M1 .30 carbine extraction: looking for gunsmith in CA

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Badkharma

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Hey everyone - I have a National Postal Meter M1 .30 carbine. It appears to be in great shape but there's an issue with extraction.

Every 3rd-4th round, it stovepipes. Also, all the other 'successful' extractions are very weak - ie. the casing just simply trickles/falls out of the firearm rather than being ejected with force like my friend's M1. I've disassembled the thing as far as I dare and gave it a good cleaning, but this didn't change the outcome.

Is there something else I can try before taking to a gunsmith?

On that note, I would be interested in hearing recommendations on gunsmiths down in the Orange/Riverside county area in CA. Can anyone recommend a good shop for repairs? Not looking for custom work. My father-in-law gave me several firearms that are clean but need a tune-up as they are certainly not shooting reliably.
 
+1 to what rc said. Either carbon or lead fouling built up around the gas port. M1 carbines are pretty simple, so that is really the only thing which can cause weak cycling.
 
I doubt it is the gas port in the barrel itself. Gas ports are pretty much self cleaning, and blow all the crap & crud into the piston & cylinder where it builds up in the piston grooves.

See if the gas piston slides freely back and forth in the cylinder?

If it doesn't, it is fouled with hard carbon and sticking.

rc
 
Badkharma said:
I've disassembled the thing as far as I dare and gave it a good cleaning, but this didn't change the outcome.
Click to expand...

Did you "dare" to disassemble the bolt into its 5 (or 6) pieces to clean it thoroughly? You need a $20 tool to do so, unless you have 3 hands, one of which has at least 7 fingers.

Did your problem start suddenly, or has it always been that way?

How about a new ejector? That part's design changed several times over the course of carbine development (during WW2) BECAUSE of ejection problems.
 
I managed to disassemble the bolt, & replace the ejector / extractor springs with new ones.

For the love of everything holy, putting that thing back together was one of the more frustrating things I've ever done. No, I didn't have the tool to do so. I spent a good 2 hours until my thumb was numb trying to get it - no go. I managed to eventually fashion some type of jig using a variety of clamps and my bench vice, and got it to go. :banghead: :cuss: :fire: :cuss:

Ridiculous. Now I need to take it to the range and see if all that effort was worth it. :eek:

I did also clean the gas port, it was fairly dirty although I wouldn't say it was crammed with gunk.
 
After you've removed the gas piston nut and smoothed out the peening, you can either re-peen it or do as I do & use blue loctite (the removable-with-tools kind, not the green removable-with-torches-and-hammers kind). It won't hold forever, but it will hold for a good while & it's easy to reapply. I use it on the carbine I use for lead bullets which gets the piston & all that really nasty. I am sure I will ignite a flame war over it, but it works for me so I am fine with it (I also use it on Garand gas cylinder splines!! :eek: )
;)
 
wow, i'm impressed. when i got my first carbine 2 years ago, it took me all of 10 minutes friggin' around with tiny screwdrivers trying to get that thing apart before i came to know my limitations. with the tool, disassembly and reassembly is easy peasy.

BUT ...

in reassembling, i hope you got the extractor plunger installed correctly and not backwards. it's very easy to do even when you know how it goes because it's very small and fingers, at least mine, are very large. the plunger's "notch" needs to fit up snugly against the extractor. if not, you'll encounter more problems ranging from an inability to chamber a round to losing your extractor only god knows where
 
Well, I took it to the range yesterday and hoped for the best.

Operation still isn't perfect, but it's WAY better. I'd say I have about one failure to eject per mag (10 rounders here in CA), on average. Some mags ran through perfectly, others had 2-3, more like stovepipes as it would jam the casing between the bolt and upper receiver. Before it was every 2-3 rounds, so that's a huge improvement. Most of the time the gun would toss the brass the way it should, sometimes it wouldn't. Could this be indicative of a worn extractor? In hindsight I should've replaced that too, but it's not the cheapest part so I thought I'd try the springs & cleaning first. Also, I refuse to disassemble the bolt again without the proper tool....which tool do I need for this? (If someone would provide a link here that would be great!)

Thanks for your help everyone. Lee, I'm pretty sure I got the plunger in correctly - hopefully evidenced by the fact that the gun shot much better. I made sure the notch was in the correct direction and tight fitting, that was part of the woes of putting it back together - it always wanted to rotate on me.
 
i bought mine (repro) from northridge international at a local gun show for about $20. today's prices seem typically higher (like $30-$40 and over $50 for USGI). NI doesn't seem to have any current production listed today.

i can't provide any specific link for you but you can search the cmp forums (use google if you're not a member) where you will find lots of good info and feedback on these guns. that's where all mine are from.

a lot of people swear by the USGI tool and many swear at the reproductions but the repros will work just as well if you're careful (i.e. if after mounting the tool to the bolt, you keep screwing down on the screw applying more and more pressure while all the parts remain stationary, you will get what you deserve, because the little pawl WILL break, USGI tool or not; easier just to remount it and try tightening the screw in again to depress that little focker, the extractor plunger).

disassembling and reassembling the bolt inside of a large clear plastic bag may save you some grief.

good luck!
 
You might want to invest in a new bolt, I've had a late M1/M2 (round) bolt in my carbine for a about 5 years now, though it's not technically "correct" it makes the gun function much more reliably being that it has all updated parts.
 
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