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Transferable M1 or M2 .30 Carbine


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Good Morning Gentlemen, Is there an expert in the house on M1/M2 .30 Carbines? I see that this site's focus is on Thompsons, but I thought I would ask for help here first. I found a tremendous amount of knowledge about my newly acquired Thompson and am now interested in a .30 Carbine. Best place to look. What to look for. And what not to look for kind of stuff. Thanks. SC.

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There are several ways to go on the M1/M2. You can buy a registered trigger group and then find a M1 Carbine host. You can buy a registered receiver. Or you can find a C&R M2 Carbine. For a shooter, the M1 with registered trigger group is probably the best way to go. Followed by post war after market registered receiver like the Planefield or Iver Johnson M2's. Then you get into the Military conversions and the C&R versions. If you are looking for just a semi-auto, then stick with the Military M1's. Most were rebuilt after WWII. There are a lot of "Corrected" M1's out there now. It was a craze that went on a few years back. Some still look for the parts to bring their rebuild back to what it was when it was new, but it is still a rebuild, just with old parts that were changed for a reason.

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Thank you fellows. Once again you have steered me in the right direction. I am interested in full auto. But I didn't know about the trigger group being an option. I will get over to the correct forum. Thanks for nicely helping and not being rude like some forums.
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Bug, I thought I wanted an M2. Also thought Military made full auto M1's. I'm thinking I'm wrong on both. I like the thought of thectrigger group. I haven't looked yet, but might need to know where the Carbine Forum is located.
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There are two original M2 Carbine manufacturers, Inlend and Winchester. All others are conversions. The Military converted many M1's for the Koreian war and even Veit Nam.

The original M2's were very late production, in the last months of WWII. The last Carbines made, were WWII. There are several Post war companies that made carbines thru the years as well.

Even as late as a few years ago. I just picked up a Springfield Inc. Carbine barrled action in 5.7 Johnson Spitfire. This is a conversion done a while back that necks down a 30 carbine case

to .224. Haven't fired it yet. It is semi-auto. I have a registered reciever M2 so I can't swap trigger groups around.

As for the trigger pack option, you will still need to find a host M1 Carbine. They are getting expensive as well. True GI Carbines are in the $800+ range now. Even the set-up I just bought, the 5.7 Spitfire, is $700+ and it's a handload only type round as ammo production stopped years ago. Be aware that there are a couple of M1 Carbines that should be afoided. Late Iver Johnsons and Federal Ord. are two of them. The first uses a different slide spring set-up and the other can be out of spec.

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SC, sorry for the confusion. When I answered your original post I didn't realize I was on the Carbine forum at the time. Quick and dirty, the M1 is converted to the M2 by installing M2 parts and a minor stock modification. There are registered parts/kits around in the 5-6K range that will convert an M1 to select fire. The true M2 guns made by Inland and Winchester are highly collectable, C&R firearms and usually bring 10K and up.

 

Eleven companies made 6 million of these things in 3 years. It's a hell of a story.

 

There is a good board with a Carbine forum that will offer additional insight. The link is below. I'm away from my books just now but there are a few good ones on the subject, also.

 

Bob D

 

http://www.jouster.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?1-Culvers-Shooting-Page&s=624dd9aac814c1d79afe66ebf02c220f

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Atlas and Bug, I see an M2 on GB. It is a Plainfield. Is this on the do not buy list? I do prefer the trigger group option. Please advice where I may start to look for one. And of course, what would be considered a "not to buy". Thanks for your help guys.
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Just to let you know...This was originally in the wrong forum, but I moved it to the M1/M2 forum, and left a link in the original Class III forum. You're in the right forum.

 

Thanks!

 

David Albert

dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

 

Thanks Dave, I thought I was losing it there for a minute...

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Thank you fellows. Once again you have steered me in the right direction. I am interested in full auto. But I didn't know about the trigger group being an option. I will get over to the correct forum. Thanks for nicely helping and not being rude like some forums.

SC

This is one group that excels for great information without the typical ego trips that tend to be present on other boards out there. A big tip of the hat to our mods and members for that!

 

As for books, I recently picked up War Baby 1&2, both great books. There is a third in the series as well that I have not yet picked up. Best of luck in your search. I love the carbine.

 

Ron

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M2's are a blast. Like mentioned before, there are usgi and there are later commercial copies. Most if not all of the copies are investment casting for receiver material. National and federal ordnance, Plainfield, universal, Iver Johnson to name a few. I'd say Plainfield would be the better of the commercial bunch, but I'd much rather have a usgi receiver.

A usgi receiver rarely wears out, so don't rule out a registered receiver. Barrels can be changed with ease, and parts are everywhere.

As someone already said, Inland and Winchester were the only two usgi manufacturers of M2 carbines, made at the end of ww2, early to mid 1945 dates. Post war, they converted regular m1 carbines to m2. There is no receiver modifications needed. So, you'll see registered underwood, rockola, saginaw, postal meter, and so on.

Early models of winchester, rockola, some fluke inlands, and all quality hardware carbines use a removable spring tube for the recoil spring, so it's not recommend to use them as a host. They will work, I've done it, but the books say not to.

I've got every book and carbine tool if you need any help.

Edited by Todd440
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A few notes...

 

Registered Receiver (RR) vs Registered Kit (RK) – Both have their pros and cons. Registered receiver guns can have any broken part replaced with the exception of the receiver, which would need to be repaired by a competent machinist/welder. The RR does have some risk of cracking, although I think it would take blatant abuse to break a USGI receiver. Registered kits offer the most as far as mobility but if a substandard part was registered (for example, an aftermarket trip lever), you may have trouble getting it to run or fixing it if it should break. As long as a RR is in good shape, I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. Same for the RK, if the registered part of the kit is of good quality, you should be good to go. I ultimately went with a Registered Receiver and have no regrets.

 

Magazines – I have had good luck with the Korean 15 rounders – no experience with the Korean 30s. USGI 15 rounders are the most reliable in my experience. “J” marked 30 rounders (USGI contract) and Taiwanese 30 rounders (from J&G Sales) are of excellent quality, although both seem to be slightly less reliable than the typical USGI 15 round magazine. Buy as many magazines as you can.

 

Ammunition – Aguila, Prvi Partizan, and Federal run great in my RIA/Inland M2. Armscor 30 Carbine runs okay but I do encounter more problems with it than with the other brands - it fails to cycle the action much more frequently than the other three. I have also encountered Armscor rounds that “collapse” when they are chambered. I do have a small supply of Lake City ammunition but I keep it for collectability purposes.

 

Parts – Parts are available but may be expensive. Be wary of having all seven parts as that constitutes a machine gun in the eyes of BATFE. Avoid having a duplicate of a registered part (for example, don't have a spare disconnector lever if you have a registered disconnector lever). I think the most likely parts to wear out and/or lose would be the disconnector spring or plunger, the nine spring, or the disconnector lever.

 

Summary – Overall, I really like the M2 Carbine. It's light, accurate, controllable, and offers a high rate of fire. Sometimes, it suffers reliability problems on full auto but overall it's a great gun for a reasonable price. Ammunition is somewhat more costly than other calibers but not too bad. In my opinion, the M2 Carbine is a fine piece of American engineering with an interesting history and a decent combat record.

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  • 8 months later...

Thanks again for everybody's help. I just got my paperwork back for an M2 Plainsfield. Since I'm not selling, I really didn't want to pay same price or more for a collector name like Inland or Winchester. Its in great condition and was owned by a police department. My question today is... Where to get a couple of 30 Round Magazines. I have studied some and saw recommendations for either USGI or Korean aftermarket. Northridge has the GI for 100 dollars and have found the Korean for as little as 35. Does anybody have a lead or a couple of Mags for sale?

I will try to get some pics up next week.

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sc269,

I have some original WW2 , 30 rd carbine mags that I'd sell.

They are marked SEY, for Seymour.

I have 2 types, the solid back early style and the welded back later style.

Also have 4 solid back, unmarked mags, no doubt made by Seymour, but no stamping.

Price ,-- solid back $100.00 and welded back $75.00.

All mags are really nice condition.

Jim C

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