M1 Carbine for home defense?

[M2 Carbine]

A couple of mine.



This is a IAI brand WW2 Commemorative I found a couple months ago.
IAI (Houston) went out of business some time back. I haven't seen any used IAI Carbines at the gun shows in quite a while. I was surprised to see this one NIB.

 

[telebob]

As I understand it, if I did go that route, I'd have to have a gunsmith put the gun together for me, right?

Nope. I recently built up an AR from an off list lower and a JP upper and I'm no gunsmith. I built mine on my dining room table using common hand tools and instructions off the net. Couldn't be easier.

As I mentioned, I own an AO carbine that I love and wouldn't have any hesitation at all in using for HD or SHTF but the AR can cover both those areas and it's a great short or long distance range gun. It's designed as a CQB and battle rifle after all and has been going strong for 40 years or so. The design is intrinsically more versatile than the carbine.

The M1 carbine is a great gun, loaded with history and nostalgia. So is the AR. The Kel-Tec was last seen in the rear view mirror with the recent court rulings in favor of us PRK gunners.


Bob

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Ammo choice for .30 Carbine

This article at Arfcom has a brief discussion of defensive ammo for the .30 Carbine. Quoting Dr. Gary Roberts, who has done gelatin testing of many different rounds in many different calibers:

The best current ammunition choice for the M1 Carbine is the Remington 110 gr JSP (R30CAR)—at an average velocity of 1864 f/s, it expands to .54” to .58” and penetrates 13” to 16” whether in bare gelatin, through automobile windshields, or Level IIIa body armor. This is as good as many .223’s. <snip> The Winchester 110 gr JSP works reasonably well, but has a bit smaller permanent wound channel compared to the Remington load. Generally the Federal 110 gr JSP carbine bullet acts just like ball without any expansion. Hornady 90 gr JHP-XTP bullets offered insufficient penetration when fired from the carbine. Preliminary results indicate the new Barnes all copper 100 gr X-bullets for the .30 carbine to be a good choice, although we have not finished testing.

(Emphasis added by me.)

I've read some good reports elsewhere of the Cor-Bon 100 grain DPX loads, but at over a buck a round, I haven't tried them. I'll stick with the Remington 110 grain JSPs, which I've confirmed run reliably in my Underwood and Rock Ola M1s.