Posted on 03/22/2018 11:06:30 AM PDT by Elderberry
A grim-faced U.S. Army major led a group of armed men away from a tropical village he decided not to attack. Wearing jungle boots and olive-drab battle dress, Edwin Brooks grasped a lightweight, reliable, .30-caliber weapon in his right hand as he walked.
It was an M-1 carbine.
The scene could have been anywhere in the South Pacific during World War II or somewhere near the Pusan Perimeter during the Korean War. But Brooks also wore a green beret with a Special Forces flash and he was leaving the then-South Vietnamese village of Ban Me Thuot in 1964, leading the indigenous forces he commanded back to base in an effort to defuse a rebellion.
It’s all on the cover of the January 1965 National Geographic magazine in a photo by writer and photographer Howard Sochurek. Not a single M-16 is anywhere to be seen. The Pentagon had shipped thousands of the new M-16s to U.S. troops including the Special Forces, but in 1964 many Green Berets still preferred the M-1 carbine, the weapon of their fathers’ wars.
What’s more, Brooks’ Viet Cong enemy was almost certainly wielding the more modern Kalashnikov assault rifle. As for the Montagnard tribesman Brooks trained and led, they also were carrying some of the 800,000 M-1 carbines the U.S. sent to South Vietnam during the war.
For more than three decades, the M-1 carbine did more than anyone ever expected it to do. Long overshadowed by the iconic and heavy-hitting M-1 Garand, the M-1 carbine began its existence in 1940 when the Secretary of War issued orders for the development of a lightweight and reliable “intermediate rifle.”
“It was a compromise,” Doug Wicklund, senior curator at the NRA National Firearms Museum in Virginia, told War is Boring. “They called it the ‘war baby,’
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
I’d have taken a Daisy air rifle over the piece of crap M16 that jammed whenever it was really needed.
I found the carbine wanting a little balisticly, but an old guy I knew who walked across Italy in 1943 said the weight difference with the M-1 made him choose the carbine.
I’d love to own a M-1 carbine but I’d settle for a Ruger Mini-14 Ranch rifle or the Mini-14 Tactical.
“Nobody wanted to give up the M-1carbine”
Except for those who used it and realized it would not punch through a wet paper bag. Well for sure it would not perforate the chi-coms padded pajama winter uniform in Korea. It was a rifle shooting a pathetic pistol round. So many other ammo options would have improved that weapon.
WAR BABY
?
My dad carried it because he was too small for a .45 or 30-06.
I remember when you could buy them at Sears.
I owned an M1 .30 carbine in the 1980’s but did not like it. Mine was made by IBM, the computer company. I found it was NOT that reliable, so I sold it, with sling, cleaning kit, and bayonet, for $180.
Whenever I go to the range, my carbine seems to get the most attention. I have a Choate folding stock and a Sig red dot on a picatinny upper forearm. People who have never handled one marvel at how light it is, how little recoil it has and how quick it is on target with the red dot.
Daddy was in the combat engineers. They were issued Garands and kept them right until they were disbanded and sent home in November 1945.
It would seem to me that they would have been issued carbines but were not.
Is it an IBM?
Carbine worked fine in the European theater, especially when it got down to house to house fighting. It was more of a mid range weapon, If the enemy was 100’ feet in front of you in a jungle or on the second floor or across the street from you, it served it’s purpose. It wasn’t meant to hunt Grizzlies. (maybe with a 30 round mag?)
If I remember correctly, the .30 carbine cartridge had about as much power as the .32-20 Winchester.
If I am not correct I am sure someone on FR will set me straight.
Nope. It’s a modern Kahr/Auto Ordnance. It has been extremely reliable with everything but S&B ammo. For some reason it just doesn’t like it, but anything else runs right through it without a hiccup.
It was my weapon in the Korean War, It was very sensitive to dirt in the action, so you had to be careful with that. I have one I bought thru a plan the NRA had about 30 years ago. Funny thing, it was made by IBM.
We are trying to get one out of Korea but so far, everything is a Garand. I don’t want a thumb buster.
if the 32-20 is good enough for deer @ 100yds or less would a properly loaded 30 carbine be just as good if not better ?
32-20 / 1100 fps (approx) 100grn bullet
30 car./ 1900 fps (approx) 110grn bullet
30 M1 round is about twice the speed and power of the 357 mag and few will argue the killing power of the 357 round as a deer round for close range work. That being said, bullet options are somewhat limited in the M1. I use the soft point and have killed several deer at under 75 yards with no problems. I also have taken several hogs at less than 50 yards with mine. The swamps and wooded areas that I hunt are so dense that you only get a few shots over 50 yards anyway.
I’d have taken a Daisy air rifle over the piece of crap M16 that jammed whenever it was really needed.
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“In my opinion, the M1 Rifle is the greatest battle implement ever devised” General George S. Patton, Jr.
***it would not punch through a wet paper bag.***
If you want more power from it use the modern argument to increase power.
Add a flash hider!
put a bayonet on it.
Put a pistol grip on it!
Add a 30 round magazine!
Add a folding plastic stock to make the bullet come out a lot faster!
Now you have what our local news media called “A SUPER DEADLY A-S-S-S-AULT RIFLE” and need to be banned as TOO POWERFUL!
Ok, it is sarcasm.
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