Mags for M -1 carbine

[Cartwright Jones]

Are their any good after market mags for the M-1 carbine ? Or are we de pendant on old surplus I just picked up an Underwood carbine from my local pusher (pawnshop) and like to get some mags 10 , 15 ,20 or 30 which will work best. I have always wanted one of these.

Yes there are. It's called "tuning" your mags and it works. Once tuned, modern M1 mags work excellently.

 

[Rovernut]

Snip....Have an M1A1 and I play heck finding 30 rounders that work. Snip

I have a fair number of Checkmate Industries 20rd that I've had zero issues with. Never had the desire for 30rd, or even 25 which they also make.
Cheers,
Tom

 

[chief38]

The 30 round magazines I have are "somewhat reliable" ( I know - an oxymoron ) with 28 rounds loaded into them. That said, the the best reliability is from the GI 15 round mags. Swapping out a spent mag in an M1 carbine is easy and quick. It also makes for a much more compact package to tote around. I would never use a 30 round magazine for anything but fun at the range. It's 15 rounder's for anything else!

 

[M E Morrison]

I have never found any magazines, original G.I. surplus or cheap knock offs that were reliable. As a matter of fact during WWII the Soldiers used to throw the magazines away after they were empty and for two reasons, 1. They were so thin the fed lips were easily deformed and the mags they got were already loaded with ammo.

I like others, even famous others like Ian McCollum, could never get any M1 Carbine to work reliably. Nothing helped, including replacing recoil springs, using original G.I.Ammo, Commercial ammo, handloads etc. The M1 Carbine design was never really perfected. As a matter of fact I once watched a very respectful video by an M1 Carbine expert that gave all the advice he had on trying to make an M1 Carbine work, none of which was worth a tinker's dam.

How odd. I've had three of them, never had a problem with any of them.

 

[Dave Haynes]

The Carbine is ammo sensitive more than mag sensitive. An untrimmed case that exceeds specs will cause guns to blow up. It was enough to have the ammo manufacturers check 100% of case length as the rounds were made, If you treat the mags nicely no slamming, pounding or abuse, they work fine and last. 30 rd mags work in all carbines but to work well they need the late style mag catch which has an adjunct arm at the side that stops side to side slop. If ammo is slightly too long it drags the rounds at the front in the mags and causes poor function. Generally a new GI operating spring cures all function problems. Also lubing and grease helps a lot. Inside the op rod slot and rails and on the bolt lugs like a Garand. Wolf springs are just a bag of industrial springs that happen to fit. In my opinion not needed or used. I bought the whole bag and used exactly one. The original springs still operate fine.
They made 6M carbines and probably 20 times that many mags. People condemn the carbine because almost everyone doesn't lube them like a Garand. That's because the manual says only use light oil (Korea....Cold...) and they are shot bone dry with questionable reloads.
All US Carbine ammo is non corrosive, most French and Chinese IS corrosive.

 

[Kal.38]

I feel your pain looking for carbine parts. Marco is one of my favorite places but they have lots of repro stuff. What parts you looking for? I might be able to help.

Thanks for the offer.
I was in search of an R marked front sight, but found one on ebay. My buddy has an excellent matching numbers Rockola. It was passed down to him recently. I explained to him what a rare M1 carbine he actually had. I pionted out the barrel band bayonet lug and front sight. Are the only parts not properly marked.

 

[DWalt]

All US Carbine ammo is non corrosive, most French and Chinese IS corrosive.

At one time, Dominican Republic carbine ammo was fairly common, and it was also corrosive primed. There was an interesting story about the Dominican ammo and the Christobal carbine, but that was too long ago for me to remember. I still have a box of the ammo somewhere.

 

[Puller]

I have never found any magazines, original G.I. surplus or cheap knock offs that were reliable. As a matter of fact during WWII the Soldiers used to throw the magazines away after they were empty and for two reasons, 1. They were so thin the fed lips were easily deformed and the mags they got were already loaded with ammo.

I like others, even famous others like Ian McCollum, could never get any M1 Carbine to work reliably. Nothing helped, including replacing recoil springs, using original G.I.Ammo, Commercial ammo, handloads etc. The M1 Carbine design was never really perfected. As a matter of fact I once watched a very respectful video by an M1 Carbine expert that gave all the advice he had on trying to make an M1 Carbine work, none of which was worth a tinker's dam.

Seems you and Ian could probably use some help from someone who actually has some experience with M1 carbines. Your experience is not typical.

 

[zeke]

A M2 mag catch enabled reliability using 30 rd mags in the 3 carbines owned. First thing done to each was replacing the recoil springs. Also have had good experiences with the S Korean mags.

 

[RebCop]

I have a IMI 5.7 Johnson carbine and it works fine with 30 round Korean mags. I found a deal of buy 10 for 12 bucks each. They work great.