. problems Winchester was having with a rifle designed by Johnathan Edmund Browning, half brother of John Moses Browning. Browning died shortly after and his rifle, the .30-06 Winchester M2 Military Rifle, was still experiencing problems.

After looking at the design, Williams said he could make it work if he was allowed to use his short stroke gas system but he wanted to be paid royalties if Winchester used it. Williams started working on Browning’s M2 The later band incorporated a bayonet stud. This was later replaced with the windage-adjustable sight shown laying on the stock. rifle during January 1941 and had it in shootable condition by the end of May.

At that point, Winchester approached the Ordnance Department and told them they thought they could field a gun meeting military requirements. Ordnance officials gave them the go ahead. The first model was put together in thirteen days using a scaled down and modified Browning M2 Military Rifle receiver and bolt, including the short stroke gas system Williams had invented, along with the trigger mechanism from the Winchester Model 1905 modified slightly to fit. This work was done

Not all the manufacturers had barrel making equipment and barrels were supplied by manufacturers that did. Quality Hardware, Standard Products, Irwin-Pedersen, and National Postal Meter didn’t make barrels and were supplied with them from the other sources. So, a receiver from any of those four manufacturers with a barrel marked from another manufacturer is not necessarily mismatched. by Bill Roemer and Fred Humeston, not David Williams.

Williams was extremely upset over not being involved and told Winchester that he did not want his name associated with the gun, however, he did agree to demonstrate the gun to the Ordnance Department. The people at the Ordnance Department liked the gun from the first time they saw it A number of Ordnance officials insisted they be present for a firing demonstration on August 11, 1941 and the gun worked perfectly for the 50 to 100 rounds General Courtney Hicks Hodges, then Chief of Infantry, fired.

Hodges immediately ordered three models be ready for the upcoming trials but was told it would be impossible to have three available by September 15th. When the Chief Engineer returned from the demonstration firing, he found Williams had done little in his absence and assigned Roemer and Humeston to make a gun along the general lines of the one they had. When the new model was tested, it had operating problems and Williams agreed to get involved in the project again.

Literally at the last minute, it was discovered that the gas port was too small and by enlarging it they got the gun to operate. When the sudden-death service test started, Winchester’s submission was the runaway best rifle. The only failure experienced was a bolt breaking near the right locking lug. In order to complete the test, Humeston rushed back to New Haven and found his boss and a coworker had already roughed out a bolt. He was able to finish it and rush back in time to finish the test.

On October 1, 1941 after all the test data was processed, Winchester was informed they had won the Light Rifle Program competition and their design would be adopted. Being awarded the contract to manufacture what became the M1 Carbine was the good news for Winchester. The bad news was that they ran into trouble almost immediately. The first problem was a need for more machinery to produce the guns at the rate the government wanted them.

Unfortunately, the Ordnance Department did not give them a high priority and the company had to wait. When some of the machines finally arrived, Winchester had a serious manpower shortage. In order to entice more workers, the company offered a four hour day for those unable to devote a full day to a job. The Ordnance Department continued demanding more production but still refused to give Winchester higher priority for the needed machine tools.

When it became obvious that Winchester was never going to be able to keep up with the ever-increasing demand, it was decided to bring on other manufacturers. The first was the Inland Manufacturing Division of General Motors, soon followed by Saginaw Steering Gear Division of GM, IBM, Underwood, Rock-Ola, Quality Hardware, Standard Products, Irwin-Pedersen, National Postal Meter, and Commercial Controls.

The history of the startup of production of the Carbine at each of these companies, most of whom had never made a gun, would fill a book. Each had its share of problems and none of them made all of the parts. The subassembly and parts suppliers list is extensive and really shows how much industrial capacity the United States had in the 1940s. Of these manufacturers, some had little trouble making M1s that met the government inspector’s standards, others had a very difficult time.

Rock-Ola needed extensive help before they were able to produce Carbines that passed the quality control standards, while Irwin-Pedersen and Commercial Controls never did. The approximately 3,500 M1 Carbines Irwin-Pedersen made were never accepted by the government, their contract canceled, and taken over by Saginaw Steering. It appears Saginaw assembled some M1s on Irwin-Pedersenmarked receivers that were to spec

High pressure gas bled from the barrel forces the gas piston back. The gas piston pushes the operating slide back with enough force to move the bolt to the rear far enough to eject the spent round and cock the hammer. The bolt is propelled forward by the recoil spring with enough force to pick up the next round from the magazine, chamber the round, and lock the bolt closed. and finding one to add to your collection will cost you a pretty penny.

National Postal Meter changed their company name to Commercial Controls in 1944 and produced fewer than 250 receivers marked with the new name and are very rarely encountered.

The amazing thing is that despite labor shortages, difficulty in getting material, startup problems, rejected production guns that didn’t meet specifications, a steep learning curve for manufactures that had never made a gun before, and literally hundreds of subcontractors and suppliers, in less than four years over six million M1 Carbines were accepted by the Ordnance Department. Even more amazing, in an age without CNC machinery, computers, or computer-assisted drafting, all the parts were interchangeable.

If you take 100 Carbines from all the different suppliers, disassemble them, and mix up all the parts, you will be able to assemble 100 Carbines that all work. No small feat in the middle of a world war. Throughout production numerous modifications both large and small were made. One of the persistent problems was bolts breaking near the right locking lug, just as had happened during testing.

In February 1944, Inland got permission from the Carbine Committee to manufacture 1,000 round bolts to see if they could solve the breakage problem. Function and endurance testing were performed with three M1s and 6,000 rounds were fired. The results were disappointing and On the far left is a gas piston wrench, a handy tool for removing the gas piston nut after extended firing. all that was reported was that two of them finished the test satisfactorily while one did not.

War was declared after Pearl Harbor and it was determined that the requirement for the M1 Carbine would be at least one million units by the end of 1943. With Winchester and Inland only able to each produce 1,000 per day, they wouldn’t be able to reach that capacity until June 1942 and it became clear they would have to find other manufacturers. Underwood, Quality Hardware, Rock-Ola, Irwin-Pedersen, and National Postal Meter were put under contract to produce 35,000 Carbines per day each. A note on barrels.

Not all the manufacturers had barrel-making equipment (such as Quality Hardware, Standard Products, Irwin- Pedersen, and National Postal Meter) and were supplied barrels by other sources. A receiver from any of these four manufacturers with a barrel from another manufacturer is not necessarily mismatched, it’s how they came from the factory. Design Changes Many changes were made to the original design as time went by. The original flip-type rear sight was replaced by a windage-adjustable model.

A bayonet lug was added to the forward barrel band and a bayonet was procured (just in case you wanted to spear a can of Spam and heat it over afire.) A folding wire stock paratrooper version was added. Eventually, the round bolt was adopted to reduce the bolt breakage problem. As far as the troops were concerned, the vast majority of them loved the little gun. It was light, easy

to carry, and held 15 rounds of ammo in a magazine that could quickly be changed out for a full one. On the down side, as described by Lt. Col. John B. George in Shots Fired in Anger: A Rifleman’s View of the War in the Pacific about fighting on Guadalcanal and with the Marauders in the CBI (China, Burma, India) Theater, the M1 Carbine was OK for the most part but needed a carrying handle and a more effective cartridge as the issued one wouldn’t penetrate much jungle and lacked both accuracy and stopping power.

During the Korean War (I don’t care what anyone else calls it; when armies are maneuvering and shooting live ammo at each other, it’s war enough for those involved) many of the M1 Carbines were converted to the M2 with full auto capability and a 30 round magazine. Unfortunately, it had more reliability issues. After the war, S. L. A.

Marshall talked to troops that were armed with all the small arms available at the time and concluded that the M1 Carbine was much better as a semi auto than it ever was as a full automatic. We also supplied hundreds of thousands of them to the Koreans and later to the Vietnamese. The Carbine went on to serve well into the 60s and probably beyond.

In 1969, I was in the Air Force and stationed in England and we were still doing our annual qualification with M2 Carbines because all the M16s were still going to Vietnam. After the war, many Carbines were sold as surplus through the NRA and the DCM (Director of Civilian Marksmanship), which became the CMP (Civilian Marksmanship Program.) Demand was so strong that even with six million having been produced, available supplies sold out quickly.

You would think that with so many Carbines in circulation, the market would be saturated but you’d be wrong. The demand remained so high several civilian firms have made copies of the gun commercially and still do. Today, many collectors and shooters are eyeing all the Carbines still in Korea and waiting for the import ban to be lifted so they can come flooding back into the U. S. The CMP, famous for selling M1 Garands as the DCM had previously, occasionally has them for sale but availability is always limited.

An official M1 Carbine Match has existed since being fired during the National Matches in the early 1950s and the CMP continues to host the M1 Carbine Match today due to continued interest. The American shooting public’s love affair with the little M1 Carbine hasn’t dimmed a bit even if she has turned 75 or so. She is still sweet, beautiful, and as slim as she was in youth.

Maintenance To field strip the M1 Carbine for cleaning, remove the magazine and be sure the gun is not loaded by opening the bolt and visually checking the chamber. Remove the sling if present. Depress the forward Alexandria VA 22310 band lock spring and slide the band forward. You will probably need a tool like a small screwdriver as the spring is typically very strong. Remove the upper handguard by pulling it up and forward.

Remove the barrel and receiver group from the stock by pivoting it upward at the muzzle so the rear of the receiver unhooks from the recoil plate in the stock. Remove the recoil spring and guide by pulling to the rear and then moving the front of the assembly away from the slide and pulling it forward, out of the hole. Remove the trigger guard retaining pin from the front of the trigger guard assembly and slide the assembly forward until the slots at the rear of the assemble clear the ears on the receiver.

Move the operating rod to the rear until it reaches the retaining groove at the rear of the receiver and rotate it counter clockwise to remover the slide from the receiver. The bolt can then be removed by moving it about an inch to the rear of its closed position. Lifting the front of the bolt up and turning slightly clockwise. "Reassemble in reverse order" is one of those things writers like to say and it sounds both logical and simple.

In this case, it isn’t difficult once you get the feel for all the things that need to line up. I suggest disassembling and reassembling several times until you are familiar with how it all works. For further history on the M1 Carbine’s development, modifications, and the aftermarket makers, check out Larry Ruth’s three-book series, War Baby! The U. S. Caliber .30 Carbine, Vol. 1, War Baby! Comes Home, The U. S. Caliber .30 Carbine, Vol. 2, and War Baby III: The U. S.

Carbine into the 21st Century published by Collector Grade Publications. For repair and gunsmithing the Carbine, I suggest The U. S. 30 Caliber Gas Operated Carbines: A Shop Manual by Jerry Kuhnhausen. AG