But most of the R&D had been done on the Winchester G30, G30M, and G30R chambered in 30-06. The 13 day design was basically spent scaling down the G30R to the Winchester Cal 30 Light Rifle per the specs put forth in the War Departments request for a light rifle; and the following month was spent tweaking the design for the second round of trials.
A Garand weighs about 10 pounds. A real drag to carry around, but the weight makes 30-06 a lot easier to shoot.All truth has to be weighed by the quality of your assumptions. And, Wars [and by extension wargames] tend to get fought using the weapons, tactics, and strategies needed for the last war.
That said, I would have a spot in my safe for a good, vintage carbine. A Garand would be more appreciated by some one else. The Garand is a fine weapon, but I like to shoot my toys. After the second shoulder rebuild a carbine would be a lot more fun...
It would have been really great in .30 Remington, but it wouldn't have been as light and handy.Considering the military ended up with a plastic rifle firing the 5.56, an M1 carbine with better magazines and something with a little more range than the .30 carbine could have succeeded as a bridge between Garand and M16. But we must remember that it was never ever viewed as a primary infantry rifle, so whether it was technologically more advanced than the Garand is rather immaterial. Given the thinking and decision that gave us the ill-conceived M14/7.62x51, what is truly amazing is that the military ever got to the M16/5.56!
That comes from the time of the Initial Carbine Testing (all entries failed) to the Final Selection testing (only Winchester's entry passed). There was significant time pressure on the development.13 days? Are you sure about that?
We’re talking “developed” not “invented”. Like many at the time, Winchester looked at what worked on previous weapons to “develop” parts for new weapons. That still holds true today.Yeah, so the claim it was developed in just 13 days really isn't true.
It was made outdated and obsolete incredibly quickly by the likes of the STG44 and the AK47, but for the time and in the context in which it was developed I think the carbine was a big step forward except for one thing, the cartridge. Had the carbine been chambered in something like a 300 blackout or 277 wolverine or the like, I think it would have been a huge hit and a probably would have started to supplant the Garand as the war went on. I am not a fan of the 30 carbine in any way. It gives up so much accuracy potential, range, and I think the blunt nose and straight wall is a big part, if not the major part of why carbines have the reputation of being unreliable. I think an M1 in a better bottleneck intermediate round may have even influenced the army to move away from the full power battle rifle about 20 years earlier than we did, and we may have never had the M14.
Between the age of 18 when I moved out from my parents' house and the age of 21 when I purchased a factory new S&W Model 13 revolver, an inexpensive preowned Universal M1 carbine served as my HD firearm with South Korean brass cased FMJ ammunition I found in some gun shop. I don't remember ever seeing .30 carbine JHP or JSP ammo in the early 1980's. I kept that gun for a long time without using through the following years. I sold it to a work colleague in my age bracket who really, really wanted it 13 or so years ago.In these recent days of unrest, I have been keeping my 1944 Quality Hardware .30 Carbine handy, stoked with soft point ammo. I have AR's (along with a number of other rifles, including a Garand) in the safe(s), but the wife does better with that old carbine, and I am more confident that she would be able to use it to good effect should the need arise.
Just one problem. That whole family of cartridges was still in the future. The 30 Carbine is almost, but not quite, a rimless 357 Mag.
Also don't forget that the propellants that makes things like the 300 Blackout and 277 Wolverine were pretty much in the future. If I'm not mistaken the then new H110 was the powder used in the 30 Carbine. I think that the best thing that could have happened at the time would have been a flat nosed bullet.