Kahr/AO M1 Carbine Review, Part 2.

[ChiefPilot]

After waiting impatiently several days to get to the range, I was finally able to shoot my new Kahr/AO M1 Carbine this weekend. Overall: big thumbs up!

I ran 150 rounds through it; 50 rounds of Winchester white box and the remainder was UMC. There was a failure to eject at round 7, and another at round 21. After that, no problems. I was curious to see how accurate it was, since the M1 carbine is not known for accuracy. As I was shooting offhand, I cannot objectively state any level of accuracy BUT will say that I was
able to keep all the shots in the black on a 50yd pistol bullseye at 50 yds. I didn't notice much if any difference between it and my other rifles in that area.

Other things I noticed:
- I found I could load individual rounds into the magazine without the magazine from the rifle.
I thought this was a neat trick, since my other rifles don't allow that.

- The rifle recoils more than I expected it to.

- The ammunition used seemed to leave a lot of residue on pretty much everything.

- The action was/is very smooth and tight.

The only real negative was that I found the the piston nut was loose when cleaning the rifle at the end of the day. It had walked about three or four revolutions.

Unfortunately, I didn't have access to my digital camera for photos (wife has it on vacation this week).

 

[nero45acp]

ChiefPilot,

Thanks for the review. I've been thinking about getting a Kahr/AO M1 carbine, but I've been waiting to read some reviews first. Only problem now is that my 13yo is nagging me to buy a 9mm Uzi with a folding stock (after the AWB sunsets) instead. Please do post some pics of your carbine when/if you do have the opportunity.


nero

 

[Mikul]

How big was the black circle on your target?

I've shot a few carbines at 25 yards, and most of them would keep all the shots within 1-1/2," so a three inch group at 50 yards should be good.

 

[ChiefPilot]

They were NRA B-6 targets, which I think have an 8-inch ring. If I was going to guess at a group size, I'd guess probably six inches. I'm not a great shot to begin with, and I was doing this all standing without a sling. Some time when a bench is open I'm going to see how well it does frmo there, but so far it's at least as good a shot as I am

 

[ChiefPilot]

Update - Benchrest Accuracy Results

Tonight I had a chance to shoot a box of ammo off a benchrest at a 50yd range. I was very pleased to find out that I could keep five shot groups inside an inch at 50 yds, especially since I had read that two or even three inches at 50 would be acceptable for an M1 Carbine. This does a fair bit better than that. I was using yellow box UMC 110gr ammo - perhaps higher quality ammunition would produce better results.

I had one more stoppage tonight - a failure to extract. So far, that makes three in 250 rounds. All three have been from the UMC ammo - Winchester and PMC ammunition has worked without problems.

 

[AZRickD]

How much is .30 carbine ammo going for nowadayze?

Oh, heck, I just volunteered myself

http://www.floridagunworks.com/p-042.html

S&B is $229 per 1,000 rounds

 

[ChiefPilot]

It's $160.00/1000 from Georgia Arms , and Southern Ohio Gun has surplus (I'll guess Korean, but not sure) cans of 1080 rounds for 175.50.

Locally (St. Paul, MN), UMC and Winchester white box go for about $12/50.

 

[Ohen Cepel]

Thanks for the info.

I wanted a military gun, but the prices just hurt too much!

What are these costing?

 

[ChiefPilot]

Mine was $549 from a local sporting goods shop. I've seen them cheaper on GunBroker ($499), but with the transfer fee and shipping it would be about the same.