Which M1 Carbine Brand?

[dickydalton]

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.

I said, "My Kahr has operated flawlessly after the first 50 to 60 rounds."
You jumped right in with "Fifty to sixty rounds is no measure of relialibility------"
and "when you have a thousand or two run through it you should still be able to report favorably."

Now I'll say, My Kahr had about 3000 rounds through it after the first 50 to 60 rounds, flawlessly, when I posted my original comment. Also, I paid $630 NIB for it if I remember right.
You need to think before you talk

 

[Catpop]

I got a nib Plainfield for Christmas in 1964 (I think). Well made little rifle and never had any issues with it. Not sure what the quality issue referring to?
Catpop

 

[jrmiddleton425]

"...Maybe not officially..." Otherwise, it's called theft of government property. Everybody knows how clever the troopies are and were, but one doesn't want to call a vet, a thief. However, at no time in U.S. history were discharged troopies allowed to keep the weapons they were issued. Supposedly, at one point, they could purchase though.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/641
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/mcm/bl134-49.htm

You posted a link to Article 134 of the UCMJ, which is irrelevant. It is incorrect to say that U.S. troops could NEVER purchase their weapons. Until 1919, you could have the cost of anything you were issued, taken out of your separation pay, and it was legal if an officer gave you a hand receipt for many years after.

When my grandfather left the USMC in 1952, his company commander BEGGED him for his issued M1 Carbine, to the point of offering, off the books, a month of his pay and a 1911 pistol.

 

[gotboostvr]

I don't doubt your story JR, but why did the Company Commander want that particular carbine so bad? Was it a notoriously good shooter? Save the CC's life?

That's a rifle with at least one more good story behind it!

 

[Ash]

Could be that it was the first carbine he could get his hands on. A company isn't all that big an organization and the commander isn't all that high a rank. He might have been a first lieutenant or at best a captain. And, stories get better the longer they have been told.

My parents restored an old house that had been converted to apartments. One of the first things we did was to dismantle all but two of the bathrooms (most were in bad places, like in a walled-up front porch). We were utterly conservative with materials and anything we found. If it has a possible use in that house (possible being going with the house, 1940's louver windows did not and were not kept), they stored it for later use. But old showers, toilets, and the like got taken to the road.

A couple of decades later, after my dad had passed away, stories arose that had been passed around the small Alabama town that we had taken pristine antiques and threw them away - evidently tossed them from the second story to be ruined on the ground. Anyone who knew my parents knew an antique would never have been tossed. Anyone who knew the dump before it was restored would have known there would not have been any antiques to be found. But anyone who shared the story had to add some bit of spice to it until the story was completely wrong.

However, soldiers do bring back things. Somewhere around 2006 I inspected an Izhvesk-made SVD dated 1984 that was in well-used condition and lacking a scope for sale at a gun show in Mobile, Alabama. That rifle HAD to have been smuggled back into the US from either Iraq or Afghanistan. It was not an import.

 

[bersaguy]

My father has a Plainfield that he bought at an Army/Navy store in 1964, not sure if it was new or used at the time. I'm assuming this is one of the earlier Plainfields as it will take any USGI part dropped right in. It has been absolutely flawless. Its been to the range, out in the woods hunting, never missed a beat. Probably one of my all time favorite rifles to shoot.
On a side note, he worked at Saginaw Steering Gear for many years (where many M1's were made during the war) and there were stories of guys finding everything from small parts to complete rifles stashed around the plant, behind toolboxes, in storage lockers ect, well into the mid '60's

 

[jrmiddleton425]

I don't doubt your story JR, but why did the Company Commander want that particular carbine so bad? Was it a notoriously good shooter? Save the CC's life?

That's a rifle with at least one more good story behind it!

He wanted it for the semi-fancy stock as I recall. He was a Captain, and had won the Silver Star. He went with my grandfather to the armory to claim it, when Grandpa turned it in.

 

[bainter1212]

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.

Yep...my Inland is a 1943 and was obviously never put through an arsenal rebuild....it HAS to be a bringback. All the parts are type 1 parts and the barrel is original.

My grandfather brought back his M2 carbine from Korea.....he got skittish about legalities and sold the thing sometime in the 60's. He says that he had a Russian "sniper rifle" (his words, presumably a 91/30) that he threw overboard in San Francisco bay after they threatened to prosecute anybody with "contraband". Ironically, nobody was searched.
He must've been comfortable having that carbine stuffed into his bag though......if you think about it, they DO take apart easy and stow well too.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Wow, very cool! To think there may be a 91/30 sitting in the San Francisco Bay as we speak... One of my favorite parts of fun forums are the stories one learns from all the different areas in the country. I would still love an My carbine if I can find one for a good price.

 

[Delmar]

My late father in law was assigned at the end of WWII to an AAF base in Connecticut to certify returning overseas bombers for flight over the USA to the dumping yards or what have you. He and the other mechanics found all manner of weapons-German, American, Italian and others stashed aboard aircraft inside of inspection plate areas and such.

Of course, they were required to turn it in to the armory, but he did say that between them all, they could have armed a few third world countries. The flight crews of course claimed ignorance and to his knowledge nobody was ever charged with theft of government property. He was kind of mad about the whole thing because he would have loved to have kept a few of them-especially a German Drilling he found in the wing of a B-17.