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    (American rifleman reprint, R11) -U.S. Cal. .30 carbine-National Rifle Association of America (19--)

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    (American Rifleman Reprint, R11) - U.S. Cal. .30 Carbine-National Rifle Association of America (19 - )

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    shaun_marvin_1

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    -alNRD\ ____ PUBLICATIONS Copyright 1961, 1985, 1990, 1992 National Rifle Association of America 11250 Waples Mill Road Fairfax, Virginia 22030-9400 ‘Third Edition [Ninth Printing, September 2004 ‘The Cover: Accouterments courtesy of Todd Lewis Design by Michael R. Bloom Photograph by Carl B. Neustrand CAUTION: The material contained herein is reprinted from past issues of the AMERI- CAN RIFLEMAN magazine, a copyrighted publication of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA). Therefore, while technically sound and historically relevant, it may have been updated by research more recent than the original date of publication. All technical data in this publication, especially for handloading, reflect the limited experience of individuals using specific tools, products, equipment and ‘components under specific conditions and circumstances not necessarily reported in this publication, and over which the NRA has no control. The data have not otherwise been tested or verified by the NRA. The NRA, its agents, officers and employees accept no responsibility for the results obtained by persons using such data and disclaim all bitty for any consequential injuries or damages, THE NEW M-1 LIGHT CARBINE ADOPTION OF THE WINCHESTER LIGHT CARBINE by the Army has already been annownced Ihroush the newspapers, but very little detail ow the cum iself has beew forthcoming.” This is no apolory for the scanty information sppearing here, but rather wate of inference that imerican firearms € mal defense comeing weusnally ection, which the Wer Department doer ‘cant foreign Interest. "We tladly abide by the desire of the War Departm ry editorial enoperation tn achicoe those ends to thich every American ir na fies pledge inka satis Tin ican, phrnlogy of Ord the srt if job sicher theft or pial an da Drnisces new name fort new weepan, "Ur. Catbine, effectively, the new carbine gies a reat Bist caliber 30, M-1," les a story of first-rate interest to every impression. Trim and nest, it looks like gun-lover in these turbulent, arms-conscious times—a business over every one of its stubby 36 of the lessons to be learned from two years of war inches, should make a tremendous hit on the Cantinent, and of the ability of United States in- with the 80 por cent of pistol- ventiveness to go the Europeans one better. armed fighters whose .45%s will Army men long have taken stock of so-called be replaced in its favor. No ‘machine-pistols" with which European na ions have sissy, the new carbine armed their shock troops: Finland's Suomi, Nazi Ger- packs a wallop—15 Neuhausen and Soloth rmany’s Schmeisser, her and rounds staggered in Russia's neat little tommy gun. All of these possess cer its Tong box tain characteristics in common. Short and easily handled, replace the pistol in the countries of their adoption. Light, accurate, fast firing, they give to groups nominally armed with handguns an offensive value which they never could have with pistols alone. Ammunition is ‘of handgun type, which means tremendously reduced weight, All are of semi-aucomatie type; some may be they largely magazine, speeds its ain jacketed bul- lee at a mean velocity of 1,900-feet a second. Like that of our M-t rifle, the new cartridge is a 30 caliber affair. ‘The resemblance ends there. Generally it follows the design of the AS pistol ear- ridges the case is long and straight, without bottleneck, and positions on the mouth of fired cither semi- or full automatic. More important, the European belligerent’s tommy gun is ideally suited to the job of the non-rifl-carrying soldier in today’s fast moving, hit-and-run warfare ‘=the soldier whose job demands a personal weapon lighter than the rifle, more a= curate than the short-ranged, offen sively useles pistol. U.S, Army's answer to the challenge re- case, as does the .45. Developed in collaboration with the engineers of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, the new eactridge is loaded wich 2 M0-geain jacketed bullet, pushed ahead of 14.5 ‘grains of duPont military powder. ‘The primer commercially available, non-cor rosive, non-mercuric type, Pressure isin neighborhood of 40,000 pounds to the sqquate inch. eo May Ist, anxious sponsors brought co Ordnance men a hatful of pilot models, of which six we selected for test on the sandy Aberdeen firing ranges— solved itself into a reply which will ward making our soldier the best armed in. the world—"U, 5, Carbine, caliber 30, M-1." Not intended a a fo far to is a standart en the initial test board convened on placement for. the till, berate a anaunliary for arms of 2 type entirely new to the U.S iltary picture By no means vied down with Ordnance-imposed re tions as to what the new arm should be, samples ran the antes of bets elf-aling’ mechan "The Som ‘Auto-Ordnance were short rectls the H. 8 R. and Wood hull, blow-backs; Hyde's andthe Springfcldgas-operat Te was evident enough that Army's ordnance men were and troubled with no prejudice in favor of one basic system or another, wanted only a gun that would do thei job. By the end of initial test, Ordnance war able co decide ‘This is the new 30 caliber on three mods for final consideration: the Hyd, Spring carbine, ‘which will replace field and H. & R. In addition, two late comers, Tu eat el eer oot it Be and Winchester, would be put through their paces Tn outward appearance the five arms remaining are much the same, Harrington & Richardson's, an adapta- tion of their sub-machine gun, is a design of Eugene C Reising, one of America’s cop-flight small-arms designers 1 Other entries in. the Army's tests were (top to bottom) the Turner, Springfield, Hyde and Harrington and Richardson arms Weighing 5.8-pounds, it is 38 inches long, has a 15-inch barrel, operates on a delayed blow-back system. The arm submitced by veteran George Hyde, neaely a half-pound lighter, is gas-operated, draws its gas from a port about 5¥s-inches from the muzzle, is shorter than the H. & R by five inches, Winchester’s entry works on a recent and proven prin- ciple of taking gas off close to the chamber, before cooling ‘ean cake place, thus preventing carbonization of the piston and gas port. Seven and a half inches shorter and four and 2 half pounds lighter than the Army's Garand, Win- chester’s carbine weighs 4.63 pounds, The Springfield has already been described in Tit Aaenicas RITLEMAN: no. information on the Turner writing was available at the time of ‘Tests for accuracy burial in grieey dust bring out merits and faules as re lentlessly as would months of hard field use. Through these final tests one weapon stood out increasingly, stand- ing more abuse, holding up longer under sustained fring, breaking fewer parts. By the time the test personnel had handled all of the weapons, witnessed all of the gruelling tests they were required to undergo, members of the group sustained firing, exposure to weather, were unanimous in their opinion, ‘The Winchester was voted best suited to military service ‘Adoption of the new carbine will mean much to our Army. Offensive fire power, meaning in the final analysis potential aimed shots per minute, will be increased by nearly 33 per cent. Actually the increase of fire power will be greater even than that 33 per eent would indicate, Previously men in rear echelons depended upon riflemen for protection. Armed with the carbine, chese men be- come an offensive threat themselves, relieve supporting riflemen for other tasks. Ie is far ery from the carbine of Grandfather's day, obsoleted 35 years ago, to the semi-automatic "U. $. Ca bine, caliber 30, MoI.” ‘The return of open, shifting war- fare, the development of highly mobile fighting unies and employment of parachutists and aie-borne troops as shock forces have made the position of troops behind combat zones extremely vulnerable. Far from being “safe behind the lines,” our modern doughboy may find himself face to face with armed, determined enemy fighters at any time, and anywhere in a zone of opera tions. With the new carbine, his chances of protect- ing himself and the success of his mission are increased tenfold, Who Designed The M1 Carbine? By E. H. HARRISON Senior Technical Advisor THE AMERICAN RIFLEMAN 1 has taken mote thin 30 years for the complete story of the cteation of the MI cafbine to come 10 light ithas For the firs time, a true account of the ale firearms esperts who carried out this Suseessfa development in haste under war time pressure can be fiven, The historical fact-finding resulted from publication ‘of the article. by Technical Editor MD, Waite, "All The Way With The MI Carbine.” (The American Rifle ‘man, Sept.—Nov. 1974), siving. the Te fmarkable history of the development and huge production of the USS. cal 0 car bine That article merely mentioned (p. 42, Sept. 1974) the action of Winchester is ‘developing the carbine which won an of ‘ial competition and was then produced in vast quantities, The late Edwin Pugsley the Winchester Repeating Arms Company Vice president who submitted this design {0 the government, and. David M. Williams, who invented the well-known g88 tappet ‘operating mechanism on the barrel, both were mentioned. Subsequently, The Amer can Rifleman received a Teter stating that fnother Winchester employee, of the same Slrmame as the letter writer “invented the sorbine and should. be credited. with is ‘Sesien The American Rifleman thereupon con tucted Edwin Pugsley, then retited, who supervised the MI” carbine program throughout, He stated as follows: "The carbine was invented by no single man, bot was a combination of parts of uns already. produced by Winchester, and the work of several of our best me- chanics of which Mr father was fone.” He then recounted the carbine’ hi Tory from the beginning. describing its in ception and then detailing the work of those who took part by name and by the ‘contribution of each The account contains allusions which he new would be familiar to The America Rifleman staf. to whom i wos addressed Where these may not be readily under standable to the teader, brief explanations tre inserted in brackets Following is Pugsley’s account in his ‘own words, assembled from three Teters in which he gave this history wo The American Rifles “I ha charge of the Washington con tacts for the Company prior 10 and during Work! War I, and besan spending com siderable time, in’ Washington, Prior to World War Itt was quite evident that war clowls were forming rapidly, sind. at Ineeting of some of the Winchester execu tives vith Me. John Olin present, {told the fsroup that Tthousht we should be actively Working on a military rife and not get aight without one as we had been in Word War At that time we had two new adel guns ready for proxiction, One ss 8 boltaction sporting rife easily converted to a military arm. Teas in fact later brought out first as the M/S4, and Tater refined into the M70, Winchester had hid fo experience with heavy caliber bolt 3c: tions other than the 303 Enfield all of four puns were lever action—most of them Inable fo handle as hetvy a round a the 30-06 although we did furnish «few of ‘our Model 95° for this callber. The other choice was new Ispe wf autoloading shot “The shotgun won out. and we were told fo proceed with the. development. How fever die to. my continied insistence on 3 military bolt action, Mr. Olin softened a bit and said, “AID right, g0 ahead. but don't Spend any money." I replied that this was Tike the ok! Tedy telling ber daughter who ‘canted to go swimming that she could. but saying, "Yes my darling daughter. leave ‘your clothes on a. hickory Timb but don’ fo near the water” However, 1 went ahesd to see what we could Jo “Fd Browning [Jonathan Fdmund Brown ingh half’ Brother of Toho ha Disclosure of details of the MI carbine development came as. technical “last testament” from Ed win Pugsley” an alltime figure in firearms deselopment. He died Nov 19, 1975, at 90, after a long eateer swith the Winchester Repeating Arms Co, At his retirement in. 1950, he headed the fesearch department. of Olin Industries. Winchester at that time bought his personal arms collec: tion, sstembled! during half a cen: tury, to round out the outstanding company collection begun in 1866 by Oliver F, Winchester First mock-up version of Winchester cal. rifle with single-column six-shot magazine. 30 gasoperated developed an autotoading military rite and hnad. submitted it 19 Washington, I went down to see it and to hear what resus 1 {ould of the governments test. It was ob ious that the gun was not right. but it had a few interesting features that I thought might be developed. T bought the model 4nd hired Fd Browning to come to Win- ‘hester sind continue working on it, [While engaged in this work Browning died follow- ing an appendectomy in New Haven on May 16.1039, at ape 80.) ‘At about the sme time T met Marshall Williams and after a Tong and. arduous negotistion hired him too. When he ease fo New Haven, the fst job U assigned to him was to see what could be done with the Browning Automatic [lft vnfinished by the death of Brosening). In a short time he brought me the revamped gun, cal. 30°06. In the rearward travel of the bolt, it dis: appeared inte the pstl grip. and the over all Tength of the fille was shorter by the length of one 30-06 round. Williams had incorperated his shortsirake piston in the few pun, which worked very ‘well, Duc 10 its shortness i was a nice gun to handle Timmedistely got in touch with Col. Stu ler who came up from Washington the next morning. and we spent the morning Shooting the new 30-06 gun.” TMajor (later Colonel) Rene R, Studler was Chairman ofthe Ordnance Subcom. mnitee charged with providing for test of Tight rifles, the original name for the arm ceventmally adopted as the carbine, See the frticle “All The Way With The M1 Car bine” mentioned earlier.) Studler got_me to one side and told me confidentially that none of the light Filles which had been submitted was sats that Winchester just had 10 put in-s model for the next test. Due to our development work on. the transformed Browning. and the work on the ‘Garand wwe had paid no attention to the eovern: tment bid for a light rifle. At Siudler’s i sitence 1 agreed. that Winchester’ would have a gun in the neat fest as T saw from the work ‘on the transformed. Browning that we could get the weight down to the required 5 Ibs. particulary using the small Carbine cartridge. We had already de eloped the carbine cartridge and had re Ceived an order which we were currently ‘As soon as Studler left, I called together the group T wanted 10 put on the new light Files Inthe group were Bill Roemer, my factory and Final trial version of Winchester cal. ‘operated rifle 30 gas: chief draftsman, Marsh Williams, Humis: ton, Clarkson, Warner, head of the Exper mental Shop, etc, T showed them the 30 ‘06 gun on which we had been working, and, since we had used. Williams’ shor. stroke piston, 1 put him in charge of the roup. I told them that the sky was the Timit as far as speed was concerned. No single man was responsible for the inven tion of the carbine, but basally it had Several fentures of the 30-06 Winchester zon prodiced by group of our best mechanics. T had to go to Washington and was sone three days, expecting (0 find a lot of ‘work done on my return. I was disgusted to find that due to Willams being unable to pull the design out of his head fast enough to keep the mechanies busy. noth fing. had. been’ accomplished, I replaced Williams with Roemer, putting him in charge of the group. That group, as you) Know. tore the cover off the ball and in five days we had a sample ofthe nev small rile destined to become the :30 Cal, Car bine. “T called Studler up from Washington dnd he came the next morning. We shot the gun sll the morning. and Stadler said he would take it back 10 Washington with him, but Evefused to let him have it be case of the fact that some of the putts had been soldered and. some were’ not properly hardened due tothe rush in which the sample gun had been made, However, Vtold him that 1 would bring the gun down to Washington for whenever he wanted it He called me that evening and wanted me in Washington the next morning by-10 OTclock. T went before a group consisting ff some 20:30 high level brass and demon: Sirated. the gun. Gen. Courtney Hodges [the Chief of Tnfantsy] was ebairman of the meeting and, while T had ever: met him before, 1 knew him by reputation as am excelleni shot ands member of the In ternational Rifle Team. When he hefted the rile his remark was, ‘This feels lke a rile" Someone remarked that the gun still to Winchester and maybe it belonged wouldn't work. Gen. Hodges quietly re- pled that if Winchester had sent it down fe probably would work—one of the finest, compliments Lever heard Immediately after the meeting 1 as sembled the men whom I wanted to put on the job, which included Bill Roemer, Fred Humiston, Clit Wamer, head of the Ex- perimental Shop, and one or two others imong our most expert and fastest me chanics. These men were sipposed to make fi second model to be submitted to the sovernment tes, They were to follow the Sesign of the forerunner. Bill Roemer im= mediately started making sketches af th paris. However. a few of the simpler parts Were made without sketches by men like Homiston who were able to visualize the part needed “When we made the second model we riled very small gas port, a8 T remem: ber 080°. and the gun would not go through a'magazine-fll without a failure We had worked all the previous night, and the last train for Aberdeen left midnight Sunday. Studler called up from Washing ton to ask how the gun Was going, and I told him I didn't know. He wanted to be ste that we were going to have gun in the tes and I sad that we would not un Tess it worked better than it was working at the moment Thee of us went out to diner for sandwich on Saturday noon, and we were 4 pretty discouraged bunch, T finaly” de Sided that the gun was not getting es enough, and discussed it with the ther two, Fthen decided that we would take a chance and enlarge the pott. T knew th TT had guessed wong the gun would be out of the test, but i was not At 10 B0 in as it was. We all agreed that it was Feasonatle chance, and we retired to. the big’ Machine Shop on the fist Noor. The Experimental Shop with sensitive. dell press was on the Bith floor and there were no elevators running. Williams thought he ould hold the Bartel in his hands under the big drill press and ried itt only 10 Cal. .30 MI carbine of early manufacture had a 15-ound detachable box magazine and Letype rear sight, but lacked bayonet attachment. break the drill off short in the hole. Con- sternation set in but Las not too worried is T'was sure we could shoot it out, which Wwe did. With the larger gas port the gun fan 300 rounds without a stuter, and T told the crew that we would catch the mid- night for Aberdeen “The next question was who should take it down. There were several posibilitis Normally F would have sent if down with Williams because of his greater experience in government testing. However. by. this time he had lost interest in the gun and was busy making anew model. 1 finally hose Humiston becatse of his familiarity ‘vith the gun sind his outstanding capabil ies as a mechanic. Tr was his frst assign rent of this type ‘He Wok the gun to the test, and it performed so. much belter than ny of ils Competitors that it got well ahead of the eld. Then one evening about five oelock he called. me at _my shore house saving they had broken the operating Jug off the boll, T told him to come. back to New Haven that night and be in the factory as carly a8 possible the next morning. 1 knew that we had two or three days" lead over the field. and thete seas possibility that wwe could get a bolt back into the gun be- fore it would be called on 10 be tested spain, ‘The government refused t0 et us {uke either the gun or the broken bolt ‘Immediately after Humiston’s eal ¥ got in touch with Bll Roemer and Clit Warner and told Warner t0 bring into the factory immediately any help that he needed 10 fuugh out ne bolt. We all met at the Experimental Shop at boii sit that night and sturied roughing out the new bol Roemer had i fee sketches but not com: plete drawing: however, we rough-turned the outside, drilled the firing pin hole and ‘lid whatever rough operation “we could leaving the pint well afer midnight. The next morning Fred: Humiston came back from the test [at Aberdeen Proving Ground) nd. finished the. semi-machined bolt by that night relying on memory Wherever detsils were missing, He 100K the bolt hack to the test, and miraculously i it ted and finished the test. The gun was the unanimous choice of the entre Committee without a single dissenting vote, Contractors \were called in immediately to get it into pro- duction ‘Due to the fact that it was a new type of, gun, many of our former Winchester patents ‘ould be reissued, which was done, and sev eral men took out patents on various parts, myself among them. The -30-'06 revised Browning model, which might be calle the grand-unele of the carbine, is stil in the ‘company museum. “The adoption of the different mecha nisms comprising the carbine, whether cov: cred by patents ot patent applications or mechanisms generally known to the trade was determined in conference by the team under my supervision. As examples, I might ‘mention using the guard and its components complete from the old: Winchester M/1905, including the interrupted trigger, the howsing ofthe retum spring copied directly from the Bang gun, the shor-stroke piston belonging to Williams but later acquired by Winchester, the takedown device taken sitecly from one of my double-barel per- ‘cussion shoiguns, and the cutting away of both sides of the receiver wall from the Garand, thereby greatly simplifying the ejection, “It was very important that Bill Roster found that the Winchester Model 1905 trig ger guard complete with interupted trigger ‘mechanism could be fited with very litle a: teration to the carbine. This saved making a special tigger guard and inventing a new ine terrupted trigger device. The interropted tie- ger was necessary to get only one shot each time you pulled the trigger. Without it you could not release your Finger on the trigger ‘quick enough to prevent a small burst of 10 or three shots. The Model 1905 mechanism ‘was all completely tested out and had been ‘nthe market for some time. This saved us at leas a week in producing the fist carbine in something like five days “It is interesting 10 note that in the pro- ‘duction of the carbine fewer changes were made from the original Winchester design than in any other military rifle we produced Changes in the Garand were continually ‘being mado during its production, but this, ‘was mot the ease with the carbine.” This story in detail of Winchester’s 2c ceptance of the carbine challenge and devel- ‘opment ofthe successful carbine inthe Win- chester plant, fils out M.D. Waite's “All ‘The Way With The MI Carbine" (see Amer jean Rifleman, September and November, 1974), giving the history of the whole car- bine competition and the successful ccarbine’s large-scale production and wse. [tis interesting 1 see hos closely these histories Fittogether Pugsley's account is fascinating in itself, made a itis from the standpoint ofthe Wine ‘chester engineers and mechanics who carried ‘out the development, and recounted by the ‘company officer who directed their work and ‘was one of them, .30 M1 Carbine Designed by Winchester and standardized for use by the USS, Armed Forces in 1941, the .30 Carbine and the cartidge designed for it have seen much use, both military and spor in the intervening decades. "The MI Carbine was originally intended to replace the 45 cal. pistol in the hands of those troops whose duties pre- cluded the issue of a full size infantry rifle, but who could effectively carry a shoulder-fired weapon. Though the MI Carbine always. suffered from comparison with the power and effectiveness of the M1 Rifle it was. nonetheless, a ‘useful military arm; one that served its intended purpose, and served it well. Some six million carbines were made between 1941 and 1945, and they remained in service use until long after most of their contemporary military small arms had been eclipsed. ‘Among civilian shooters, the Carbine’s light weight, hand iness, good balance, and lack of unpleasant recoil have given, it considerable appeal. It isa fun litle rifle to own and to shoot. Sad 10 say, the carbine is not adequate for use as a

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