M1 Carbine

All regulated for 4 moa or better when they were built. Then the barrels get shot out and they're 8 moa or worse. I had one with a worn out barrel. 2 plus on ME gauge is pretty worn out. I now have one with 1 plus and she's 4 moa just like it's supposed to be. Nothing to write home about but I can't shoot my 1911 that well even at 25 yards. The whole point of a 5 lb carbine was to shoot people at 100 yds....or closer. Success.

Mine will do a little better than 4 MOA with my handloads.

Offhand at 100 yards.


It’s an Inland, rebuilt at some point between WWII and when I purchased it in 2010.

It’s got a NOS inland barrel with a 1944 date stamp on it, the stock is clean with a very sharp cartouche (someone did a very good job refinishing it) and the parkerization is very very good.

I appreciate shooting it.

My ‘43 SAGINAW S.G. Won’t hold that silhouette at 100yds.
It was arsenal o/h at some point as it has the 300yd rear sight, type 3 bayonet lug barrel band, and an Underwood barrel that “looks” like new.
I’ve done the “accuracy treatments”, and slugged the bore, .3075”... but not checked bore or throat erosion.

It actually shoots best with a Lee 93gr cast RN from 6-cav mold, powder coated with Harbor Freight powder, and sized .311”. Powder charge is 11.7gr of #2400, velocity about 1,850fps. Shoots 4-5” at 50yd... but it’s a real hoot to shoot. Vastly more fun than a 10/22.

I took a bronze medal with it at the first CMP D-Day Carbine Match. However, they used the SR-2 target at 100yds (13.2” bull). Next match I shot, they used the SR1 (6.1”) bull target. 15rds prone, only 7 hit the black... Not much of a score, but all were on the target.

I’m planning to rebarrel it, but can’t decide on whether to take a chance on a GI barrel, or a Criterion. They are $229 plus shipping from CMP. Plus installation...
Stock was “refinished” by someone in distant past, so no cartouche on stock. It’s a shooter, not a collector...

Ive never been disappointed with the accuracy on any of my Carbines- but then the first thing I do when I buy one is take it out of the stock, clean, lube, inspect, adjust, hang and reassemble, so I guess theres that.

Ive been on a Carbine jag of late. Never had any interest in them when they were cheap, now Ive got 5 of them (3 Inlands and 2 Winchesters) in the past 8 months or so. Its been quite the learning experience too.

All of mine date to early to mid WWII, and have been arsenal redone, and have the bayonet lug and adjustable rear sight. A couple have the upgraded mag release too.

Wood is pretty decent on all of them. A couple have the "early" stock, which Ive come to prefer, the rest are "pot bellys". Some have cartouches, some dont. All have the maker IDs and seem to be correct too.

Accuracy wise, they all seem to be within that 4-5" range at 100 from a rest. 99% of what I shoot are my reloads, loaded to what the spec is. I have shot a couple of boxes of the PPU 110 grain SP's, and they shot the same as my reloads.

The sights on all of mine needed some fiddling. The later adjustable rear sights were staked in place, and it seems all of mine were drifted past that at some point and needed to be restaked. Simple enough, as you can see where they were originally staked. Just put them back there, stake and rezero. Dont understand why they would hammer them out, as they all zeroed right up when back in place.

All of mine seem to have had the front sights replaced and were never rezeroed to the rear for elevation. Four of them shot pretty low to the rear sight setting, and one shoots about 4" high. The CMP has a good info page on the Carbines and addresses the front sight issue. Set the rear to 100, and file the front down until you get zeroed. The one I have that shoots high is what it is. The post is about even with the top of the "ears". It wasnt touched, so it looks like the issue is elsewhere.

Reliability, as they came, was pretty spotty. Ive replaced the bolt parts and recoil springs on all of them at this point. Four of them right off, the fifth a little while later after getting the gun. That, and using the new, Korean mags, took them from about 75-80%, up to about 95% plus. Depending on the gun, I still on average, usually get at least one stoppage in 100 rounds. Bolt parts and a recoil spring will run you about $50. The bolt tool is a must too, and a repro runs around $35. Might as well get the piston wrench while youre at it.

Ive also had one of the "slides" shear just forward of the charging handle. Happened on the one Winchester I have that is a "Blue Sky" import. I balked at buying that gun just because of the Blue Sky thing and past rumors heard back when they first came in. After a number of passes through the shop on different days, a bit of fondling and haggling, and the dealer knocking $400 off the price, how could I resist? 52 rounds in and it cut loose.

The slide wasnt GI, and looked to have Korean markings. I got a GI slide from Numrich (they have pretty much everything you need ) and was back in business a couple of days later. Funny thing is, that rifle has turned out to be my favorite of the bunch.

They are fun guns to shoot, and I take one of them with me every time I go to the range now.

I have two, Winchester and IBM. Both shoot on par with what others have said.....about softball at 100 yards. I have made up some loads for them with different recipes, but not shot any of them yet....I have had them worked up for over a year now....just keep drifting off to this or that.....not sure why they are a ball to shoot.

I see guys shooting them at the CMP a lot and have never been impressed With the groups they shoot. Could be there ammo, most are shooting cheap commercials stuff and steel cases.
On the other hand I seen old guys at the 600 yard line and a M1 shoot rapid groups with all shots touching

I'll post this here again in case anyone missed it the first time around. Hackathorn, a Carbine fan, gives several tips to improve reliability.

I have owned quite a few m-1 carbines over the last 50 years and never had a real bad one and shot thousands and thousands of free and low cost GI ammo out of them. I kept this Winchester rebuilt as it was one of my best shooting carbines. I once,years ago shot a ground hog at about 200 yards at a full run and after I rolled him he was moving a little and I shot at and hit him again killing him.

My brother had one that our aunt got from a patient back in the 1950s. The lady's son worked in an armory and must have stolen one piece by piece. He died and left the rifle, about a thousand rounds of ammo, several magazines, etc. Anyway, the aunt took it in payment for nursing services and gave it to my bro. After several years, my bro had an accident and needed money to pay for repairs, so had to sell his guns. Being about 12, I was not in position to buy them.

Bottom line is that I enjoyed shooting that rifle more than any other I've ever shot. It was deadly accurate and fit me very well. One day, when hunting with my brother, a grouse flushed about 10 feet in front of me and I nailed it about 20 feet away. You don't forget stuff like that.

I've always wanted another one, but haven't found one that I'd be happy with.

Lots of fun shooting the Carbine. We shoot clay pigeons on berms at various distances to 100 yds. From standing it is pretty easy to nail them out to 75 yds. At 100 yds I need to pause a bit and then it is only about 75% hits. An Ultimak rail and a small red dot like Bushnell TRS 25 makes it even easier though at 100 yds. the dot pretty much covers the clay.

I shoot mostly handloads of 110 gr bullet over 25 gr W296.