as much as I hate to say it the M1 carbine is fairly useless on account of its anemic round.
it has been proven over and over that the .30 carbine is a sufficiently lethal round for its designed purpose. it was never intended to be a long range weapon or main battle rifle - but an intermediate weapon issued to drivers, tank crews, officers, etc. that it was pressed into service as a frontline weapon is unfortunate but it was still highly regarded by many troops that used it.
all this BS about
'i shot him 5 times and he didnt go down' or
'i hit him but i saw the round bounce off his frozen jacket' or
'i shot him 10 times but when we recovered the corpse all the bullets left were bruises' is just soldiers missing their target and then making up typical BS excuses about it.
this has started an internet-wide notion that the .30 carbine is a 'harmless round' that couldnt penetrate a wet paper bag and you could shoot a charging soldier in the chest with it several times and he wont even notice it. these crazy internet 'facts' have been disproven several times yet the misinformation continues.
it was designed as a close-range compact, lightweight, low-recoil intermediate weapon. comments people make on the net such as
'it is less powerful than issued handguns' or
'its less powerful than a .38 special' are ridiculous -- the .30 carbine has more energy at 100 yards than a .357 magnum has at the muzzle.
same thing is happening now with the .223.
'i shot him 5 times and he didnt go down, the .223 is useless'. yeah #%@$ing right you did
the M1 carbine is
far from useless.... especially for the civilian user who is not limited to FMJ ammo.