Sacrilege???

[Mr_Flintstone]

I know how a lot of people feel about their surplus WWII guns. Would it be considered sacrilege to put an M2 style magazine catch on an early M1 Carbine? I have quite a few 30 round surplus magazines, and I’d really like to use them. I mean, it’s not like I’m dropping the action in a tacti-cool polymer stock with flashlight, a red dot, and a laser.

 

[WestKentucky]

Numbers matching, nice, functionally great gun... yeah it would be advisable not to do it monetarily. Essentially that’s a collectors piece that you would be modifying. But a basic shooter, I wouldn’t worry much over. They made a bunch of them, and they are fairly common so no big deal.

 

[Megawatt maker]

What he said.

If its all correct original..dont mess with it. But if its a frankincarbine, like a lot them are...no biggie

 

[OFT]

I don't see a problem as long as you save the original and put it back on the rifle before selling it.

 

[troy fairweather]

Could sell the 30s for the proper mags.

 

[AlexanderA]

A "numbers matching" Carbine is just something dreamed up by collectors. In their service life, they were repaired and refurbed with the latest parts, without regard to keeping everything matching. A "mixmaster" Carbine, therefore, is actually more authentic than a matching one.

I used to collect Carbines by manufacturer. The only thing that mattered to me was the name on the heel of the receiver.

 

[Gordon]

Yup you could all ways swap back in the parts. I once did have an all Winchester made early Carbine. It was purloined from a NJ refurb depot before it was refurbed as it was a cherry and the Manager/Officer in charge decided to keep it for his own defensive uses because it was perfect and had pretty wood ect. That retired Colonel gave it to my dad in the late 50s when he was near expiring , along with a perfect 1911 made in 1913 which I still have. I sold the Winchester M1 in early 70s when I needed money and got close to a grand for it then !

 

[FL-NC]

If the gun is "all original", then don't do it. If it is a "mix master" like so many are- and were in the military, for that matter- why not.

 

[Varminterror]

My personal perspective: it was your money, you paid for the rifle, it’s your rifle. If you want to keep it as original, keep it original. If you want to restock it into a tactical polymer stock, do so. If you want to cut it into tiny little pieces and shoot it out of a canon on a Tuesday afternoon - guess what - it’s yours, and you can do that.

 

[Mr_Flintstone]

I think I will switch out the magazine catch. It’s a simple procedure that can be reversed in a few minutes with no harm done; as long as I keep the original. It needs new springs anyway, so I’ll just do the swap while I’m taking it apart. The magazines I have are Seymour hard back mags. Last I saw they were going for about $50 each. I kinda hate to sell them.

 

[22250Rem]

Good idea. No permanent harm and it can be easily reversed. It's not as if the gun will be known to some folks as a "Bubba Special".

 

[tark]

M-1 carbines are about as big a snakes nest as you will ever find. Right up there with Lugers and Hoglegs. About the only thing easy about collecting them is they only come in one caliber. We have around twenty of them in the Museum, to include some rare prototypes. This is the only pic I have in my phone. You can see one of the experimental guns behind the Pederson Device, tag # 6071. The blued tube above the barrel is an expansion chamber witch was intended to bleed off enough gas to render the bullet sub-sonic......hopefully eliminating the bullwhip like "crack" from the bullet going supersonic. Or not.......It was a bird brained idea in the first place. Not sure if they ever made another one. The M-3 isn't so rare. They made 1,050 of them late in the war where they were used to spot Japanese soldiers sneaking around at night. So I am told, anyway.

 

[tark]

BTW, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with swapping mag catches. If the gun were all original ( a near impossibility ) and very high conditioned, THEN a collector would scream bloody murder.....and tell you not to shoot the thing in the first place!! Your gun is a shooter. So go shoot the snot out of it.!!!

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Vis a vis 'original' M1 Carbines, Ian at Forgotten Weapons recently bought an unaltered, relatively early example from Royal Tiger Imports, part of their big Ethiopian haul. He just did a video last week, running a course opposite Karl's 'pseudo-Krink':

 

[Tommygunn]

I put a M2 catch on my carbine. It's an Inland my father brought back from the Korean War. Nothing special; I really don't know if it's "all original" or partial or whatever. I've kept the original catch just because I can .... not ever gonna sell this.
I'd do what you want but keep original if you do switch it out.

 

[cfullgraf]

Since most carbines when through at least one rebuild, once the M2 carbine went into production, there would a be reasonable chance some armorer would put an M2 mag release on an M1 carbine during a rebuild.

As folks have said, go ahead and replace the mag release but keep the original for the next owner.

Just a note on matching numbers. Carbines and Garands do not have parts matched marked with the receiver's serial number. It is one of the beauties of both rifles, except for one or two parts such as the barrel to frame fit and checking the headspace on the bolt, most of the parts on the rifles are pretty much drop in. There is no need to fit them to the rifle hence there is not need to match number the parts.

The carbine and Garand purists have ways to determine if a rifle has parts that were manufactured at the same time as the receiver. At least with the Garand, the parts have a drawing number and revision number on the parts which indicate when the parts were manufactured within a particular range. But even so, "correct" Garands have been found with parts outside the accepted time ranges.

There are pictures from WWII showing an in theater armory depot with stacks and pails of Garand parts scattered around the armorer. No way they attempted to keep parts for a particular rifle separate from another rifle.

I do not think carbine parts have the drawing numbers on the parts, but I'll admit I've slept a bit since I last disassembled one of my carbines. But the look of the parts have an indication of who made the part and approximately when. For instance, there is two different style bolts used in the carbines.

Most WWII carbines were originally made without a bayonet mount. By late in the war, a bayonet mount had been manufactured and as carbines were rebuilt, the bayonet mount was installed. Carbines without the bayonet mount are now relatively rare compared to the total production of carbines.

One of the pursuits of some Garand collectors is to make their Garand "correct". They scour the parts market looking for parts that were made at the correct time as the receiver.

Personally, I like the mixmasters, they have character.

 

[David Hoback]

I agree with Varminterror. It’s your rifle. Do what pleases you. And don’t worry about what the Mouthbreathers have to say.