It was simply that a lot of blood had to be spilled to work through the details.
There are few examples of American military manufacturing prowess more compelling than that of the M1 Carbine.
Grunts of the day just called it the Carbine.
The M1 Carbine was a war-winning weapon. It was the most-produced American small arm of World War II.
The Carbine was Americas first Personal Defense Weapon.
What Uncle Sam needed was a lightweight rifle that was easy to carry and simple to use.
Folks like us seldom give the humble Carbine a fair shake.
This M1 Carbine was produced by the Rock-Ola jukebox company and is fairly typical of most wartime Carbines.
Compared to the battle rifles of the day, it was indeed fairly anemic.
However, compared to a handgun, the .30-caliber Carbine was simply magnificent.
When viewed through that lens, the mission and performance of the Carbine attain better clarity.
The M1 Carbine was as much a cartridge as a gun. From left to right are the 9mm, the .30 Carbine and the .45 ACP.
The warden where he served supposedly let him piddle in a machine shop while incarcerated.
Another major player was Ed Browning, the brother of the aforementioned famed American gun designer John Moses Browning.
Apparently those kids just had the gun designing gene.
The M1 Carbine and M1911A1 pistol, represented here by a modern Springfield Armory Mil-Spec, each complemented the other in active service.
Winchester ultimately pulled together the winning prototype in a mere thirteen days.
Fuel for the Fire
The M1 Carbine was a weapon system, in the purest sense.
The revolutionary .30-carbine 7.62x33mm round pushed a 110-gr.
Early Carbines had a pushbutton safety and a pushbutton magazine releaseoriented side-by-side.
jacketed bullet to just a bit short of 2,000 feet per second.
Almost all magazines used during World War II in the Carbine were stubby 15-round boxes.
By the Numbers
During the course of wartime production, we made more than six million carbines.
Later Carbines features a rotating safety lever to help distinguish between the magazine release and the safety when in a rush.
Ten different companies built the rifles.
This compact little gun was the most produced American small arm of the war.
At the height of production we were manufacturing 65,000 Carbines per day.
Early Carbines used a simple-L-shaped flip-adjustable rear sight. This was the most common version on wartime rifles.
That was alongside 1.9 million M1911A1 handguns.
Meanwhile, the Germans produced around a millionMP40 submachine gunsand about 426,000 StG44s of all sorts.
TheRussians made about five million PPSh subguns.
Later Carbines featured a rear sight that was easily adjustable for both windage and elevation.
(To learn more about the subguns of World War II, clickhere).
There is an Internet-based religion that orbits around the nuances of Carbine collecting.
Its acolytes do not suffer heretics lightly.
Relatively few World War II wartime Carbines included a bayonet lug.
Voluminous Variations
A selective-fire version called the M2 Carbine was introduced in October of 1944.
There were purportedly very few of these versions to see combat before the end of the war.
An Airborne-specific version sporting a flimsy side-folding wire stock was designated the M1A1.
This Rock-Ola Carbine set Will back a bit, but he had always coveted a military rifle made by a jukebox company.
I have found the folding stock to be underwhelming in actual use.
The bare steel is uncomfortable, and the stock lacks a positive retention gear when either deployed or stowed.
A friend was given an M1A1 by the family of the man who jumped with the rifle into Normandy.
Post-war Carbines typically included an adjustable rear sight, a bayonet lug, and thirty-round magazines.
Thinking of all the collectible firearms I have ever seen, that one is the coolest.
The M3 was the same basic Carbine fitted with an early IR night scope and flash hider.
These cumbersome rigs had a short range, around 75 meters.
The M1A1 Paratrooper Carbine featured a folding wire buttstock and was intended for use by airborne forces.
Early Carbines sported a pushbutton safety alongside the pushbutton magazine release.
It was therefore awfully easy to inadvertently jettison the magazines when attempting to press off the safety.
I have myself done this before.
The side-folding wire stock on the M1A1 Paratrooper Carbine was both flimsy and uncomfortable.
The later rotating safety lever rectified this problem nicely.
Range Time
The M1 Carbine is pure unfiltered recreation on the range.
The gun is all but recoilless and fairly reliable even under hard use.
The trigger is pleasantly crisp, and the gun is good out to a couple hundred meters.
I find that the low bore axis lends itself nicely to decent combat accuracy.
Conclusion
The M1 Carbine was a war-winning weapon.
No decent gun collection is complete without one.
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