M1 Carbine - questionable stopping power

With JHP's, it'd be excellent. Think of it as a .357 magnum with a 30-round magazine.

Plenty of people use 9mm carbines for HD, and the .30 Carbine with good JHP's exceed 9mm ballistics by a considerable amount.

It's long obsolete as a military caliber, so no reason not to feed it with the best soft point or hollow point bullets you can find. It will raise the one stop percentage from around 70 to 95%+.

Who was that cop in New York that did all the stakeouts for bank robberies, and got involved in numerous gunfights? He carried an M1 carbine and walked out alive every time. He claimed that it worked like a charm.

I'm just getting a little tired of all these gunshow commandoes that keep repeating the same old BS all the time: They all fall to hardball (but only for the 45 ACP), the M1 carbine bounced off winter overcoats, The M16 jams all the time, because my uncle, father, brother, whatever carried it in Vietnam and what was true then is true now.

I remember reading somewhere that's its stopping power was dubious. I believe I recall this writer saying it was on-par with a .38 special. I found that hard to believe, but I wanted to bring it before any of you guys who have some experience with this rifle.

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An M1 carbine was my first "real" (non-.22) rifle. I loved it. I felt humbled to be owning a piece of our military history.

About "stopping power" I have heard that the military full-metal jacket M1 carbine round "overpenetrated." (This was also stated on one of the History Channel's excellent gun-topic shows IIRC.) This might be true, but I doubt overpenetration would be much of a problem with a good softpoint or hollowpoint bullet.

Really someone needs to take some photos of a .30 carbine punching through quilted clothing at a 100 yard into a target.

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I've got the telogreika, and I'd personally like to volunteer matheath to wear it and test a .30 Carbine at 150 yards.

Don

Read John George's Shots Fired in Anger if you want a soldier's first hand account of the carbine in combat.

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Also, With British Snipers to the Reich, by Capt. C. Shore.

I've shot .30 Carbine Ball through both sides of a empty propane tank. The idea that a winter coat no matter how thick will stop Carbine bullets is ludicrous.

Gratuitous M1 Carbine picture:

Nice carbines, Dave!

telogreika

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Looks sorta thin to me, USSR! Does telogreika not mean T-shirt in Russian?

The cop's name is Jim Carillo (or something close to that anyway).

Usually the "expert" that talks about the Carbine being underpowered and not fit for defense will praise the .357 as being such a great "man stopper".

It's fun giving them an education.


Years ago I read a Audy Murphy interview in which he said the M1 Carbine was his favorite rifle.

If the M1 Carbine is good enough for the most decorated soldier in WWII, I wouldn't be the one to say the rifle isn't up to the job.


M2



Just bought another last week. My 10th I believe.

New in the box IAI. Unusual because IAI has been out of business for years.

When people in here throw mudballs about whether or not a .223 is an appropriate HD round, I sit back and relax because I know that 110 gr .30 carbine is perfect.

The rifle is perfect for my wife to handle as well, I don't have to watch her wrestle with my SKS.

I am curious, however, does anyone make illuminated sights for it?

nto only is it twice the speed of a 38, but wolf is starting to do a hot load for this. I wouldnt' wanna get hit by it.

M2 Carbine, nice guns. Is that a Nissan PU? I'm also curious about the gun on the bench. Is that a red dot or scope of some kind?

http://http://www.theboxotruth.com/should answer many of the rumors of the M1 carbine being underpowered.
I think it is a fine rifle and a very useful round. If used for hunting I believe the best round would be one of the 110gr softpoints and keep it under 100 yards.

I heard the .30 carbine round wouldn't even penetrate heavy winter clothing!

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The guys who went to war in the winter in Korea were some hard fellows who deserve much respect for what they did, but I've always suspected this claim to reflect more (and poorly) on the rifle marksmanship skills of some of those combatants from that war than on the M1 carbine.

For what it's worth, the couple of Korea vets I've met who mentioned the carbine both loved it and seem to have found it more than adequate for making Chinese problems go away.

30 carbine

Just think of it as a 110 grain .357 magnum and a half. The stories about it not going through quilted clothing are from the korean war and were probably from using the gun beyond its maximum effective range. these guns were very popular with the police during the 60's riots and worked very well. Klein's sporting goods in Chicago sold them to the police with ammo for $50.00 when everyone was afraid the city was going to burn down.

One likely explanation of the .30 Carbine not penetrating winter clothing in Korea story is that the ball ammo did not immediately kill some of the Koreans, because the shot was not right through the heart or spine, or the soldier was drugged to the gills and his nervous system did not quit, and the heavy clothing soaked up all the blood. This would make it look like the round did not even penetrate the clothing since the guy was up and moving and there was no sign of blood. Personally I'd rather shoot someone with a .30 Carbine soft point or HP than with a 9mm.

My father-in-law was in Korea for three years and was in almost all of the major battles. He carried an M2 exclusively. On one occasion while on guard duty he discovered three heavily clothed men near a building where a meeting of officers was to take place. When he challenged them they charged him , he killed the first two with one shot each and the other with his bayonet to the throat. They were later identified as Chinese laying explosive charges around the meeting house. He was recommended for the SilverStar by his colonel but never received it. Point is the little 30cal didn't have much respect for their heavy clothes.

Looks sorta thin to me, USSR! Does telogreika not mean T-shirt in Russian?

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McCall911,

You just had some image of a massive, bullet-stopping, psuedo flack jacket in your mind. This is what the Russians, NK's, and Chicoms wore, along with the sharovari (padded pants). They were still Russian issue until the mid-70's.

Don

So far every living thing I've shot at with my M1 Carbine died in its tracks without being too chewed up to turn into food, one turkey and one deer. Obviously the turkey doesn't say much about it's defensive capabities but the deer was decent size and I didn't have to chase it down like some others there with high power high dollar scoped rifles. With decent shot placement it will do the job.

My dad killed two mule deer with one in the same day. (Back when group hunting wasn't aggressively prosecuted here.)

dm1333
M2 Carbine, nice guns. Is that a Nissan PU? I'm also curious about the gun on the bench. Is that a red dot or scope of some kind?

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The truck is a 85 Toyota. It just so happens that those hooks for holding the jack handle are in a good spot to attach hanging straps for a rifle.

That's a old Tasco Red Dot on the hand guard.
It's a project I made up in a couple days some years ago. It involved trimming down the hand guard and mounting a Weaver rail to it. Then Glass Bedded the hand guard, stock and action to strengthen it and remove all the play. Turned out pretty good.

Later I bought a rail that replaces the hand guard, (can't think of the name offhand but it's expensive) and put it on another Carbine.

mljdeckard
The rifle is perfect for my wife to handle as well, I don't have to watch her wrestle with my SKS.

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From the very first day, in 1962, that my (future) Wife shot my DCM M1 Carbine She claimed it as Her own and always liked shooting it and the ones that followed.

It was my job to keep the loaded magazines coming.

The early "long rifles" that were what settlers used to bag their deer and bear, and were the snipeing rifles of their day and probabally won the american revolution; were of usually .38-.41 caliber and shot balls of 90-110 grains at 1900-2000 fps. That sounds like M1 carbine ballistics to me.

The .30carbine is definitely not a full power rifle round, but it's much better than any common defensive handgun calibers.

one issue with the M-1 is the old tropical ammo from WW-2 they used a lot in Koreia for a while. at -30 degrees it would not light off well and tended to hit like 750 to 850 fps and did really make people want a big stick vs the carbine but that was a poor ammo issue and not the gun or round too.