M14 Forum

donmor53 · February 14th, 2012, 10:40 PM

I had a great uncle (raised my Dad and was more of a Grandpa) that was issued a M1 Carbine as an Army combat engineer in the Pacific. (New Guinea, Phillipines, Okinawa and occupied Japan)

His assessment of the M1 Carbine was that it was great for shooting coconuts out of the trees on bets when they were bored. When pressed by me in the 70s about one my then favorite WWII weapons...he reluctantly admitted that after shooting several Japanese at relatively close range in New Guinea...he traded his carbine for a Springfield 1903 from a truck driver. He was ready to live with the bolt action to get the devastaing power that the 30.06 offered. Seemed no one would trade him a Garand. He also said that no matter how the movies portrayed the Thompson, the BAR and the Garand (which he greatly respected)...the guy everyone got next to when going through the brush, cane fields or jungle was the Browning auto or Winchester or Savage pump shotgunner.

He said the Japs genuinely feared the 12 guage weapons at the close ranges they often encountered in the "rear areas" and later while moving prisoners (what few they took).

I love shooting my carbine but...it wouldn't be my first choice for protection in the semi configuration.

jismail · February 15th, 2012, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gus Fisher

G.I. Carbine Barrels were aligned by aligning the scribed lines of the G.I. receivers to the barrels OR another way shown in the period Tecnical Manusals was to aliign the bottom flat of the receiver to the bottom flat of the barrel. HOWEVER, that does NOT make the front sight blade line up at TDC and surprisingly not on a LOT of original G.I. carbines. As a matter of fact, MOST of the time either of these alignment methods were used on G.I. carbines, the Front sight blade was off 1 1/2 to as much as FOUR degrees off from TDC. Since the carbine was never intended for more than fairly short range, that kind of barrel alignment was acceptable.

Where I found this information was after CMP came up with a "Games Match" to shoot the Carbine. I started noticing for the first time that so many G.I. front sights were not at TDC. After checking a bunch of original or Arsenal reworked carbines, I found it was so common. When I rebarrel a carbine and especially for use in the CMP Games Matches, I align the front sight to TDC and don't care a whit how the alignment marks on the barrel and receivers align.

As part of a restoration project I am doing, I just had the Marlin barrel on my 1943 Standard Products carbine replaced with a 3-1943 Underwood barrel, and in the process, the gunsmiths adjusted the indexing as you mentioned above.

The Marlin was orignally aligned by marks and the sights were noticably tilted and the weapon shot far to the right when rear sight was centered. The Underwood was installed and adjusted to have the sights correct and now the rifle shoots fantastic.

I was able to take it out this weekend for it's first test fire after the barrel replacment. Below is a 6" target I shot Saturday at 100yds with open sights (flip style) and my very bad eyesight....

Gus Fisher · February 15th, 2012, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jismail

I was able to take it out this weekend for it's first test fire after the barrel replacment. Below is a 6" target I shot Saturday at 100yds with open sights (flip style) and my very bad eyesight....

Wow, I've seen a lot of people shoot a carbine at 100 yards with good eyesight, and who didn't do that well.

D308FAM · March 13th, 2012, 02:15 PM

[QUOTE=Gus Fisher;769716]You will never find this kind of information in even Military Technical Manuals because it was something Military Armorers had to learn by experience. Since I was not quite old enough to work the Carbine as an Armorer, I don't have a real good answer. The NOS G.I. springs I run across are a little over 11 inches to a little over 11 3/8" and they always work. So if your spring is under 10 inches, you DEFINITELY need to replace it and usually if it is under 10 1/2" - then I replace it. Of course no matter what the length is of a used spring, it still may have lost enough tension that it needs to be replaced.
QUOTE]
This thread prompted me to purchase a new "GI" recoil and hammer spring from Fulton Armory for a DCM M1-Carbine.
When the recoil spring arrived I measured it and it's between 10 and 10 1/8 inches overall length new.
The hammer spring I ordered as was shipped with it is slightly more than 2 1/4" long.
As these are advertised as being "New GI" I find it interesting that your experience has them expected to being longer.
Would you consider the recoil spring to likely be "out of spec" given it's apparently short length?
Thank you for your opinion!

RandyB45 · March 13th, 2012, 02:42 PM

IIRC, CorBon loads a DPX round that gets the power level up off the floor. I don't know of anyone who's been shot with it, but several people have hog hunted with it and like it. Not sure that's a recommendation, but there it is.

Sailormilan2 · March 13th, 2012, 03:41 PM

[QUOTE=D308FAM;821536]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gus Fisher

You will never find this kind of information in even Military Technical Manuals because it was something Military Armorers had to learn by experience. Since I was not quite old enough to work the Carbine as an Armorer, I don't have a real good answer. The NOS G.I. springs I run across are a little over 11 inches to a little over 11 3/8" and they always work. So if your spring is under 10 inches, you DEFINITELY need to replace it and usually if it is under 10 1/2" - then I replace it. Of course no matter what the length is of a used spring, it still may have lost enough tension that it needs to be replaced.
QUOTE]
This thread prompted me to purchase a new "GI" recoil and hammer spring from Fulton Armory for a DCM M1-Carbine.
When the recoil spring arrived I measured it and it's between 10 and 10 1/8 inches overall length new.
The hammer spring I ordered as was shipped with it is slightly more than 2 1/4" long.
As these are advertised as being "New GI" I find it interesting that your experience has them expected to being longer.
Would you consider the recoil spring to likely be "out of spec" given it's apparently short length?
Thank you for your opinion!

From what I can determine, one source says that the USGI Slide Spring was approx. 10.25" in length.
The hammer spring was originally 2.1" with 22 coils, but later that was changed to 2.5", with 26 1/2 coils.