muricaaaaa

so last time we talked about the m1 garand

but guys did you know america had more than one gun

its true

we made at least three different guns

were less good on names tho

this one is also called the m1

lol

friggin military

its a totally different weapon tho

this is the m1 carbine

completely different parts caliber and fills a totally different role than the m1 garand we talked about last time

so how did it come about

man

you know im gonna tell you why are you even asking

so wed just adopted our sweet new m1 garand

and were passing them around to all our soldiers and theyre all like man this is awesome

except some guys are actually not riflemen you know

some guys are busy carrying a bigass mortar

or trying to fit four men in a tank

each chunk of mortar weighs like 50lbs

and the interior of a tank is very cramped

a long heavy rifle is kind of a pain in these situations

garands were falling off peoples shoulders

bonkin em in the head

and if things are going right these guys werent even supposed to be using the rifle anyway

plus the nazis had these new paratroopers they could send way behind the front lines

so now your truck drivers and cooks and headquarters staff all need guns too

but seriously that garand is so long and heavy

maybe we should give them a different gun

pistols are really light and small

but if theres only one thing you ever learn from me

learn that pistols suck

you could give em thompsons

but those are expensive and just as heavy as a garand and still shoot pistol rounds

man lets just make a new weapon

so thats what they did

in 1940 the military made a new smaller rifle cartridge called 30 carbine

and started asking for a new gun design to go with it

meanwhile

ok so like john moses browning right

patron saint of all gun owners

well he had a half brother ed

and ed had been working on a design for a full size rifle to compete with the garand

well it was this weird annular gas piston thing with a tilting bolt

it was all right but lost to the garand

and ed sold the rights to winchester

winchester kept trying to score some military contracts with it and kept tinkering even after they were building garands

they even took some garand parts and put it into the rifle

so it got a two lug rotating bolt system

then they hired this bootlegger fresh out of jail

and he changed the gas system to a tappet short stroke system

so eventually they ended up with this whole team of people who kept adding improvements to the design

it ended up lighter than the garand

detachable magazine

its pretty cool

but by now the army is like dude give it up with this full size rifle thing

nobody is replacing the garand this far into the game

but your rifle is pretty light

i bet if you scale it down itd work really well for that m1 carbine competition

and winchester is like hmmmmm

so they took their full size design

and scaled it down for the new smaller cartridge

and ended up with a rifle that only weighed like five pounds

and was only 34 inches long

but still shot 15 rounds of semi auto out to 200 or 300 yards

and was more powerful than any submachinegun using baby pistol rounds

and the military is like oh heck ya

it was adopted in october 1941 and produced by all sorts of people

the m1 carbine is a huge team effort

many designers helped make it

and many companies produced it

like ibm and general motors and even rockola jukebox lol

it was distributed to the troops in big numbers

in fact over 6 million were made

there were only 5 and a half million garands made

overall the troops generally liked it

its not nearly as powerful as the garand

like maybe one third the pew pew

and how well it was liked often depended on how often you had to use it

guys who carried it a lot but didnt get into much combat really liked it because is so light

it was also good at close range because it was short and quick and handy

so its good for jungles and urban fighting

and it was issued from the beginning with noncorrosive ammo

much lower chance of rusting

so it was much easier to take care of

especially in the tropical pacific

meanwhile cold weather gave it some troubles

cold ammo is less powerful and when combined with thick lube getting thicker in cold it sometimes caused some jams

another potential cause of jamming was the magazines getting beat up

but honestly they were originally supposed to be disposible

that never works out well whenever the military tries it lol

if you got new magazines they worked fine

at longer range it lacks power and accuracy

but keep in mind what it is

this isnt for regular frontline combat

nowadays we call this type of gun a personal defense weapon

guns for guys whose main job isnt using guns

there were several important variants too

the first was the folding paratrooper stock

that stock sucks so bad

but it looks friggin sick tho lol

and it folds in half which is very important when you need to jump out of an airplane

and the m1 carbine is great for that role

its very light and compact but has longer range than a submachinegun

the other big variant is the m2 carbine

they just added select fire

so semi auto or full auto

and slapped a 30rd magazine in it

in fact its so simple you just swap a few parts and boom

the m1 is now an m2

the military made a bunch of kits to retrofit all the m1s to m2s

and if you think about it

select fire

intermediate cartridge

hey that sounds a lot like an assault rifle

and that argument can definitely be made

this is right about the time that concept got practical

tho its definitely on the weak end of intermediate cartridges

the m1 and variants were major players in wwii and korea

and served through vietnam

it was also popular on the civilian market

whether defending against assassins sent by the nation of islam

robbing a bank to fund terrorism

or something normal like just hunting and plinking

so lets see how it works

ok so its a short stroke tappet gas system

the barrel has a gas block attached to it

that picture shows the rifle upside down

the barrel has a gas port drilled into it that vents down into the block which hangs under the barrel

and there is a very short gas piston in there

the gas pushes the piston and the piston punches hard on a slide

the tiny piston only moves a couple millimeters before stopping but it hits the slide so hard the slide cycles the whole weapon

and as a result the m1 carbine is resistant to ammo thats too hot

the piston gets enough oomph to hit the slide then vents the remaining gas away

good for safety and reliability

this was the most important contribution from the bootlegger

and how he got his nickname carbine williams

the bolt is a miniaturized derivation of the m1 garand two lug rotating bolt

to field strip

up at the front of the stock is a barrel band and retaining spring

loosen the screw push down the retainer and the band slides off the front

the barrel and receiver lift out at this point

but to remove the bolt and get at the action and barrel you gotta punch out a couple pins

its pretty stupid and not the easiest thing in the field

so soldiers didnt do it as much

but on the plus side

the 30 carbine round was designed from the start to be noncorrosive

so it was more forgiving of neglect than other rifles

surplus examples can be bought today

and there are several companies making new ones

pretty neat

you could use it for hunting small animals like maybe a small deer

low recoil so its fun to shoot

plus itd even be good for home defense

women and teenagers can handle it just fine

compact to get around corners easily

and rifles are both easier to shoot and more powerful than pistols

im not aware of a huge aftermarket for accessories

because usually people buy one to have an m1 carbine like in wwii

but the personal defense weapon is a concept that lived on and stayed useful for both military and civilians to this day

so there are other rifles that have the same general concept as the m1 carbine

even if they took a very different path

maybe ill talk about them more in the future hmm i dunno lol

but even with modern weapons filling the same role

theres just nothing like an m1 carbine

a unique piece of americana

pew pew

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