Universal m1 worth it?
- Thread starter rally guy
- Start date
I owned one once. It was fairly accurate and functioned reliably. They do have some problems and are not the best quality. There was some issues with them being able to fire before the locking lugs were engaged adequately, with disasterous results. If you google Universal carbine, you should be able to find an article with info on how to check for this problem. I checked mine and found it to be safe, but just barely.
Universal made some very decent carbines. I've got one that I recently rebarreled with a non restricted length barrel.
I've had this thing since the seventies and to tell the truth, mine was trouble free and quite accurate. It was one of their earlier efforts and parts, like the trigger housing and bolt are GI surplus. The only time it ever gave me any trouble was my own fault. I put way to much 2400 powder into the case.
As long as I did my part and fed it properly, not one malfunction. No failure to fire, no failure to extract. It just did exactly what it was supposed to do.
The Universals went through several series and with each series there were changes.
Google the name and look at what they have to say about them. One thing about mine, it was certainly a lot more accurate than any of the milsurp M1 Carbines I've had the privilege of shooting. It's original barrel, looked like the Marlin "Micro Grove" style of rifling. The new barrel isn't quite as accurate though but not bad, considering.
I have yet to run into anyone that has actually had a problem with a Universal that wasn't the owners/operator's fault.
Things like feeding it hollowpoint, soft lead nose ammo, not allowing the bolt to move forward under its own spring tension on the first round or insisting on using the magazine as a forward grip.
They were meant to be fed with a semi pointed fmj, 110gr bullet. I've yet to see one fail to feed these, as long as the mag wasn't being held onto.
I had to polish the feed ramps on mine to feed lead bullets. After that not a hiccup.
IMHO, if you can get one at a reasonable price, go for it. They are a lot of fun. If you can find one with a non restricted length barrel even better.
By the way, almost all of the parts for it are relatively easy come by as they interchange with surplus GI parts.
I've had this thing since the seventies and to tell the truth, mine was trouble free and quite accurate. It was one of their earlier efforts and parts, like the trigger housing and bolt are GI surplus. The only time it ever gave me any trouble was my own fault. I put way to much 2400 powder into the case.
As long as I did my part and fed it properly, not one malfunction. No failure to fire, no failure to extract. It just did exactly what it was supposed to do.
The Universals went through several series and with each series there were changes.
Google the name and look at what they have to say about them. One thing about mine, it was certainly a lot more accurate than any of the milsurp M1 Carbines I've had the privilege of shooting. It's original barrel, looked like the Marlin "Micro Grove" style of rifling. The new barrel isn't quite as accurate though but not bad, considering.
I have yet to run into anyone that has actually had a problem with a Universal that wasn't the owners/operator's fault.
Things like feeding it hollowpoint, soft lead nose ammo, not allowing the bolt to move forward under its own spring tension on the first round or insisting on using the magazine as a forward grip.
They were meant to be fed with a semi pointed fmj, 110gr bullet. I've yet to see one fail to feed these, as long as the mag wasn't being held onto.
I had to polish the feed ramps on mine to feed lead bullets. After that not a hiccup.
IMHO, if you can get one at a reasonable price, go for it. They are a lot of fun. If you can find one with a non restricted length barrel even better.
By the way, almost all of the parts for it are relatively easy come by as they interchange with surplus GI parts.
I had one, one of the later models, aluminum trigger assembly, double recoil spring complete garbage. Mag well was so wore out it wasn't feeding right unless I was pushing up on the mag. Big possibility of out of battery fire. Google it, read up on how universal was cutting on cost and manufacturing quality.
I've had a few Universals. Like bear hunter,I had to polish the feed ramp quite a bit to make the one work with soft point ammo and also had to shorten the floating firing pin spring to make it function in very cold weather. In extreme cold it wouldn't strike hard enough to set a cartridge off due to too high a spring rate and length on that small spring around the firing pin. Accuracy has always been very good on any Universals I owned.
I sold off all my Universals except for one very early production one that consists of 80% U.S. military marked M-1 carbine components. It also has an original M-2 slide and bolt. This was a gun made within the first few years of the company beginning operations, as far as I can tell. That firearm functions absolutely flawless and other than a bit of difference externally in the stock, is absolutely identical to all my GI carbines and of equal quality. It's certainly the best Universal I ever owned and is much better quality than any post war production carbine I have ever seen.
Quality control definitely did take a major nose dive in the last years of production though and I have seen some that were unsafe to use due to being able to fire out of battery( with the bolt not 100% locked). The big problems came when they started to run out of original surplus parts and had to manufacture their own. They made design changes to cut costs and quality control was very slipshod in the final years.
Rallyguy, if that carbine has the non standard bolt hold open , slide, or dual springs, have it checked out by someone who knows these guns. There are some of those that will fire out of battery. I have seen 3 so far personally. There are some with cast aluminum trigger group that still have all the good standard mil spec parts and they make great little guns once you install an original GI trigger housing.
I sold off all my Universals except for one very early production one that consists of 80% U.S. military marked M-1 carbine components. It also has an original M-2 slide and bolt. This was a gun made within the first few years of the company beginning operations, as far as I can tell. That firearm functions absolutely flawless and other than a bit of difference externally in the stock, is absolutely identical to all my GI carbines and of equal quality. It's certainly the best Universal I ever owned and is much better quality than any post war production carbine I have ever seen.
Quality control definitely did take a major nose dive in the last years of production though and I have seen some that were unsafe to use due to being able to fire out of battery( with the bolt not 100% locked). The big problems came when they started to run out of original surplus parts and had to manufacture their own. They made design changes to cut costs and quality control was very slipshod in the final years.
Rallyguy, if that carbine has the non standard bolt hold open , slide, or dual springs, have it checked out by someone who knows these guns. There are some of those that will fire out of battery. I have seen 3 so far personally. There are some with cast aluminum trigger group that still have all the good standard mil spec parts and they make great little guns once you install an original GI trigger housing.
Exactly. I bought one of these rifles in Calgary long ago, and had it for a while. Stovepipes galore and a very anemic cartridge equalled not being very impressed at all.
It might have been the ammo but the gun overall was somewhat craptastic.
Was very happy to trade it off.
