Universal M1 Carbine

Well, I had a kaboom from one in excellent condition recently. They are notorious for this. They are the only manufacturer of the m1 carbine that is NOT mil-spec. The parts from other manufacturers will not fit. Its worth like $500 or so. From what I've read AFTER the kaboom its like shooting at your own risk. They fire out of battery on a regular basis. Again, the universal is the only one that does this. Hope this helps.

I asked here if it could be modified with better parts. The answer was no. I don't think you can even buy the universal parts any more.

If it's in the condition you describe and you have no real connection to it, I'd throw it up on one of the gun auction sites and watch the stupidity begin.

GI carbines have increased to the point many who want a casual shooter won't cough up the $. Back when GI's were plentiful and relatively cheap the Universals didn't get much attention and mostly what they did get was negative. I would expect that now, even given their shortcomings, you'll get substantially more than you paid for it.
Good Luck

I had the same model for years and never a problem
I shot it a lot and sold it to a friend, who I think is still shooting it once a month.
Most of the parts did interchange with the GI M-1 but had to be fitted.
And I inspected mine often to make sure there were no mechanical issues.

If yours is like new, then it is worth it to have it looked over by a Good Gunsmith that KNOWS the Carbines.

Despite the naysayers I have an early 1980's model Universal and have fired over a thousand rounds through it without any problem except for magazine fitment. It is particular about which magazines it likes but other than that is has been a fun gun. I paid about $200 for it around 1995 and it is also was in like new condition. I also have a Saginaw Gear Works M1 Carbine that I bought around 2002 for just over $500. I love shooting it but I also recognize the historical value is greater than my enjoyment of blowing up water filled plastic jugs or making #10 cans dance. If you wish to sell it I don't see any problem, if you wish to shoot it I certainly wouldn't be intimidated by horror stories as there are usually a lot of variables left out of such tales that might prove embarrassing to the teller.

Or not.

I have seen Universals Fail. but nothing Catistrophic.
But they were also owned by guys that bought them when they were cheap, and Never cleaned or oiled them.
They would buy a case of ammo and shoot it alll up then stick the gun in the closet until next time they went out.
Barrels were rusty, bolts wouldnt cycle or lock in battery, and the guys just kept loading and firing them till they stopped working all to gether.
So, How many of the Horror stories are from things like that ?

You actually tried to get it to fire out of battery? I got shrapnel in my forehead, a busted lip, and a hand massively swollen with shrapnel in a couple fingers when it happened to me. If my eye protection had not been on i would have taken shrapnel there. Not to mention the powder burns in my forehead and hand.

I had one for a while. I never did actually shoot it. I found Cowboy Action and went off in that direction instead.

But I also read the horror stories and tried my gun to check for firing OOB. Sure enough, if I cycled the bolt and rode it down to hold it back a little it would fire even as far OOB as 3/16 or 1/4 inch. If yours does not do this then I'm guessing that you got one of the last of the older batch of Universals that still had mostly GI receiver parts.

If I'd shot mine before I sold it again then I would have simply fired one, checked for OOB, fired another, checked, etc for the first box or two. If all was good I'd start playing with double taps and such. And as mentioned ensuring that the action was kept clean and slick would go a long way towards it running well.

I looked into a mod or similar to prevent OOB triggering. But I never pursued it far enough to find out if anything could be done.

Hahaha, well this IS the internet. I had to ask. Lol They went out of business a number of years ago. That probably helped them out. Hey, unlike me at least you asked first. I researched them after my kaboom. And mine actually wasn't that bad. It could have been much worse. Dig up my thread on here. Lots of good info added there from various members. I think its titled "KABOOM". A couple months ago or so here in the rifle section.

New production ammo. Cleaned before shooting it. Happened after just a handful of shots. I didn't know they had this problem so I wasn't checking between shots.

I am a little puzzled how the firing pin can strike the primer with enough force to set it off if the cartridge is not seated against the front of the breach. The firing pin should not protrude more than an 1/8" which theoretically should not be able to reach the primer a half inch before locking down. At a half inch before lock the hammer would be striking the underside of the bolt instead of the firing pin. I have had a couple of SKS's go full auto on me because of a stuck free floating firing pin, but I had that problem remedied by sending the bolt to Texas for a new firing pin with a spring retainer. I am not saying that what happened to you did not occur but I do not think it would be a common flaw among all Universal Carbines. Nor am I arguing that they are state of the art firearms, they are what they are, a low priced imitation of a fine firearm and as long as the buyer and seller are aware I see no problem.

Mom got one from they got in the early 1970's and she had no issues with her' s.

As I understand it, rounds in an autoloader are usually held against the breech by the extractor hooked on the rim. So the round could be 1/2" out of battery and still against the breech enough for the firing pin to strike it. I don't know what mechanical flaw the late versions of Universals had that allowed them to fire OOB, but it seems to be a common problem. Perhaps keeping healthy oprod springs in them will help.

The problem isn't that the hammer can be released when the bolt is open, it's that the hammer can impact the firing pin when the lugs are not fully engaged in their recesses.
There was some cost saving machining measures taken that allowed this to happen with the Universals that had they adhered to the original GI specs would have made this nearly impossible. This page has some info and a better explanation:
http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/safety.html

I don't think the Universals are exceptionally LIKELY to have an out of battery if properly maintained but it obviously IS possible. Debris in the chamber, an exceptionally long brass, or even a weak recoil spring could allow it to happen.

Guntoter, thanks for your reasonable and accurate post. No hysterics, no internet hype, just the facts.

Every time I see one now I curl up in the fetal position and start crying. Is this normal?

I bought one when I was 18 (in 1977) to celebrate my ability to purchase a rifle "all by myself". The cost (as it was for many years) was a whopping $109.00, with one ten shot plastic magazine (whcih failed two days later). With a newly purchased 20 round GI magazine that I bought at SARCO, I shot 1000's of rounds thru the thing. I scoped it with the factory side mount (that's what the plastic "thing" on the left side of the receiver is all about, it blocks off the area where the mount attaches), and shot the heck out of it. I shot it with military surplus ammo, commercial ammo, and my very first reloads. I never had a failure to feed except with soft nose ammo. It was reliable and fun to shoot.

They have zero collectable value and they are not of interest to military collectors. With that said they are good utility grade shooters. There's no large-numbers history of anything being wrong with them, there aren't 100's of guys who have experienced the hypothetical firing out of battery, and there aren't dozens of guys wiith blown up rifles sitting in the corner. People bad-mouth these things "because they can", which is easy to do because they are low hanging fruit for comparison against a GI carbine. There's nothing inherantly wrong with them, and equally there's nothing particularly interesting about them. Put them in the same league as a Mini-14: Just a cheap utility rifle that has a stand-off resemblance to a military rifle. To toss into the bottom of a boat or the back of a truck they are just fine. They were the SKS of the day: It's what all of the "kids of all ages" bought to turn into tacti-cool "stupid rifles" with all of the bolt on crap that you see today on SKS's. They were as common as dirt, cheap, and nobody ever really had any problems with them.

If you have a nice one, and it seems that you do, stick it on Gunbroker with a starting bid of $400 and let it sell for what it sells for. Put the cash in your pocket when it sells and forget about it.


Willie

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