M1 Carbine went full-auto!

FishDoc

FishDoc

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Well, I did enjoy it the second time, the first one was a "holy $ugar" moment! I was firing a newly acquired Springfield M1 carbine at our indoor range. The first 50 rounds went nicely, and both my dad and I gave her a whirl (he was also trying out my Universal M1).
Then around my 10th mag (4 rounds only), I pull the trigger and get a rapid double tap. I call cease-fire, check the rifle, talk it over with my dad - no problems, so we carry on. 2 mags later (with 5 in it) the little bugger goes full auto and unloads all 5 rounds! What a blast:evil: but at this point I am a little concerned so I pack it away (that and I was out of ammo!).

So I have cleaned the whole carbine from end to end, disassembled the bolt and cleaned the floating firing pin... no visible problems. So now... will this happen again>? :50cal:

Also, makes me rethink about the 5 round limit on a centrefire. can you imagine if I had a (theoretical) 15 round mag? 30 round mag? A little concerning... but as usual, not a big threat since I maintained good muzzle control. But a safety concern none-the-less.

Comments?

Dr.O:cool:
 
FishDoc said:
Well, I did enjoy it the second time, the first one was a "holy $ugar" moment! I was firing a newly acquired Springfield M1 carbine at our indoor range. The first 50 rounds went nicely, and both my dad and I gave her a whirl (he was also trying out my Universal M1).
Then around my 10th mag (4 rounds only), I pull the trigger and get a rapid double tap. I call cease-fire, check the rifle, talk it over with my dad - no problems, so we carry on. 2 mags later (with 5 in it) the little bugger goes full auto and unloads all 5 rounds! What a blast:evil: but at this point I am a little concerned so I pack it away (that and I was out of ammo!).

So I have cleaned the whole carbine from end to end, disassembled the bolt and cleaned the floating firing pin... no visible problems. So now... will this happen again>? :50cal:

Also, makes me rethink about the 5 round limit on a centrefire. can you imagine if I had a (theoretical) 15 round mag? 30 round mag? A little concerning... but as usual, not a big threat since I maintained good muzzle control. But a safety concern none-the-less.

Comments?

Dr.O:cool:
Click to expand...

Possibly the firing pin was dirty leading to it protruding and a slamfire situation similar to what happens to dirty SKS rifles with cosmolene in the bolt. Also you might want to make sure someone hasn't done a trigger job and stoned/filed down a sear surface too much. That situation is obviously to be avoided for legal and safety concerns.
 
springfield did not make m1 carbines or is it newly made??


take out the bolt and shake it the FP should move back and forth easy

do a google search for m2 carbine parts make sure you do not have the m2 disconector its for FA ONLY

an m2 hammer and sear and trigger houseing are ok they were used for semis also and are legal

if you take the trigger group apart a little trick is to use the recoil spring guide its the tool used to take it aprt and reassemble VERY usefull for installing the hammer spring/plunger you do NOT need the trigger spring tool


the bolt can be taken aprt with out the tool but you need 3 hands and watch for flyinhg parts...they are small and hard to find.......
 
Correction...

Contact... you're right... It is a PLAINFIELD (my bad - thinking M1 Garand for some reason)

FP has been clean and no M2 parts located... looks like a slam fire issue. Had that happen with my SKS too once, but that was NOT fun since there were alot more people on the firing line and I had some shooters that just about wet themselves!:runaway:
 
I had the same thing on mine a few years ago. It would go full auto . I changed a few parts and was fine. They were worn enough to cause it to fire on full auto . I changed the sear, springs. and a couple of pins. The main thing is the sear.
 
Maybe you have an M2 carbine? But yeah, probably slamfire, clean out the bolt and firing pin assembly.
 
What type of ammo were you using? I'm not sure if slamfires are an issue with all floating FP like the ones found in the sks ( and the m1 carbine?) but I find using milsurp ammo with hard primers fixes the slamfire issues.
 
Since it's happened with two totally different rifles, you or somebody has done something to both of them you/they shouldn't have. Did you do anything to the trigger groups? Like, say, a trigger job? Filed the sear and hammer? If you did, you'll need to change the sears and hammers on both rifles.
Mind you, improperly seated primers in reloads can cause it too. So will light loads.
 
the m2 sear alone would NOT make it go FA the m2 sear after ww2 was used to replace the m1 carbine sear as it was the only one still being made (replacement parts)
 
FishDoc said:
Had that happen with my SKS too once, but that was NOT fun since there were alot more people on the firing line and I had some shooters that just about wet themselves!:runaway:
Click to expand...


Gee, quit shooting with liberals...the guys I shoot with would all have been lining up to have a go themselves....

How much do you want for that carbine?:D
 
clean job...

Well... I took apart both carbines and cleaned them down completely. Like I said, this only happened with the Plainfield... not my universal. Yes, the plainfield has a much smoother trigger, but I could not differentiate any significant difference between both sears and there are no worn parts that I can see. I can only assume that it was due to:

a) Soft primers - UMC 30 cal M1 brand
b) Dirt in the firing pin- hence multiple slam fires (full auto havoc!)
c) combination of the above.

The Plainfield is not an M2 (no selector switch) and there are no M2 parts that I can identify (looked at a number of sites that peddle M2 parts, and none match!).

Never had this issue with the Universal M1 - though some may malign this poor critter (Lots of bad things being said about Universal - blah blah blah) but it is a sweet little carbine and has not given me any trouble through 500 rounds.

My issue really is with the magazines - I HATE PINNED MAGS - some dont feed all that well, some wont fit my Universal, but fit the plainfield, etc.
The thing is - what if we were allowed to have high cap mags again (someday this will happen I hope!), and I had this issue with the damned thing going full auto with a 15 round, or even a 30 round mag?

I have fired full auto (military only) and had a blast, but I was expecting it and it was legal. This issue was NOT expected (first 50 rounds went off without a problem), and that is where I had the issue. I can control a burst of 5 rounds, but what if I had 30? Just a little something to make you wonder - and puts some of the safety rules into perspective.

:50cal: Dr. O
 
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