The M1 Carbine is a handy, handsome little rifle. Stopping power with the gun's .30-caliber round is about the same as a .38 Special. Recoil is nil and reliability good.

There are few firearms developed for the U.S. military that have received such mixed reviews as the M1 Carbine. Depending upon which vet you talk to, this handy little semi-auto .30 was either the best or most execrable firearm ever given to the fighting man. While I never carried one in combat (my military longarm experience was with the much more substantial M14), for a fun plinker and light-game-getter, the diminutive repeater is hard to beat.

The M1 Carbine was the brainchild of David Marshall "Carbine" Williams. Williams, who formulated many of his firearms designs while serving a prison term for second degree murder, has the distinction of being one of the only firearms designers to have a movie made about him--"Carbine Williams," starring James Stewart. The M1 Carbine didn't spring full-blown from Williams' workshop, however. It was the result of considerable development by him and others. The whole story is somewhat protracted, and space doesn't really permit a retelling here, so we'll just touch on some of the highlights.

Basically the M1 Carbine was developed in response to a requirement for a handy rifle to be carried by clerks, cooks, machine gunners, linemen and the like--soldiers who were not normally issued a pistol but to whom, because of the nature of their duties, the larger M1 Garand might be inappropriate. Though initiated in 1938, the request was shelved until 1940 when America's entry into World War II seemed imminent. In late 1940, a number of manufacturers were sent specifications and told to work up a light carbine. Winchester produced the round, a .30 caliber, straight-cased rimless cartridge which pushed its 110-grain, round-nosed bullet out of an 18-inch barrel at some 1,860 fps.

The aperture flip sight on the early M1 Carbines were regulated for 150 and an admittedly optimistic 300 yards.

After his release from prison, Williams made something of a name for himself in the firearms files working for Winchester. His semi-auto carbine, submitted by his employers, was the arm selected by the government as most appropriate to its needs. This attractive gun was simple and rugged. With a barrel length of 18 inches, an overall length of just under 3 feet and a well-balanced heft of 5 1/2 pounds, it personified the word "handy."

Although the round didn't have the punch of the .30-06 chambered in the Garand, at least within reasonable distances it packed enough muscle to be a fairly effective combat round (110-grain FMJ bullet at 1,975 fps) with a relative stopping power of 16.3--about the same as that of the .38 Special. Designated the "M1 Carbine," the semi-auto employed a clever, reliable operating system. When a round is fired, gas is tapped off into a gas port in the barrel. The port connects with a chamber containing a short-stroke piston that is forced back about one third of an inch. The piston pushes the operating slide to the rear, which in turn operates the rotating bolt to eject the empty case. A coil-operating rod spring forces the bolt forward, where it strips off and chambers a fresh cartridge from the 15-round, sheet steel detachable box magazine. The forward motion of the slide also repositions the gas piston.

The M1 Carbine's production began in September 1941 with very few modifications to Williams' original design. Though the first guns were turned out by Winchester, Pearl Harbor caused manufacture to be stepped up considerably. Contracts and sub-contracts were let out to a number of other makers including such unlikely firms as Rock-Ola (jukeboxes), U.S. Postal Meter, Quality Hardware, the Inland Division of General Motors and Underwood (business machines). Before the war's end, more than 6 million M1 Carbines had been turned out to supply an enthusiastic demand by American and Allied forces. After World War II, M1 Carbines continued to be produced and remained in the inventory. When the Korean conflict broke out, they accompanied troops to Asia where they received some of their severest criticism, when the .30 Carbine bullets allegedly had a hard time penetrating the quilted Chinese uniforms.

During the Second World War, many GIs slipped an M1 Carbine mag pouch over the gun's butt to provide ready access to more .30-caliber ammunition.

During the Cold War years, thousands of the rifles were sent to various friendly governments and many others were sold surplus to U.S. civilians throughout the DCM. Even surplus sales were not enough to satisfy the American public, so M1 carbines were made commercially by several manufacturers--including one in Japan! There are so many variations to the M1 Carbine that the arm is a collector's dream. Add this to the fact that thousands have been brought back into the country in recent years, and you end up with a gun that is just about as popular today as when it was first issued.

Minor variations on the basic theme included such things as an early "I"-cut oiler/sling slot in the buttstock (as opposed to the later and more common rounded cut); an "L"-type slip-over rear sight which evolved into a sliding adjustable ramped style; addition of a bayonet lug; rounded as opposed to a flat bolt; flip-type safety replacing a push button; and scores of others too arcane to include here.

Major model changes were the M1A1, which employed a folding metal stock for airborne troops; the selective fire M2; and the M3, which was an M2 modified to accept special infrared night sighting units.

At 50 yards from a rest, our evaluation Winchester M1 provided 3 1/2-inch groups. All rounds fired hit high.

For our evaluation, we took a World War II-vintage Winchester M1 Carbine to the Petersen Ranch in Lake Elizabeth, California. Ammunition was Federal 110-grain hardball and Winchester 110-grain HPs. Chosen ranges were 50 and 100 yards, as we felt the extreme 300-yard range envisioned by the gun's designers and indicated by the sighting set up was just a tad too optimistic for the rifle, cartridge and our eyes.

The 15-round magazine loaded easily by simply pressing in each round individually. There is also a stripper clip designed for loading, and though we didn't have any available for this test, I can affirm that they work extremely well and do cut down on loading time.

One chambers a round by pulling back on the operating handle and releasing it. The gun is now cocked and ready to fire. We found the trigger pull to be crisp and positive, breaking at just over 5 pounds. Functioning was flawless, recoil virtually non-existent and accuracy "military-good" with rested 50-yard spreads averaging 3 1/2 inches and 100-yarders coming in at 5 inches, though all were high as the lowest aperture is supposedly regulated for 150 yards.

Early M1 Carbines had push-button safeties located just ahead of the triggerguard. These were replaced by levers because soldiers would often miss the safety and hit the mag release button in front of it.

While we didn't do it on this excursion, in the past I have been able to ring a 200-yard gong pretty regularly offhand, using the 300-yard sight setting. We also tried out the button-style safety, which is located just in front of the triggerguard. It worked fine (put left to fire, right for "on safe"), though was eventually replaced by the military, as too many soldiers were mistaking the mag-release for the safety and dropping the magazines by accident.

The M1 Carbine has a small hold-open detent placed on the top of the operating handle. When the slide is fully to the rear, the detent can be manually pushed down, where it catches in a slot milled into the receiver and keeps the action open. There are few guns I enjoy shooting more than the M1 Carbine. I have about a half-dozen in my collection of various styles and vintages and find them aesthetically pleasing (I still think it's one of the most handsome of modern military longarms), lots of fun to take into the field and loaded with history. That's a combination that's hard to beat in any firearm.