Problems with my M1 Carbine.

[bchois226]

I took my "new" M1 carbine to the range today. The only magazine that I have is the 15 round magazine that came with the carbine when I purchased it. The first 15 rounds that I feed through the carbine were trouble free. I then loaded the magazine again and tried to feed another 15 rounds through the carbine.

This second time, I had problems with the rounds chambering correctly. When trying to chamber the first round, the bolt would go forward and the round was partially chambered. If I would put forward pressure on the operating rod, the round would then slide into the barrel and the carbine would be ready to fire. After firing that round, the same thing would happen. The bolt would move the round out of the magazine but it would not chamber fully. If I pushed forward on the operating rod again, the round would chamber correctly and the round would fire. This happened every time that it fired.

Does anyone have any idea of what the problem could have been?

Also, I have another small problem. The bolt will not lock back on an empty magazine. The only way that the bolt will lock back is if the little pin on the operating rod is pressed as the operating rod is pulled back.

Does anyone have any idea of how to fix this?

Thanks for all of the help.

[kalashnikovluvr]

About the round not chambering properly, I'm not exactly and expert but I would say it is the recoil spring. Try to find another one, if that doesn't fix it I can't think of what it could be. The bolt doesn't hold open for the last round on mine either. I have to pull back this little lever on the receiver to get my bolt to hold open. Thats just for my model/make (universal) I don't know how it'd be on yours. I hope that helps.

[Butch]

Did you lubricate the poor little feller before you started shooting it?

Get yourself some gun oil and one of these things:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0603/ButchG17/Shavingbrush.jpg
Put some oil on the shaving brush and go at it. And be sure to get a drop of oil into the notch in the operating rod where the bolt fits into it.

Yes, the M1 Carbine was not originally designed with a last shot bolt hold open feature at all. The 30 round mags however do have a follower in them that locks the bolt open after the last shot, and that follower can be used in the 15 round mags....if you can find some.

The only downside to them is that when you remove the mag, the bolt closes and you have to fully rack the op rod after reloading with a full mag as compared to just releasing the bolt - yeah, no biggy.


;?

[bchois226]

Can you use more modern lubricating products like Breakfree instead of oil? I did clean it before firing, but maybe I just did not leave enough lubrication.

[Butch]

Originally posted by bchois226
Can you use more modern lubricating products like Breakfree instead of oil? I did clean it before firing, but maybe I just did not leave enough lubrication.
Sure, Breakfree works. Is it better or worse than the way the military did it originally? I don't know, but they used to even use some grease because the oil didn't stay in place long enough.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0603/ButchG17/Military/Milgrease.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0603/ButchG17/Military/Carbine-greased.jpg

I understand that during the development of the M1 Garand rifle, they were looking at spending a bunch of money to come up with an automatic oiler to fit inside the op rod to keep the bolt lug oiled, but John Garand said, 'Just put some grease on it.' :)


;?

[thisaway]

Originally posted by bchois226
I took my "new" M1 carbine to the range today. The only magazine that I have is the 15 round magazine that came with the carbine when I purchased it. The first 15 rounds that I feed through the carbine were trouble free. I then loaded the magazine again and tried to feed another 15 rounds through the carbine.

This second time, I had problems with the rounds chambering correctly. When trying to chamber the first round, the bolt would go forward and the round was partially chambered. If I would put forward pressure on the operating rod, the round would then slide into the barrel and the carbine would be ready to fire. After firing that round, the same thing would happen. The bolt would move the round out of the magazine but it would not chamber fully. If I pushed forward on the operating rod again, the round would chamber correctly and the round would fire. This happened every time that it fired.

Does anyone have any idea of what the problem could have been?

Also, I have another small problem. The bolt will not lock back on an empty magazine. The only way that the bolt will lock back is if the little pin on the operating rod is pressed as the operating rod is pulled back.

Thanks for all of the help.

1. Feeding problem may be magazine-related. Get a bunch of the 15-rounders and try them all before doing anything else.

2. The M1 carbine wasn't designed to hold the bolt open upon firing of the last round. All it has is the manual button on the op slide.