The M-1 carbine is one of the most enduring of all American martial arms of the 20th Century. A “war baby” born during the most terrible conflict of all time, the M-1 was rapidly replaced by the U.S. Army in the 1960s but it’s never lost its home in the hearts of shooters from sea to shining sea. Today, it seems that an updated version from a well-known Italian concern is making a splash over here.
In 1937, the U.S. Army adopted the beautiful and efficient M-1 Rifle of Mr. John Garand as the standard combat arm of the country’s solders, replacing the Springfield 1903 bolt-action rifle that had served since before the First World War. The Garand was the best battle rifle of its day.
Semi-automatic, it held 8-rounds of hard-hitting 30.06 in an enbloc clip and could spit them out as fast as the soldier armed with it could pull the trigger. It could be fitted with a bayonet, a rifle grenade launcher, and was accurate out to 800-yards or better. However, it was huge and heavy at well over 9-pounds and over 43-inches long due to its 24-inch barrel. This led the military to search for a compact rifle that could be used by non-combat types such as truck drivers, cooks, and clerks, who didn’t need to lug around a 30.06 rifle that they likely would rarely use, but still needed more firepower than what a pistol allowed.
“Marine awaits signal to go ahead in battle to recapture Guam from Japs.” July 1944. Lt. Paul Dorsey. (US Navy)
In the end this search produced the M1 Carbine, with, as you know, the term ‘carbine’ being a designation for a short-rifle. This handy little semi-auto, since it used an 18-inch barrel and a miniaturized action due to its shorter 7.62x32mm (.30 Cal carbine) round, gave a gun that was just under a yardstick in length. Weight was a comfortable 5-ish pounds. Fed by detachable 15 or 30 shot magazines, these little carbines were very popular and were soon used by tank crews, paratroopers, NCO’s and others who rather a shorter rifle than the M1 Garand, while still able to hit reliable targets out to 100-yards or so.
Between 1941-45, over 6 million carbines were made by companies as diverse as Rock Ola (the jukebox people), Underwood (the typewriter guys), IBM (see Underwood), and Inland who made car parts for GM (more about this in a minute). This latter company churned out nearly 3-million by themselves.
Popular throughout WWII, Korea and the early part of Vietnam, the M1 Carbine was only fully replaced in U.S. service by the M16 in the late 1960s.
After the war a number of makers like Universal and Plainfield jumped on the huge stash of GI surplus parts to produce new (well, new-ish) M1 Carbines for the civilian market. Recently the born-again Auto Ordnance Company (owned by Kahr) started making all-new M1s here in the states and was joined by MKS-marketed Inland late last year.
Now they have some competition in the form of a 9mm carbine that looks and acts like a M-1 but takes the same mags as a Beretta 92F…and did we mention that it comes in synthetic all for around $500?
Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk
Like this:
Like Loading...
