M-1 Carbine Mags

[Stephanie B]

For no damned good reason that comes ti mind, I'm thinking of getting a M-1 carbine. The issue for me is that I'll need ten-round magazines,

So, are any of those magazines any good?

Yes, I have friends who are telling me "don't do this, just get a 9mm PCC once the noise dies down." I'm trying not to listen to them.

[Gater]

No personal experience with 10 rounders (I'm tempted by the M1, but have yet to pull the trigger on a buy, and my shooting has been with GI mags), but curious about your question...knowing Fulton Armory's M1s have a pretty good reputation and that they are also in a mag cap state, I looked to see what if anything they sold themselves in a 10 round version...they're selling a 15 rounder blocked to 10, with an M2 follower:

https://www.fulton-armory.com/magazi...rmory-2-1.aspx

I don't know CT's law, but my guess is that those won't be an option for you if they can be unblocked.

That said, we're here to enable--if you haven't seen it already, here's a link to Lucky Gunner's multi-part series on the carbine...some good stuff in there. They're cool little guns!

https://www.luckygunner.com/lounge/category/m1-carbine/

[Borderland]

I don't know where you live but a generic magazine ban may not affect those older USGI magazines. I know NY has a ban but the 15rd USGI magazines are legal if you register those with the state police. Has something to do with relics. It might be worth checking your state code on magazine restrictions or asking on the CMP forum. There's a lot of knowledge there for the asking.

https://forums.thecmp.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6

I run 15's in my carbine and know nothing about after market 10's. Also original USGI mags can be identified by the code stamped into the mag by the manufacturer. I had about 2 dozen of those at one time and they were all stamped. I've never seen one that wasn't.

[fatdog]

I purchased a few 10 rounders, Korean I think, back during the ban, they appeared to be just shortened 15 rounders, my recollection was they ran in my GI carbines with ball ammo. Pre-bans were still abundant during that period and I mostly used those back in the dark days.

The only magazine problems I have had were off shore manufactured 30 rounders, some from the Phillipines, some Korean, some who knows where.

I think Fulton Armory is the go to place for all things USGI M1 carbine. If they sell it, I would expect it to work.

There are a lot of technical gurus who post or answer questions in the CMP forum, it would be worth registering and posing the question there as there are certainly a lot of CMP Carbine purchasers in the 10 round states.

[Salamander]

Love my M1 carbine, 1943 Inland. They're fun to shoot, light, fast handling. bad light right now but maybe I'll pull it out in the morning and take a photo to help enable.

My dad carried one in Europe in the early 1950s, never fired under stress but he liked it a lot. My uncle carried one on Attu Island in 1943 under somewhat harsher conditions... and he also liked it. One thing that I may have heard from him, can't remember for sure, was that in battlefield conditions they just discarded the mags after use and got new ones, they wore out and became less reliable over time.

Mine came with a 10-round magazine of unknown origin. I ordered two more from the modern Inland Mfg https://www.inland-mfg.com/product218.html (ignore the thing about "can't sell to" they sold me two no questions asked and 10-round magazines are legal in CA, so that may be boilerplate from the 15-round page). Mostly they're OK... I did need to very slightly file the spot where they lock against the mag release, they were really tight fitting until I did that. In any case they feed cheap Aguila and better quality Hornady ammo with no issues, I don't shoot that rifle a whole lot but had no stoppages in about 100 rounds.

[okie john]

I had one as a kid. Fun to shoot but considered substandard for deer where I lived. The 10-round mags fit flush with the bottom of the stock and sometimes didn't drop free.

One thing that I may have heard from him, can't remember for sure, was that in battlefield conditions they just discarded the mags after use and got new ones, they wore out and became less reliable over time.

Ken Hackathorn reports the same thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF0qH_zvfdU


Okie John

[Caballoflaco]

The fifteen round mags are so small that I think anything shorter would make the handling difficult. Plus they wouldn’t work in a mag pouch on the butt of the rifle, which really is a nice way to have a couple of spare mags with the rifle.

If 10’s that are the same size as 15’s are available that’s what I would look for.


@Stephanie B I think you’ll like it a lot more than the sks if you decide to get one. I know you dig vintage guns, but Ultimak makes a rail that would make adding a flashlight and red dot easy without altering the gun if that’s something you wanted to do. Or you could go hill billy like 90’s me and just tape a maglight to the forend (has to take care of an armadillo problem for my grandmother).

[Duelist]

I’ve always been tempted by the M1 carbine. Two men who influenced me a great deal used them to good effect - one as a Marine in combat in the island campaign, the other as a police officer.

[LittleLebowski]

I really like my Inland.

[Dave J]

I’ve no experience with 10-rounders, but the 15 and 30 round Korean mags work great in my CMP carbine, and I have no reason to think the 10’s would be any worse.

This is all in the context of a “fun” gun for me, which isn’t subject to the same level of vetting as my “serious” guns. I have no expectation that any M1 will approach modern standards of dependability. If I anticipated using an M1 carbine for anything serious, I’d send it to Fulton Armory for a complete inspection first.