Inland Manufacturing's M1 Carbine: An Icon in American Quality

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M1 Carbine Popularity

Ron Norton, of Inland Manufacturing, is making what may well be one of the finest M1 Carbines available today. Why is that important when everyone is so AR-15 happy? Because the M1 Carbine was one of the most effective weapons the U.S. military ever issued, with the most hits on enemy soldiers, per rounds fired, of any gun issued before or since. What about power? Sure, you may have heard stories about a WWII or Korean War soldier shooting the enemy five or six times before the enemy went down, but when the body was examined, there was usually only one hole in the vitals. In Korea, many medics stated that they could not tell the difference between .30 Carbine, .30-06, and .45 ACP wounds.

Pistol caliber carbines (PCC) are all the rage these days and many of their owners will criticize the M1 Carbine round as “wimpy” so let’s look at some data. The M1 Carbine has almost 1,000 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. Compare that to the .44 Magnum, fired from a 16-inch barrel, which has about 880 foot-pounds of energy with a 165-grain projectile. How about the new “bear killer” 10mm, which is now carried by X-generation gun owners, over the .44 magnum, in Alaska these days? Out of a 16-inch barrel, the 10mm is in the 500–800 foot-pounds of muzzle-energy range for most loads.

The 9mm, which is the most popular caliber for PCCs, puts out only 500 foot pounds of energy, on average, out of a 16-inch barrel. The M1 Carbine has 600 foot pounds of energy at 100 yards which is 100 more than the 9mm has at the muzzle for the same length barrel. So, if the .30 carbine is “no more than a ‘wimpy’ pistol round,” according to some “experts,” then they should give up on their “wimpy” pistol-caliber carbines.

As far as having a magazine which interchanges with both pistol and rifle, there weren’t any traditional pistols made in .30 Carbine which would accept an M1 Carbine magazine, but there were a few handguns which were chambered in the cartridge (made by AMT, Ruger, and others) if handgun/rifle ammo 
interchangeability is important to you.

One of the other reasons for the M1 Carbine’s effectiveness is the fact that it is probably the easiest semi-auto rifle to hit with ever made. For some reason that little 5-1/2 -pound gun hangs rock steady as though it were a 12- or 13-pound rifle. It is fast pointing and extremely lively in the hands. There is little muzzle blast compared to other guns and little recoil. It, and its cartridge, are at the minimum size for a combat weapon, but in this case less is more for it has hit on the winning formula for hitting the enemy in combat more effectively than any other weapon put in the average soldier’s hands.

Also, it was the only weapon many “city boys” were comfortable firing in combat back in WWII through the Korean War. General Patton stated: “We could win this war a lot sooner if we could get every soldier to fire his rifle!” Well, most people who won’t fire other rifles, due to recoil and muzzle-blast issues, will fire the M1 Carbine because it is like shooting a big .22 rifle. You can’t appreciate this fully until you have seen “city folks,” with no firearms experience, cringe at the sharp muzzle blast and seven foot pounds of recoil of the AR-15. The M1 Garand was even more fearsome to the non-shooter during the 1940s and 50s with its 15 pounds of free recoil.

Military History

Sure, the expert always has his favorite weapon but I have always maintained that until a person proves that he can and will use something more powerful, they should be restricted to a gun we know they will be effective with such as the M1 Carbine. That’s not to say that the expert may not choose the M1 Carbine. In WW2, it was Congressional Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy’s favorite gun for forest fighting. He liked it so much he got his own M1 Carbine after the war.

At the very start of the Vietnam War, U.S. Army Special Forces advisors were normally issued a M1911A1 and an M1 or M2 Carbine, the M2 being the M1 with a selector switch added, giving it full-auto fire capability, even though the carbine was not suitable for full-auto fire because it climbs. The M1 Carbine was far more reliable than the M16 and a lot easier to maintain during the Vietnam War when the M16 experienced gun powder issues.

Army Ordnance finally admitted that the M16 required more maintenance than any rifle they had ever issued up to that time — another reason why the M1 Carbine was preferred by many soldiers after the M16 became available. An unknown fact to many is that the Germans made widespread use of captured M1 Carbines in WW2 giving it the designation SKb 455(a). Some members of Germany’s most elite fighting force, the Leibstandarte SS AH Division, who could have their pick of any weapon, carried carbines.

As previously noted, the M1 Carbine in M2 configuration makes a poor machinegun. That also is a good thing because either instinct shooting or aimed rapid fire in semi-auto gets more hits. Hitting with full-auto fire takes a weapon designed specifically as a machinegun. This means it will be a whole lot heavier and fire from an open bolt as these cancel out 50% of the recoil right there. To simply put a selector switch on a carbine firing from a closed bolt, like the M16 or AK47, just makes an ammo waster in my opinion.

Even with the old Browning Automatic Rifle, soldiers always got a higher score on the BAR course, firing it one shot at a time rather than full auto, and the BAR is fully the equal of the vaunted British Bren Gun on full auto. The sad fact is that even with a decent controllable machinegun, the military will not spend the time or ammo for the soldier to develop skill with it. Mastering it, like any other gun, in civilian life is what will determine the individual’s effectiveness in combat, where the careful instruction, studiously followed at the rifle range, is quickly forgotten under fire by the non-shooter. The government effectively outlawing machineguns in 1934 has cost a large percentage of the lives lost in wars since then.

For the civilian shooter, the carbine makes perfect sense. The wife, and most of the children, can quickly master it and that’s important. Remembering history back in the frontier days, every member of the family had to fight when outlaws or indians attacked. It was entire families fighting together who defeated the British in the critical Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolutionary War. Once the word was out, that the British had enlisted their Indian allies, they knew it was fight or die because the earlier French and Indian War had shown that neither side could prevent their Indian allies from massacring the losers after a battle. Even the colonists previously loyal to King George joined in as losing meant everyone in the family could wind up dead. The British were horrified to see that they were fighting the entire families, men, women children, and old folks. Faced with a choice between either victory or being massacred by the Britain’s American Indian allies, they fought with desperate determination and gave the British a resounding and decisive defeat.

The M1 Carbine is perhaps the ultimate small and medium game rifle as it does not ruin the meat on small game like a .30-06 does. While it is not commonly recommended for deer and bear it certainly has killed its share of them. I have heard men say that they would not want to face a charging grizzly with one, but speaking as someone who had to live with grizzlies in the Alaskan bush, I can tell you that if you can’t hit a charging grizzly’s brain with a full magazine in an M1 Carbine there is something wrong with you. It is ideal for an Alaskan bush plane’s survival rifle especially when equipped with a retractable stock or a folding stock like the one shown in this article from Choate Machine & Tool (RifleStock.com). It will also fill your pot with rabbits and ptarmigan, and unlike some so-called .22 survival rifles, it is easy to hit with — when missing means hunger or even starvation, that is a life or death issue. Without adequate food, you can also die of exposure a lot quicker.

There are a couple of accessories for the carbine which are not fully appreciated. The combination front stock band and bayonet lug (so feared and hated by the hoplophobic anti-gun crowd) allows the M1 Carbine to fire more accurately than barrel bands without it and this is because it effectively dampens harmonic vibration in the barrel. This was added late in WW2 due to the demand for it in Pacific close quarters combat. Prior to this, I have seen wartime footage of a soldier firing an M1 Carbine with an unmistakable 10-inch M1 Garand bayonet on it. He had someone make that custom rig for him.

In addition to removing flash, the bolt-on carbine flashider is a cone type that also effectively diverts a lot of the muzzle blast away from the shooter for more pleasant firing. Not enough to allow you to dispense with your ear protection but hey, every little bit of decibel reduction is welcome. A military bolt-on muzzle brake is available as well and it does a good job with perceived recoil. (Both items are available from Sarco: e-sarcoinc.com.) What most men outside of Army Ordnance are not aware of is that the final Mil-Specs for the M1 Carbine resulted in a drastic improvement of the 
accuracy, more accurate than early M1 Garands at short ranges. This is the gun that Inland is making and not the earlier one. What that means to you can be seen from the firing test of the sample gun (more on this in a bit).

M1 Scout Carbine

The M1 Scout Carbines feature many of the same characteristics of the original Inland Carbines and are manufactured in the USA. The M1 “Scout” carbine has many of the same features as the M1 “Jungle” carbine which includes a threaded flash hider and 15-round magazine. The flashider is conical shaped and is threaded 1/2 x 28 TPI allowing the use of your favorite accessories with the same threads! The Scout features a polymer- textured wood stock and an aluminum P-rail handguard, manufactured by Amega Range Systems, which allows the use of an extended eye relief scope or electronic optics. Like the 1944 and 1945 models, the M1 Scout Carbine features adjustable rear sights and cross-bolt button safety.

Ron Norton has turned the M1 Carbine into a great scout-type rifle by the addition of a UTG 1-4X28 30mm CQB scope available from Leapers. Somehow this turns the already steady M1 Carbine into one of the steadiest rifles for offhand shooting that I have ever handled. Shooting moving targets offhand is my favorite type of shooting and I have tried them all. Ron has gotten sub-minute of angle groups out of some of his carbines at 100 yards and when I held this one on a one inch mark at 120 yards I realized, that with one of them, in this configuration and enough time, I could get a minute of angle 100-yard group offhand. I don’t know of another gun that I think I could do that with. But what’s the point? No one would ever believe me if I did it. The bottom line is that this gun is that steady. Now for accuracy testing on a shooting bench.

Range Report

I had brands of ammo which were tested at 200 yards, not the typical 10-yard range. The M1 Scout Carbine was fired from a machine rest to eliminate shooter error from the results. The UTG 1-4.5X28 scope was used for all testing. First up was Fiocchi 110-grain FMJ with a great 4.36" group. By the way, all ammunition fired had 110-grain projectiles and all were full metal jacketed (FMJ) rounds with the exception of Hornady Custom. Second in line was Armscor with an impressive 2.92-inch group. Now, you are probably thinking that I made an error and I meant to say that I fired these groups at 100 yards.

No, all groups shown were fired at 200 yards and I will explain how this rifle is shooting so well. Third in line was Aguila with a 3.05-inch group and this one would be second best for the day. Hornady FMJ and Hornady Custom soft point actually ended up shooting the exact sized groups at 3.67 inches. Georgia Arms measured out at 5.66 inches which is still fantastic at this distance. Last up was Precision Cartridge with a 3.61-inch group. I also received 150 rounds of Federal American Eagle FMJ and 100 rounds of Federal SP Power Shok for deer and hog but it arrived too late to be tested in the machine rest. During my other shooting sessions with it, I felt that it would have done very well from the machine rest.

So, how is this rifle shooting so well when surplus M1 Carbines can barely hold a 10-inch group at 200 yards? Well, it’s a few things. According to Norton (and in my experience as well), most surplus M1 Carbines shoot four to six inches at 100 yards, sometimes you will find one which will hold three inches. A new Inland Manufacturing standard M1 Carbine will hold two to three inches at 100 yards depending on ammunition. The Inland Manufacturing Scout M1 Carbine will shoot sub-MOA groups and here is how it’s doing this. First, all of the Inland Manufacturing M1 Carbines use a cast receiver. Many in the gun community like to chime in, when they hear the word cast, “Forged is better!” In the case of the M1 Carbine, it isn’t. Casting technology has come a long 
way over the past 10–20 years. The issue here is flexing, and forged steel receivers have more of it which affects accuracy in a similar way that barrel flexing is affected by harmonics which reduces accuracy. Cast receivers are more rigid and that is what Inland uses.

The other “magic” here is in the handguard. When Norton was working on an improved M1 Carbine model, he contacted Doug Green, a former FBI agent and owner of Amega Range Systems (AmegaMounts.com). Norton had met Green over 20 years ago and was impressed with his Mini-14 handguard which would greatly improve the accuracy of older Ruger Mini-14 rifles. You see, back in the late 1970s, the Federal Bureau of Prisons purchased a large amount of Ruger Mini-14s for their outside guards. If you see any outside photos of San Quinton Prison, Pelican Bay, or others, you will see prison guards armed with Mini-14s even these days. However, there were the accuracy issues with the Mini-14s of yesteryear and Doug Green had an idea.

He developed a handguard replacement for the Mini-14 to improve the accuracy of the prison system’s rifles by the use of several contact points between the barrel and handguard. The results? A Ruger Mini-14 going from six-inch groups at 100 yards down to two inches. The M1 Carbine handguard that Norton acquires from Amega works in the same way. The M1 Carbine Scout Mount is made from aluminum with multiple points of contacts on its underside. There is a two-inch engagement point near the receiver area, a 2-1/2"-inch tension plate with four screws, a bottom clamp with eight screws (which clamps the bottom of the barrel) and a top plate, with barrel tension adjustment. All affect the harmonics of the barrel which greatly improves accuracy.

A total of 1,650 rounds were fired with no malfunctions. In my opinion, it’s the nearest thing to the magic rifle “you can’t miss with” that everyone dreams of. Just remember to specify a German three-post reticle because crosshairs blur in rapid fire, and aimed rapid fire is where the M1 Carbine outdoes many long guns. With iron sights, you never completely loose the sight picture from shot to shot. With instinctive shooting, it is even faster and more accurate. The M1 Carbine seems to be just made for instinctive shooting. When using the “quick kill” method of instinctive shooting that the late Lucky McDaniel taught the U.S. Army, during the Vietnam War, you just can’t seem to miss with this M1 Carbine. And that’s the final word. The M1 Carbine is the perhaps the easiest military rifle to hit with ever made.

INLAND MANUFACTURING M1 SCOUT CARBINE

• Caliber: .30 Carbine
• Magazine Capacity: 5, 10, 15, 30rd
• Barrel Length: 16.25"
• Total Length: 34”
• Barrel Groove: 4
• Thread: ½x28
• Twist Rate: 1 in 20"
• Weight: 5lbs., 3oz
• MSRP: $1,295
• Contact: Inland Manufacturing, Inland-Mfg.com, mks@inland-mfg.com

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