72
BY DAN ARNOLD
As the product of a U.S. Army
Ordnance Department search for a
light rifle to replace the Model
1911A1 .45 caliber pistol, the .30
caliber M1 Carbine was to be the
most-produced, most-loved, and
The M1 Carbine was never thought of as a target rifle until the CMP
created a match for it. Surprisingly, it is a capable weapon if properly
set up.
PRECISION SHOOTING — DECEMBER 2009
most-hated rifle of World War II. gue that the M1 Carbine and its
Anecdotal evidence suggests that in
almost every theater of operations
there were GI's constantly swap-
ping for M1 Carbines, and seem-
ingly just as many swapping M1
Carbines for anything else to use
against the enemy. No one could ar-
ammunition was handier and con-
siderably lighter, but there was al-
ways the issue of its cartridge, in
reality nothing more than a mag-
num-class .30 caliber pistol car-
tridge. Ballistically unimpressive,
there would be numerous accounts
of its ineffectiveness against high-
ly motivated enemy soldiers.
All that being said, for pure fun
it’s hard to beat an M1 Carbine.
Over the years, my friends and I
have put holes through hundreds of
menacing cans peering from erod-
ed hillsides, perforated all kinds of
paper targets, and every now and
then an unlucky rabbit or two has
even gone into the pot at the end of
the day. One of the nice things
about the Carbine is that its light
recoil and non-menacing appear-
ance makes it a perfect center-fire
rifle introduction for the beginner,
especially women or their daugh-
ters.
Here in the US, there has always
been a steady market for M1 Car-
bines and with import restrictions
put into place during the 90's the
supply has been fixed, with prices
rising accordingly.
Enter the Civilian Marksman-
74
ship Program: Large numbers of
M1 Carbines were “loaned,” to
various governments around the
world over the past 60 years and
because of their unique status, they
are not subject to import restric-
tions. Consequently, CMP has
spent the past several years scour-
ing the globe for all of those “loan-
ers.” They want them back, and
they want to sell them to the shoot-
ing public.
Over the past three years or so,
M1 Carbines have been returned
from Italy, Austria, and Germany.
Their condition has been anywhere
from a solid “good,” to “very
good.” As would be expected, al-
most all have been upgraded with
bayonet lugs and adjustable sights.
Some have been refinished and
stocks range from original World
War II-issue to World War II re-
placement, to post-war replace-
ments which may be U.S. or even
Italian-made.
In a move reminiscent of the
Gillette razor campaign, CMP has
not only provided a product for the
shooter but a venue in which to
shoot it, the CMP Games' M1 Car-
bine Match, which has further in-
creased demand for the little
carbines.
The course of fire differs slight-
ly from the other Games Matches,
the M1 Garand and 1903 Spring-
field / Vintage Rifle Matches. In-
stead of all firing being conducted
at 200 yards, the M1 Carbine
Match is held at the 100 yard-line
in recognition of its ballistic chal-
lenges. Competitors get 10 minutes
for 10 sighting shots and then five
minutes for 10 shots from the
prone position. Following that,
each shooter has 60 seconds to fire
10 shots each from the prone and
sitting positions and to finish the
match, the shooters fire 10 shots
from the standing position. The
PRECISION SHOOTING — DECEMBER 2009
M1 Carbine sling may be used as a
“hasty sling,” in all positions but
standing. As in all of the Games
Matches, ammunition is provided
and everyone gets a T-shirt at the
end of the match as well as
achievement medals in recognition
of their scores.
I like the CMP Games Match-
es. They're fun, they're a relief
from several days of Camp Perry's
intense competition, and perhaps
best of all, they encourage shooters
to come out and participate in a
more relaxed venue than say, the
Presidents Match. It's also a good
excuse to take those old guns out
of the closet and see what they will
do.
Unfortunately, in the accuracy
department the M1 Carbine is
well-known for keeping ten rounds
“inside a coffee can,” at 100 yards.
That usually means the large five-
pounder, not the much smaller one-
pounder. So, that brings up the
question: Just what can we do
about the M1 Carbine's accuracy?
First, a brief history lesson: The
M1 Carbine, a Winchester design,
went from drawing board sketches
to working prototype in 13 days.
The U.S. Army's reaction was gen-
erally positive, but they requested
a more refined model which Win-
chester delivered roughly 30 days
later, on September 15, 1941. That
model, Winchester's number two,
is basically the same model that
would be manufactured until the
end of production in 1945.
Because Winchester was also
trying to get the M1 Garand into
production, contracts were let to a
variety of manufacturers, some of
whom had never produced a
firearm before. These contractors
varied from the automotive indus-
try (Inland Division of General
Motors) to typewriters (IBM) and
even included a juke box manufac-
turer (Rock Ola). In all, a total of
ten different manufacturers would
produce M1 Carbines. Additional-
ly, minor parts were sub-contract-
ed to various manufacturers during
the M1 Carbine production run, so
even an “all-matching,” M1 Car-
bine could potentially have parts
from a variety of manufacturers.
During and after the war, M1
Carbines were sent to arsenals for
repair and upgrading with ab-
solutely no regard for matching of
parts by manufacturer. I have seen
exactly one M1 Carbine that was
all-original. It was brought home
from the Pacific Theater by a
friend's father. All the others I have
examined have been a hodge-
podge of parts or an attempt to re-
store a rifle to its original
condition. The fact that M1 Car-
bines made up of unmatched parts
continue to function and exhibit
coffee-can accuracy is amazing in
itself, if you think about it. It is al-
so a testament to efficient mass-
production and the soundness of
Winchester's design.
As shooters, one thing that
works in our favor is that all U.S.
Military-produced ammunition for
the M1 Carbine was non-corrosive,
so the interior condition of most
barrels is quite good; so good in
fact, that I would not purchase any
carbine with a hint of “frosting,” or
corrosion in the bore. There are
just too many out there that have
nice, shiny bores.
Contrary to popular belief, gaug-
ing the muzzle doesn't seem to be a
reliable indicator of potential accu-
racy. I have an Inland-produced ri-
fle that gauges a solid “3,” with a
CMP muzzle gauge, yet it delivers
accuracy on par with other rifles
that gauge far better, so there must
be something else coming into
play.
A good friend passed on some
PRECISION SHOOTING — DECEMBER 2009
anecdotal evidence that pointed me
in the direction of a potential fix
for the carbine's accuracy. Like me,
he has succumbed to the lure of the
CMP store's rack upon rack of ri-
fles and as a result, owns more than
one M1 Carbine. Unlike me, he
seldom keeps any rifle that doesn't
shoot acceptably. I tend to keep a
rifle made by a specific manufac-
turer or a specific version based on
its overall condition until I find an
equal specimen that does group
well, and then sell the first one off
to another collector. Over the
course of running through several
carbines, my friend had noticed
that carbines requiring some down-
ward pressure on the barrel to force
it into the front of the stock and
slip the barrel band into place usu-
ally grouped better than those that
did not.
I doubt that barrel harmonics
are coming into play due to the car-
bine's 18-inch barrel, which in
most cases is encircled by a rather
tight-fitting barrel band and bayo-
net lug attachment at roughly its
mid-point. The cartridge the car-
bine is chambered for, the Caliber
.30, Carbine, Ball, M1, in military
parlance launches a 110-grain full
metal jacket bullet at an average
1,900 feet per second at slightly
less than 40,000 psi, hardly some-
thing we would consider as creat-
ing significant barrel whip.
Instead, I believe that we have
an issue of bedding. Or rather, lack
of bedding. The M1 Carbine's re-
ceiver has an upward-jutting lock-
ing tang that projects from the rear
of the receiver. This locking tang
engages a groove in the recoil plate
in much the same way that the bar-
rels of many muzzle loading rifles
hook into a plate in the stock. Once
the locking tang is engaged, one
only has to lever the action down
into the stock, slip the barrel band
into place, tighten the band, and
you're done.
This was an innovative way to
design a rifle. With this system, a
GI could strip his weapon with
nothing more than a cartridge rim,
a coin, or a screwdriver, a welcome
feature in Italy's mud or Iwo Jima's
volcanic sand. Unfortunately, this
system wasn't conducive to the
best accuracy. With scores of prime
contractors, sub-contractors, and
egad, even sub-sub-contractors,
variations exist between receivers,
recoil plates, and barrel bands. To
top things off, three different types
of recoil plates and three different
styles of barrel band were pro-
duced. Still, out of a total of six
carbines in my safe, I have yet to
see any parts that wouldn't inter-
change. That being said, neither
have I owned any rifles that I
would call particularly tight fitting
when I acquired them.
One of the joys of collecting old
rifles is their accessories. In the
case of the M1 Carbine, there is a
nifty technical manual from Febru-
ary of 1953 that goes into the
maintenance and rebuilding proce-
dures employed by the Army and
Air Force. If you wade through the
minutia, there are some interesting
tidbits to be gleaned from the man-
ual, such as accuracy standards.
For example, if a carbine could
keep five out of seven shots within
a 12-inch tall by sixteen-inch wide
target at 100 yards, it was deemed
acceptable. Wow! Suddenly a cof-
fee-can sized group sounds pretty
good, doesn't it? That same techni-
cal manual also says in part, that
when the receiver engages the re-
coil plate, “The action then
should be suspended by the recoil
plate with clearance under the re-
ceiver and barrel.” If the barrel
and action were not suspended, the
recoil plate or stock was to be re-
75
placed or adjusted.
Unfortunately, there is no “why,”
or “what if,” in the technical manu-
al to explain the need for the barrel
and action to be suspended above
the stock, but I have a pretty good
idea what happens if that's not the
case. If the barrel simply falls into
the barrel channel at the front of the
stock, when the barrel band is tight-
ened the receiver is free to squirm
around in the recoil plate and the
barrel band becomes in effect, a
pivot point, which produces the
typical coffee-can group.
If, by luck or design, the barrel
has to be forced down into the bar-
rel channel, the locking tang en-
gages the recoil plate much more
securely, eliminating some of the
action's free play and tightens
groups considerably. Keep in mind
though, the M1 Carbine was de-
signed to replace a pistol. In aver-
age hands, the average coffee-can
M1 Carbine will out-shoot the av-
erage 1911 pistol at 100 yards day-
in and day-out. While an
“accurized,” M1 Carbine won't win
The standard post front sight and
late-WWII adjustable rear sight
have their limitations. Windage
adjustments can be made
precisely. Elevation on the other
hand, is done by sliding the
aperture in 100 yard increments.
76
any benchrest matches, it is capable
of doing much, much better, even
reliably holding the ten-ring of the
SR-1 High Power target.
First though, a word about barrel
bands: In short, if you're interested
in the best accuracy, use the bayo-
net-lug, type three barrel band. It
has the most contact with the barrel
and the most secure method of
clamping to the stock. If the only
thing holding the carbine's metal
and wood together is a tang and re-
coil plate on one end and a barrel
band on the other, we want the best
and strongest barrel band there is.
Assuming that you're in posses-
sion of a loose-fitting M1 Carbine,
there are four ways to alter the fit of
the barreled action into the stock.
The first and easiest way is to tight-
en the recoil plate screw. Some-
times, the recoil plate isn't fully
bottomed out in the stock recess
and no more than a quarter turn of
the screw will seat it deeply enough
in the stock to get the desired resis-
tance.
I recently found a very well-
written article about carbine accu-
racy on the CMP's website which
also points out the positive effects
of tightly securing the back of the
receiver and the recoil plate. In it,
the author recommends removing
the recoil plate and placing it up-
right on a vise flat, then “wallop-
The screw-tightened barrel band is the only thing retaining the front of
the barreled action in the stock. It should require slight pressure to
force the barrel down enough to slide the barrel band into place.
PRECISION SHOOTING — DECEMBER 2009
ing,” the top of the recoil plate with
a brass hammer, thereby slightly
bending it and altering its fit to the
receiver. I have yet to try that
method, although it should work.
I'm just reluctant to whack away at
expensive parts that might be
marred or bent beyond repair in the
process.
A third way, if you have several
carbines on hand or a bin of spare
parts is to swap recoil plates until
one produces the desired result.
However, parts for the carbine are
climbing in price, with some man-
ufacturers' parts commanding pre-
mium prices. As a result,
purchasing several recoil plates
seems to be a poor choice. Also, I
have done some parts swapping be-
tween my carbines and have had
limited success in altering the fit of
the action in the stock, so I don't
feel that the recoil plate is neces-
sarily the answer.
The stock itself seems to be the
culprit and the easiest to modify.
During World War Two, stocks
were made by 14 different manu-
facturers using three different types
of wood. Around the globe, re-
placement stocks have been made
for years, some out of rather exotic
woods like Malayan Kapur. Now,
there are even commercial manu-
facturers producing stocks for
those who want to restore their car-
bines to as-new condition. Every-
one's primary consideration
through the years has been that
everything fit together and the rifle
function as it should, rather than
the potential for accuracy. In in-
specting different stocks, I have
found that the recoil plate mortise
depth varies noticeably.
By carefully removing wood
from the bottom of the recoil plate
mortise, the recoil plate's position
relative to the barrel channel is
lowered, which keeps the barrel
from bottoming out in the barrel
channel. In practice, I have found
that once the locking tang is en-
gaged in the recoil plate, the barrel
should float about one-half inch
above the bottom of the barrel
channel. Any more than that seems
to work no better and in some cas-
es actually causes parts to bind in
the stock, inhibiting functioning.
The amount of wood that needs
to be removed is very small. Thou-
sandths of an inch on the back of
the receiver translate to eighths of
an inch at the barrel, so taking your
time is paramount, as are multiple
trial-fittings. So far, this is the eas-
iest way that I have found to in-
crease accuracy. It also does
nothing to change a carbine's col-
lector value, and most importantly,
nothing has been done to preclude
shooting the carbine in the CMP's
M1 Carbine Match, which speci-
fies that no work other than careful
fitting of parts be done.
Using this method, the before
and after differences in group size
can be quite surprising. The most
extreme case was an Inland-pro-
duced carbine that my son had
picked out for himself. When I slid
the barrel band off the stock and re-
moved the hand guard, the barreled
action flopped in the stock like a
fish in the bottom of a boat. In that
state, five shots would not consis-
PRECISION SHOOTING — DECEMBER 2009 77

tently stay in the black bull’s-eye at

100 yards. After I removed a small
amount of wood from the recoil
plate mortise and achieved some
degree of suspension, group size
settled down to 2 inches, which
was due mainly to vertical string-
ing. Another Inland-produced car-
bine that gauged a 3 at the muzzle
and had very little suspension
could be counted on to put four
rounds into a 2.5-inch group and The type three barrel band and bayonet lug, a necessity if you want to
achieve any kind of accuracy with the carbine.
sling a flier more than 3 inches out
from the middle of the group. Af-
ter a slight bit of fitting, group size
remained unchanged but the ten-
dency to produce fliers disap-
peared.
One thing that can change dra-
matically after accurizing a carbine
is its zero, so fire a few shots at 25
yards to get a rough idea of where
it's shooting or put up a really big
target at the 100 yard-line. I use a
lot of repair centers for testing so I
can put up multiple targets side by
side and save all the walking back
and forth. In one case, a pre-accur-
ized carbine that had a good zero
put its first round into an adjacent For best accuracy, there should be enough tension to float the barrel
target after accurizing, a difference above the bottom of the barrel channel before the barrel band is put
of more than six inches. into place.
The carbine's trigger is an area
that I haven't had to tune very
much. The worst of my carbine's
trigger difficulties could be traced
to hardened grunge or reparkerized
parts that had yet to wear down to
a bare metal surface. A good sol-
vent, some strategically placed
grease, and a little oil have usually
yielded a pull weight of five to six
pounds so long as I was dealing
with well-used parts. On parts that
have been re-parked, some quality
time with a stone and Dremel tool
have been in order. In other words,
take your time, and keep in mind
that the CMP rules stipulate a trig- To achieve some degree of tension between the barreled action and the
ger pull of not less than 4.5 stock, wood needs to be carefully removed from the bottom of the recoil
pounds. As a comparison, the plate mortise.
78
Army's technical manual says that the carbine's trigger
pull should be more than 4.5 pounds, but less than 7
pounds, so in practice we shouldn't really have to slick
things up too much.
In use, the M1 Carbine trigger is a lot like a stock
AR-15 trigger, although being lighter by a few pounds:
single-stage, short take-up, and lots of over-travel.
Hammer fall is slow, almost like a flintlock, but other
than being a little heavy as compared to my match ri-
The “C”-shaped object is the recoil plate. The
upward jutting tang on the rear of the receiver is
clearly visible. If these two are not tightly mated,
accuracy will suffer.
The recoil plate and the rear of the receiver as they
would be in the stock. The only thing to prevent up-
down and side-to-side movement is tension in the
system.
PRECISION SHOOTING — DECEMBER 2009
fle, the carbine trigger isn't bad at all, certainly better
than a lot of off-the-rack M1's I've handled at CMP.
Reloading for the M1 Carbine is easy. With its al-
most straight case, carbide dies are the order of the
day, saving the drudgery of tumbling cases and remov-
ing media from primer pockets. As with everything re-
lated to reloading, primers, cases, and powder are hard
to find right now. So far, a Sierra 110-grain bullet and
a charge of IMR 4227 lit by a Wolf small rifle-.223
Remington primer have performed satisfactorily and
have been relatively easy to find in my neck of the
woods. Of course, the ten-ring that we're concerned
with here is the NRA No. SR-1 reduction of the 200-
yard SR target for use at 100 yards, which has an X-
ring 1.35 inches in diameter and a 10-ring 3.35 inches
in diameter.
Can we really expect to hold the ten-ring at 100
yards? The answer is maybe. For this article I pulled
four carbines out of the safe to see what they would do,
firing two five-round groups with each carbine, using
my handloads. From a solid rest, the before-mentioned
Inland-produced carbines fired 2-inch and 2.5-inch
groups at 100 yards. An IBM-produced carbine fired
2.5-inch groups and a Rock-Ola-produced carbine had
a habit of putting four rounds into 2-inches along with
a flier that stretched group size almost to 3-inches. One
thing that is notable was each carbine's ability to put
at least three shots very close together, with the re-
maining two shots widening the group. This could be
shooter error, the coarseness of the sighting system, or
the inherent nature of the carbine design. Still, we are
within the 3.35-inch ten-ring, so I have no doubt that a
fairly average carbine that retains or is given some de-
gree of suspension during the accurizing process is
mechanically capable of keeping ten shots inside the
ten-ring.
The nature of the CMP's M1 Carbine match will
likely ensure that every shooter has a couple of 9's in
the prone slow-fire stage, though. With the flimsy cot-
ton sling attached to the side of the stock being usable
only as a “hasty sling,” precision shooting with any
carbine is going to be difficult, so “cleans,” are going
to be few and far between. However, precision shoot-
ing with an as-issued rifle isn't about tiny group size
or shooting “cleans,” it's about doing your best within
the limits of the rifle and the ammunition issued that
day. And, it's also about having a good time with other
people, a notion that sometimes gets lost in the quest
for smaller groups and higher scores.