M2 carbines

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fingers284

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Had the opportunity to watch the movie "heartbreak ridge" couple days ago and the opening footage was authentic Korean war newsreel. They showed the best footage I have ever seen of GI's working out with M2's. The thing that caught my attention was the muzzle control those boys had, there was very limited muzzle jump during a full mag dump.
 
I find the m2 is very controllable - the weight (not that it's heavy) combined with the relatively mild ammunition I suppose.

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Plainfield machining did a run of new m2 carbines for the Saigon Police in about 1970
They were marked M2
The over run was sold to American and Canadian Police Departments
 
It would make a pretty good police rifle loaded with hollow point ammo, but instead they need "guns designed for the battlefield to kill the highest number of people in the shortest time". Which is a bit scary, if they believe that, why would they issue them to police? Anyway, I'm going to have to go to the US to try an M2 at some point, I have a bit of a 'thing' about them.
 
Looks like M2’s in the movie The Eagle has Landed. Likely not that numerous for the time depicted (early 1944?)

I shot one a few years ago in Vegas but the one Discount Firearms had was prone to jamming so hard to get a feel for how it really handled.
 
When US Army Capt. Larry Dring was in Viet Nam in the early 1960's he frequently carried an M2 Carbine loaded with tracer bullets. When he and his Hmong task force encountered enemy fire, Dring would get up and fire full auto tracer fire in the direction where he wanted his task force to fire their M1 Garands, then get out of the way as they unloaded copious amounts of 30.06 at the enemy.
 
Absolutely true...my father was one the Hmong tasked to rescue US pilots and harass the NVA along the HCM trail and us Hmong did indeed use Garands at the beginning. M1/M2's were a favorite as us Hmong are small statured. As my father put it, Garands were heavy and cumbersome but they held their ground and when it barked, the enemie would normally shy away if possible....reverse for the carbine.
 
7.62Nato said:
Absolutely true...my father was one the Hmong tasked to rescue US pilots and harass the NVA along the HCM trail and us Hmong did indeed use Garands at the beginning. M1/M2's were a favorite as us Hmong are small statured. As my father put it, Garands were heavy and cumbersome but they held their ground and when it barked, the enemie would normally shy away if possible....reverse for the carbine.
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The Hmong people were the unsung heroes of the war, if the ARVN had fought like the Hmong, Viet Nam would be a different country today. Deep respect for your father.
 
Back in the '60s, M2 carbines were being sold as M1s in Canada. They were converted by simply removing the selector switch. All the ones I saw still had the trip lever in place. I once bought one from a chap who told me he had bought it at the Bay. There are probably still people who have these carbines and don't realize they have evil, prohibited converted autos. Of course, once all semi-autos are prohibited, it won't matter whether it started out as an M1 or M2.

Given normal human curiosity, it's almost certain that some people re-converted them to full auto, but they must have been discreet about it. Even in the '60s, it would have been front page news if someone had been caught with one, and I can't recall any such incident.
 
^ But wouldn't they be marked m2? See my picture. Also, were they sold as converted auto or just as semi? I.e. would they have become 12.3 or just been forgotten?

Mine is marked m2 and still registered FA

From that perspective GI m1 carbines could be made FA with the addition of the trip switch... (I say GI because the commercial Iver Johnson in my picture is built in way that it can't)
 
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KotKotofeich said:
^ But wouldn't they be marked m2? See my picture. Also, were they sold as converted auto or just as semi? I.e. would they have become 12.3 or just been forgotten?

Mine is marked m2 and still registered FA

From that perspective GI m1 carbines could be made FA with the addition of the trip switch... (I say GI because the commercial Iver Johnson in my picture is built in way that it can't)
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there was no "12 anything" back in the 60's ....not until 2000 when C68 came into effect.
 
fingers284 said:
there was no "12 anything" back in the 60's ....not until 2000 when C68 came into effect.
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Yes. The question is did they get registered as 12.3 when the time came or just remained restricted? So would there be restricteds floating around with just the selector missing or would they be 12.3s? I have a 12.3 pending at Switzer's so will get to study that one personally, but curious if anyone has... mmm... seen a registered _restricted_ carbine somewhere that seemed to have extra parts...
 
KotKotofeich said:
Yes. The question is did they get registered as 12.3 when the time came or just remained restricted? So would there be restricteds floating around with just the selector missing or would they be 12.3s? I have a 12.3 pending at Switzer's so will get to study that one personally, but curious if anyone has... mmm... seen a registered _restricted_ carbine somewhere that seemed to have extra parts...
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The US Army converted a fair number of M1's to FA without changing the markings. Also some were converted at unit level in Viet Nam. You need the right trigger group, but beyond that it's pretty much a field strip and add the magic ingredients. I wonder how many had a length of tube welded to the muzzle to make them NR, and still have their guts intact.
 
My father had "an M1 Carbine" and when the laws changed he registered as a Restricted. It was an M1 to him because it was semi only. The receiver stamp was M2 Inland Division (IIRC). Later it had its barrel extended and was deregistered. There might have been a green slip for it, but long ago disappeared as irrelevant.

It never had a selector because he bought it in pieces, and had to put the stub of a broken drill bit into the hole for the selector. I suppose it could have been FA or CA, but as a semi only carbine it was just always a little rifle.
 
Had a good laugh yesterday, SIL phoned me all excited, saying "I remember you saying one time that you wish teeter-totters were available" and there is one available on the local buy-sell network....um...not the right model I had to tell him.
 
KotKotofeich said:
Yes. The question is did they get registered as 12.3 when the time came or just remained restricted? So would there be restricteds floating around with just the selector missing or would they be 12.3s? I have a 12.3 pending at Switzer's so will get to study that one personally, but curious if anyone has... mmm... seen a registered _restricted_ carbine somewhere that seemed to have extra parts...
Click to expand...

I know two Gentlemen that have/had full auto carbines. They both have owned them since the '70's

The first Gentleman owns an Inland stamped M2 complete with all the happy parts. At one point in time (not sure of the date...), he had a barrel extension welded on and it was registered as NON restricted M1. At a later date (I'm guessing 2000), it was registered as a prohib M2 and given a 12.3. He still has it in the original FA configuration although, he bought a complete M1 trigger group and pin and swaps it out when he wants to take it to the range. Illegal?... Probably. Nice little gun tho, except for the ugly barrel extension.

The second Gentleman owned a NPM stamped M1 with a Type 6 Inland FA trigger group and all the other associated happy parts required for full auto fire (he bought it that way..). At one point in time it was registered as a Restricted M1 (no barrel ext.) and it remained that way until 2-3 years ago when he sold his collection due to health reasons. When he sold it, he bought an M1 trigger group and pin, swapped it out and sold it as a regular Restricted M1. What happened to the Type 6 trigger group and all the happy parts that were left over...., I can't say...
Interesting side note regarding this one... the Gentleman had cut the arm and knob off of the happy switch so that nothing was visible above the stock line. There was no way to know that it was capable of FA fire unless you removed the stock. Illegal?... Definitely! He had to stick a small screwdriver down the side of the receiver to switch it back and forth.
 
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