.22 m1 carbine...i want one

[kir_kenix]

my dad picked up the coolest rifle i had never heard of before today. its an m1 carbine that somebody had rebarrelled to 5.7mm. i have always loved the m1 carbine, and between me and my father we own quite a few.

my dad happened upon this rifle because a friend of his had his father pass away recently and he had no use for such a rifle. i guess his father was into reloading and wild-catting because he had this rifle and several other weird caliber/barrel length combos. anyway, my dad picked it up pretty cheap ($450) and i cant wait to get out and shoot it.

i like the idea of an m1 as a very fast handling "varmint" or "survival" type rifle. the rifle seems to be in pretty good shape and there are about 200 or so hand-loads, a self written load book, and dies that also came with the rifle.

i was wondering if anybody had ever heard of having this done, and what loads (if any) they had worked up for it. also, what is the accuracy like out of the short barrel. from just barely looking thru the load book, it indicated that he was using between 10 and 13.5 grains of a powder that i had never heard of before and do not recall now (velocity also is lost to me now, but i can remember not being overly impressed).

if it ends up shooting well, where would i go about having one of these made? what kind of money would it take to have it rebarreled? god, i cant believe how excited i am about getting a new toy to play with.

edit: oh, by the way, he used regular .30 carbine brass necked down to accept the 40 gr .224 bullets.

 

[270Win]

What an interesting idea - I assume you mean the 5.7x28 cartridge FN developed for the Five-Seven and P90? That definitely raised my eyebrows.

 

[Guns R Tools]

This may be chamberd in 5.7 Jonhson Spitfire.

http://www.ammo-one.com/5-7JohnsonSpitfire.html

 

[kir_kenix]

yes...i believe it is the 5.7 johnson spitfire. seems to have an actual following of sorts. also, fulton armory apparently at one time rebarreled m1 carbines for this caliber, tho i am unable to find this service on their website so far.

 

[Gustav]

Cool find

Didn't Iver Johnson or Plainfield offer something like this many years ago?
That or it is a GI rebarrel either way something different to have fun with.
Only down side is having to reload for it.
Marlin also made a cute M1 .22 LR clone the model 989 M2 IIRC.

 

[DWARREN123]

At one time they were available, haven't seen any new ones for years. They do pop up every once in awhile. 5.7 Johnson Spitfire. Hand load only just about, 30 Carbine necked to .22 caliber.

 

[Roadkill]

Erma Werke imported them back in the late 70s, they were later manufactured in West Germany and imported under Iver Johnson. I had two, very difficult to disassemble/reassemble, other than appearance they had nothing internally similar to a M1. The magazines were inserted at an angle instead of straight. The alloy metal was subject to break on the operating rod. They worked well only with high velocity ammo.

 

[M2 Carbine]

I've had the M1 Carbine in 5.7 Johnson for many years.
I had two but lost one in a fire. An original and one I rebarreled.

It's an excellent round but never caught on. With the 40 grain Hornet bullet, that it was designed for, the muzzle velocity is a measured 3,000 fps.

If it's an original 5.7 Johnson $450 is a very low price.

Ammo is almost impossible to get but 30 cal Carbine brass can be necked down to 5.7.

This is a 5.7 reload next to the FN 5.7.

 

[Browning]

Isn't the ammo for a 5.7 Johnson Spitfire kind of hard to come by though?

I looked into at one time when I had an M1 Carbine and that's what killed it for me.

 

[El Tejon]

Wow, what a blast from past! I remember those.

Another reason to love THR, you get to relive you past.

 

[MD_Willington]

Even the IMI M1's were chambered for this round

 

[270Win]

Doubly interesting...!

 

[kir_kenix]

i went out and shot about 20 rounds thru this thing today. it had about 3 or 4 malfunctions, but they appear to be magazine related. anyway, i wasnt super impressed w/ accuracy for sure. not much difference (that i could tell) then the regular .30 carbine. however, it was fun to shoot and the bullet is about 1.5x as fast as .30c from what i understand, so maybe ill look into having one of my plainfields rebarreled so i can have a relatively close range, fast handling coyote gun.

 

[JesseL]

While I think these are very cool and interesting, from a practical standpoint, do they offer anything you can't get from a Mini-14?

 

[kir_kenix]

While I think these are very cool and interesting, from a practical standpoint, do they offer anything you can't get from a Mini-14?

hmmm....no. not really. but hey, its really cool. i own alot of guns that arnt "practical," its more about me just enjoying the sport i guess.

 

[JesseL]

its more about me just enjoying the sport i guess.

That's good enough for me.

 

[rangerruck]

marlin makes the 75 c, the 99-1 and the 99-2 as well. Well , they used to make them all, but you would have to find them used now.

 

[FMJMIKE]

I would like a M1 Carbine in the same caliber as the PPsh. Thats 7.62 X 25 I believe. Lots of good cheap shooting fun............

 

[Vaarok]

The chinese made/reworked some M-1 carbines to 7.62x25. Supposedly needed some tweaking to the extractor or something, but they worked.

I have one of the Iver Johnson Ermawerke EM-1 Selbslader .22s, and it's a great little carbine. Mags cost and arm and a leg, and the folding-stock version costs a fortune. Mine was cheap 'cause it's got a fairly beat up finish, but it works like a champ and very accurate at a hundred yards.

 

[Evil Monkey]

Weren't these necked down 22 caliber MI carbines the first stages of Project Salvo?

They were devised to show that bursts of smaller rounds were more effective in the modern battle field than one big .30 cal bullet. Eventually, that led up to the M16 and it's 5.56mm and all the way up to the HK G11.