Which M1 Carbine Brand?

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TheBigFundamental

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So I want to pick up a .30 M1 carbine and I know a bunch of different companies are making them and I have heard that some are much less reliable than others.

Does anyone know what a good maker of M1 carbine is so that I can keep an eye out for it while I am shopping?

Thanks in advance, everybody.
 
There's a company called Inland that just started building new ones. They look decent. The receivers are cast but they "claim" they accept all USGI parts and they are an exact reproduction. Stay away from Kahr, they're quality is lacking in my opinion. I collect and rebuild originals which were all built during WW2. You don't want one of those unless you are prepared to rebuild it. Most of them have been used up several times.

http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/12/16/inland-manufacturings-1945-m1-carbine/
 
CoalTrain49 said:
I collect and rebuild originals which were all built during WW2. You don't want one of those unless you are prepared to rebuild it. Most of them have been used up several times.

http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/12/16/inland-manufacturings-1945-m1-carbine/
Click to expand...
But many haven't been. Mine was a bring back and it's in perfect mechanical and cosmetic shape.

My recommendation would be to find an original GI model in good shape. They were better quality than any of the later repros, and will always have collector value which the repros never will.
 
CoalTrain49 said:
There's a company called Inland that just started building new ones. They look decent. The receivers are cast but they "claim" they accept all USGI parts and they are an exact reproduction. Stay away from Kahr, they're quality is lacking in my opinion. I collect and rebuild originals which were all built during WW2. You don't want one of those unless you are prepared to rebuild it. Most of them have been used up several times.

http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/12/16/inland-manufacturings-1945-m1-carbine/
Click to expand...
My 1944 Inland is in pristine condition and needs no rebuilding. I have seen many M1 Carbines at gun shows that are in very good shape.
 
For the price you'll pay for the newly manufactured Inland M-1 Carbine, I would shop around for a good, used G.I. Carbine, which could be had for around the same price. You will have to do some looking and it would be good to find someone familiar with Carbines that can help you pick out a nice G.I. Carbine.

The G.I. Carbine will hold it's value over the years much better than it's newer counterpart.
 
I've owned a number of them, still have two (an Inland x-marked made by Saginaw and a Quality Hardware). Never had to rebuild them.
 
Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but I'd shop around for a real USGI carbine. Mine is a bring back that was never rebuilt and still runs like a top.
 
But many haven't been. Mine was a bring back and it's in perfect mechanical and cosmetic shape.

My recommendation would be to find an original GI model in good shape. They were better quality than any of the later repros, and will always have collector value which the repros never will.
Click to expand...

You could do that, I did. Learning curve is steep on the USGI but there are plenty out there. Barrels are the major concern. All other parts are available, many are NOS and serviceable. Even barrels are available new if you want to go down that road.

The reason I suggested new is for a guy who just wants to shoot one without issues. That would be my recommendation. You can find them rebuilt already but those are north of $1200. Many people buy a USGI and they are 6 moa or worse and they loose interest real fast with that kind of accuracy.

Try Fernwood Armory if you want one in decent shape.
 
USGI is the way to go if you can afford one. Many of the early Plainfields are built with USGI parts including receivers and can be found for under $500.00. Universal made crap and they aren't USGI spec.
 
Decide how much money you can spend first. An issue Carbine would be first on the 'I want' list. Don't buy into the "all original" BS though. 99.99% of all Carbines went through a factory rebuild after W.W. II. And none of the manufacturers made all the parts. Any Carbine claiming to be "all original" was made that way by somebody with too much time and money.
"...Stay away from Plainfield..." Not true at all. Unless it's one made after Iver Johnson bought 'em. All Plainfields are exact copies and can use all issue parts
Universal made crap after they thought they could improve the design. Early Universals were built on and with issue parts. Early Universals are very scarce though.
"...a bring back..." No such thing. The troopies were never allowed to keep issue firearms.
 
Sunray said:
"...a bring back..." No such thing. The troopies were never allowed to keep issue firearms.
Click to expand...

Sunray, I'm not going to make any assertion about what "troopies" were allowed to bring back, or not.
All I will say is that my father was a Korean War Vet, served in the U.S. Navy, and during the war he was in a U.D.T. Team.
Upon returning to America he brought back.
1.) CO2 powered speargun.
2.) Scuba tank and related gear.
3.) M-1 Carbine.

Had he been "allowed" to bring it back? Years ago when I asked him how he'd obtained it he told me he brought it back from Korea, but he was never any more specific than that.
I think maybe he ... . "liberated" it. If so, surely he wasn't the only vet who liberated a military firearm.
 
My Auto-Ordnance/Kahr has over 2500 rounds through it and it has been excellent.

I would rather have gotten a GI, but I was starting with 800 rounds of reloads from an estate. I decided to run those through a $600 AO rather than a $1k piece of history. It fired all of them flawlessly, plus another 2k of my own loads so far.

I have grown to like it. Even if I get a USGI later on, I will still use the AO as my primary shooter.
 
TheBigFundamental said:
So I want to pick up a .30 M1 carbine and I know a bunch of different companies are making them and I have heard that some are much less reliable than others.

Does anyone know what a good maker of M1 carbine is so that I can keep an eye out for it while I am shopping?

Thanks in advance, everybody.
Click to expand...
The extent of my experience with M1 Carbines:

Summer'07 I picked up 2 USGI Inlands from the CMP. They are in excellent condition and surprisingly accurate.
 
Sunray said:
"...a bring back..." No such thing. The troopies were never allowed to keep issue firearms.
Click to expand...
No such thing? Maybe not officially, but many, many firearms were brought back by means not officially sanctioned.

I'm going to assume you're just exercising your constitutional right to sarcasm. :rolleyes:
 
Sunray said:
"...a bring back..." No such thing. The troopies were never allowed to keep issue firearms.
Click to expand...

Never say never... [emoji12]

Theres been plenty of things brought back from wars over the years. I happen to know of a brought back all original carbine. Never rebuilt, none of the "upgrades", no reimport marks and I met the man who brought it back. Hell of a nice native American man who wouldn't lie about anything.
 
So, I'm with BikerDoc and Speedo on this.

1.) Avoid the Universal commercial copies. Junk. Junk. Junk. I had one, and my friend had one. Mine shot around corners to the right. My friend's spit extractor claws downrange. Sold mine. My friend kept hers, but hasn't fired it in decades.

2.) Spend your money on quality. Buy a genuine carbine and own a piece of a history.

3.) Whoever said "no such thing as a bring back" must be in the modern military. Today, it would vritually impossible to "bring back" a captured weapon and totally impossible to bring back an issued weapon. The government just has too tight of controls on those items today. But in 1950? pfffffffft. A clever GI could get most anything, short of a howitzer perhaps, home.
 
One thing that I forgot to mention about the 2 USGI Inland Carbines that I bought from the CMP.

Both barrels are, apparently, overtimed requiring the rear sites to be moved to the far left for zero, so your windage adjustment in that direction is, pretty much, used up.

I have read of a lot of folks who have received USGI carbines with this issue.

It is not worth it to me to consider retiming them (and the resulting possible chamber-length issues) as I don't make any mechanical azimuth mods with an M1 Carbine in the field, anyway.

Just something to consider.
 
CoalTrain49 said:
There's a company called Inland that just started building new ones. They look decent. The receivers are cast but they "claim" they accept all USGI parts and they are an exact reproduction. Stay away from Kahr, they're quality is lacking in my opinion. I collect and rebuild originals which were all built during WW2. You don't want one of those unless you are prepared to rebuild it. Most of them have been used up several times.

http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/12/16/inland-manufacturings-1945-m1-carbine/
Click to expand...
My Kahr has operated flawlessly after the first 50 to 60 rounds.
 
Fifty to sixty rounds is no measure of relialibility------when you have a thousand or two run through it you should still be able to report favorably. Some of the Kahr's had problems but i think they are quite nice now. However, if i were to spend that kind of wampum i would look for a real GI, but i am biased having collected USGI Carbines for the past fifty years.
 
A friend of mine didn't want "old worn out military junk" (hahahaha), and against my advice (AND my offer to sell him a BLUE SKY import Inland for $500), he ordered a new AO for $850+tax. That thing has never fired more than two rounds in a row, and hangs up FTF/FTE with at least 5 different brands of ammo we have tried. A real turd. He requested a return authorization, and they refused to take it back. Over $900 invested in junk that is, basically, a single shot.

The only after-market carbines I've owned were Universals, and they were no better than the AO. Feeding issues from the start.

USGI is the way to go. I've seen a few today for less than $875, on line.
 
I've been tempted to buy one of the new "Inland" models that just came out. I am fully aware that the new brand has no relation to the original Inland. The draw to be is that the gun is brand new. I love shooting the M1 Carbine, but I have no knowledge about that to look for in an original. I don't have enough time to dedicate to learning the ins and outs of original M1s or the time to scour the used the market looking for one that meets my needs.

I want a M1 that I can shoot without worry about parts or hurting the value. The AO models look kind of cheap, but the new Inland models looks pretty authentic. Price is the only problem though.
 
Bikerdoc

Had a Plainfield in 1968. From your comment about QC, I see that nothing has improved since then.
 
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