Hello guys,

Just got the best (very early) Christmas present ever from my girlfriend, yesterday...



M1 carbine, manufactured by Saginaw in early '44. Beautiful "high" wood, the barrel is almost like new, the bolt works like a charm, and it has the early flip up sight. Only non period thing is the 3rd model barrel band with the bayonet lug, which may have been retrofitted by the end of WW2. I'm actually looking to change the sight for a late model, and the woods for a paratrooper stock. As all of these won't harm the carbine in any way, and will be totally reversible, I don't feel the least bit of shame

Now, to wait for the paperwork to be done, may take up to 3 or 4 months...

Nice piece of fun!

How does that work... you have the rifle in posession already, but still have to do paperwork?

It's paid for, and will be sitting at the gunsmith's until I have all the paperwork done.

I was under the impression that semi-automatic weapons were not available to citizens there.

Full auto is not available in Belgium, but semi auto is. There was a whole lot of SiG550/552, FNC, FAL, Garand, M14, SCAR-L, M4 and son on there*. And you can see tons of semi-auto rifles/carbines at the ranges. Let's hope this will last!

Damn, those will be 3 long months!

*Blocked in semi-auto, of course!

Semi-Auto is available almost everywhere in Europe, possible with the exception of some nordic countries and the UK.

Incorrect, only the UK.

Danes, swedes, norwegians and finns all have access to semi-automatic weaponry.

Small update, I re-checked the serial number, and it was built between october and december 43. And the para stock is on it's way!

It'll shoot better with the standard stock. Or at least it would for me, as a consistent cheek-to-stock weld is easier with one.

Plus one can put an ammo pouch on the standard stock, which actually works really, really well.

I'm green with envy - I need an authentic Carbine. Not a collectable, mind you, a shooter.

And the republic of Ireland I am sure
No right to bare arms here.

Always wanted one of these.

Not even during summer?
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[sorry, couldn't resist ]

Very nice! I have a new semi-auto AK on the way: http://www.ioinc.us/akm247c.html

Your smarter then then the average bear, (see what I done there).LoL

How much do they cost? I would love to get one here, but aside from expensive and limited imports we can't get them. For a while SIG USA made a model, the 551A1, which was rather similar and affordable but they have since discontinued them. I am not interested in their new line of rifles.



I hope those are better than the ones they used to sell to Big 5 Sporting Goods. Those were junk.

From what I've read, the old ones were basically Romanian guns assembled from random parts. These new ones, OTOH, have received good reviews, and they are made of all new materials.

I think the SiG's wee around 1500/2000 euros, maybe a bit more. They are amongst the most expansive assault rifles you can get here.

Dart, I'll try both. I've always dreamed about a para M1, and the gunsmith is making me some good price on a neat repro stock. Will have to do some tests!

Well, changing out the stock on a Carbine take about two minutes, including seating...two screws and that's it.

Btw, the "trick" to getting the most out of an M1 at the range is to properly seat the receiver at the rear end - it's a floating barrel. After placing the receiver into the stock, tighten the rear screw to where it's just firm. Then firmly give the weapon a thunk at the butt. Tighten the screw until it's firm. No need to really crank down on it, btw. Do this two more times. Now it's fully seated and won't wander about when shooting. Then tighten down the front barrel band and you're good to go.

The M1 gets a bad rap on accuracy mostly because folks fail to do this. During production they didn't bother; they just set it in the stock, maybe gave it one whack to seat, and tightened it down. That's why the acceptable group out of the factory was three in a box eighteen by twelve inches at 100 yards.

Properly seated, an M1 can shoot really well out to 200 meters. Past that and the ballistics of the round start to work against one. Not sniper rifle good, but one can consistently hit a five inch steel plate at that range.

Been a long time since I handled an M1 Carbine, when I first seen it I was surprised how small it was, certainly a lot smaller than the air rifle I used back then, in fact it arrived at the gunsmiths in a cut down BSA air rifle box.

Yep.

Now consider the other option was a Garand, which is a huge wood and metal ogre club of a thunder stick, for the Joe at the time.