Auto Ordnance M1 Carbine

[BP Hunter]

Here we go again on a new thread of M1 carbines.

I am bent on buying an M1 carbine. I have done some research on these wonderful firearms. I am not looking for genuine WWII rifles and am not willing to pay $1000 for it. I am just looking for another "new" gun to play with for plinking.

I have deciced to buy an Auto Ordnance/Kahr version since they seem to be the only company producing M1 carbines. I don't care too much for old ones. My local LGS is selling a used one for $550 in walnut. It looks clean but I noticed some "chipping" to the area where the rear part of the receiver meets the stock - I hope you can get the picture. My brother told me that it wasn't a good sign that the stock isn't fitted well and the receiver is "kicking" it on every recoil resulting in chipping of the stock. Is this an expensive fix or a sign of future problems?

Thans for your comments.

 

[BP Hunter]

Anybody...somebody...

 

[RNB65]

I've never fired an AO M1 Carbine. But a couple years ago, my gunsmith told me flat out to never buy one. He said the quality control is awful. He's had many brought into his shop with all sorts of problems due to poorly made and badly fitted parts. I trust his judgement and will never consider buying an AO carbine.
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[BP Hunter]

Thanks for your response.

 

[DougW]

My AO works fine. Yes, I did tighten some screws, but it functions perfectly and is totally reliable. I changed out the rear sight to an adjustable one, and it is very accurate.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Buy IAI (Israeli Armament Industry?) instead.

 

[Tony50ae]

My auto ordnance carbine functions well and is pretty accurate too. And at least to me is a beauty. I bought mine in August of 07. Maybe the newer ones have suffered from a lack of quality control? I know when I bought mine I had to wait nearly three months as my gun store couldn't get enough in to meet demand.

 

[M2 Carbine]

Buy IAI (Israeli Armament Industry?) instead.

I have one. It's a nice gun but I think IAI (Houston) has been out of business for a good while.

I haven't shot or owned a Kahr Carbine but they look pretty good. I started to buy one when they were about $500 but I think they are $600 or more now.


I do have a Kahr Thompson. The quality is right good.

 

[NoobCannon]

I had an AO/Kahr awhile back, and I shot toe-to-toe against my dad and his AR-15. I flat out loved it, and he loved it, too. Practically had to fight him for trigger time behind it. That was, of course, until .30 Carbine dried up and I end up paying close to $60 a box for M2 Surplus that it couldn't fire due to the firing pin spring not being strong enough. Sold it in an ill-advised attempt to bail a family member out of jail....never should have done that.

it's on my list of guns I need to get back no matter what. I miss that little rifle.

 

[Ignition Override]

My brand-new AO Carbine was bought in October '07 from "Guns and Ammo", in Memphis.

Although it was treated in a careful manner, never dropped etc, something happened.

After about 140 total rounds of new, clean Rem. ammo, one day the bolt had some friction when cocking it.
While trying to loosen it, it jammed itself...solid as a rock.

It was my first gun purchase, and at age 52.
My wife said "They won't refund your $750 for a gun which is broken"? The factory did a free repair.

My mistakes were:
1) having not read anything about them beforehand
2) I should have asked people about them and also read about the Mini 14 and SKS.
That AO could not compare to the ruggedness of my (1990) Mini 14 or SKS.
Maybe this gun had been outsourced to the same place where many of the "Century CETMEs" were assembled?

I'm glad that things worked out much better for most of you guys/gals.

 

[mmitch]

I bought mine in 2004. Problems were many and varied and after it's second return to me from AO, I left it in the box and traded it.
I bought an Inland (1944) and never looked back.

Mike

 

[BP Hunter]

Anyway, I coudn't wait any longer. I bought a brand new AO M1 Carbine 2 days ago. Oh, man!! That was one sweet and fun rifle to shoot! The recoil is light and I can hit soda cans at 80 yard withs the open iron nonadjustable sights. I find it more fun that my other autoloader rifles - Mini 14, DPMS M4 and WASR 10 Romanian AK47. I definitely want my wife and 10 year old girl to shoot it.

When I bought, I routienly cleaned it. It wasn't the funnest to disassemble. It was even more difficult reassembing it. Every step was fairly easy except when I had to EXACTLY put the pin back that held the trigger group to the receiver. If you didn't get it right,it wouldn't fit. It took me at least 15 mintes to get it right. The metal also looked "cheap", the wood also looked cheap. I was surprised that it cost as much as my Mini 14 and the craftsmanhip of the Ruger was excellent compared to the M1 carbine.

But it all completely changed when I shot the rifle. It's definitely a KEEPER! It's also small and light enough for home defense. My wife and 10 year old girl had no probelm charging the handle where they struggled with the heavier recoil spring of the Mini 14 and M4.

Sorry no pictures...but it did happen!

 

[briansmithwins]

That AO could not compare to the ruggedness of my (1990) Mini 14 or SKS.

To be fair, the original M1 carbines never had all that good a rep for reliability. If I remember correctly, the carbine never passed the mud test, but the Army kept accepting them anyway, cuz, ya know, there was a war on.

BSW

 

[NAVY SEABEE 303]

I have rockola M1 carbine my father gave me as a gift when I was 15, (I am 44 now, they were a lot cheaper then) and it has never had fail to fire, fail to feed or fail anything! It is a great little rifle that is a blast to shoot. I just wish it was cheaper to shoot is the only thing I would complain about.

 

[Batty67]

I got a new to me AO M1 carbine with a Choate tactical (non-folding) stock, sling, 8 15-round magazines, and 2 30-round magazines for $550. I added a tactical scout rail and Vortex SPARC red dot. It is FUN to shoot, and pretty accurate.

However, it is finicky about some ammunition, seems to like Remington and Federal but after a lot of firing the Aguila and PvP aamo I get some failure to loads when the feed ramp gets filthy. And Aguila fires dirty. This especially holds true for lead tipped "SD/hunting" rounds.

I swallowed hard and purchased 40 all copper Cor-Bon rounds for SD and simply wanted to verify it would cycle and shoot them pretty similar to MUCH cheaper rounds. With two different 15-round magazines (my preferred mags) it failed to load everytime after the first shot. At over a buck a round, I was getting mighty upset. So I loaded 4 in a 30-round magazine and they all cycled through. Still not sure what to make of that, though the feed ramp was getting a bit gnarly by the time I tried that experiment. I'll try it again when clean next time out.

Don't get me wrong, it is a sweet gun to shoot and I can hit a man-sized target 14 of 15 times at 100m and I'm not a great shot. Light and low recoil. But, I'm still experimenting on how to lubricate the weapon and what ammo it likes best.

 

[NAVY SEABEE 303]

Batty67,

I have seen your problem before and most of the time it is a magazine issue, a lot of the aftermarket magazines just don't work well for these rifles. I run about the cheapest bulk .30 I can get and never have a problem but I am using the 2 15 rnd mags that it came with.

 

[Batty67]

Thanks for chiming in NAVY SEABEE 303. I've heard that as well. Whenever there is a fail to load it sure seems tied to a dirty feed ramp. Last time out it worked flawlessly for the first 100 rounds or so before I had 3-4 mis-loads. Of course, the magazines could be at least partly to blame. Perhaps I'll look into getting a few USGI 15-rounders.