My New M1 Carbine Help!

TheWebsite

I bought my first gun today. A post war commercial M1 carbine. I brought it home and broke it down to clean it. I oiled all whole thing and reassembled it, but i really have to yank the slide in order to activate the trigger but it will move smoothly after that. what gives? Is something wrong with the trigger assembly? what can i do to fix it?

nmyers

For starters, you need to tell us who made your carbine. If you have a Universal, we need to know how many op rod springs it has. Photos would be best.

While the carbine will work without lubrication, it works best when properly lubed WITH GREASE. You need to apply grease to the places where there is metal to metal contact, such as the bolt lugs, the bottom of the barrel, & the channels in the receiver where the bolt lugs ride.

You also need to learn the basics of carbine functioning. You are not "activating the trigger", you are cocking the hammer; the first time you full the slide back will be more difficult than the second time if you haven't pulled the trigger (assume you are doing this test without ammo). Try this with the action out of the stock, & you should be able to see how this works. You might want to buy a copy of the NRA's guide to the M1 carbine.

Neal

5mmgunguy

+1 on you are cocking the hammer on the first pull. Make sure there is no round in the chamber...pull the trigger...now pull back on the slide handle...does it feel "hard" again...you are cocking the hammer with the first pull and not again until you dryfire the gun again.

TheWebsite

Ok thanks for the correction, well it is a Plainfield ?sportster? the guy who sold it said it was made around '65 and it is #42427. and when that makes sense about the cocking the hammer being harder than the following pulls. Thanks for the help.

givette

Big question: Did it have trouble racking the slide before you did a teardown? If no, then something wasn't assembled correctly. If yes, then take it back to where you bought it for corrective action/refund. Best, Joe

EDIT:
Followup (read your post below). Sometime between your assuming posession of the gun and starting to take it apart you did perform a safety-clear of the chamber read: pull the slide back. Didn't you??

Was it binding/sticking when you performed the safety check??

TheWebsite

I didnt even rack it before hand it all looked really dry and i didnt want to grind any metal. is there a difference between grease and oil?

dfletcher

Some 30 carbines can be a bit picky. Often times the problem is the quality of the gun, sometimes the gun is fine and magazines are at fault. My suggestion would be to buy some genuine WWII magazines as these seem to be the best made and have a good reputation for working well. Carbine magazines are not expensive so you may be able to experiment a bit with different commercial brands, but since you have a newer gun I'd think step one is establish the gun functions properly.

Spider7115

Here's an excellent website showing how to field strip the M-1 carbine:

http://www.alpharubicon.com/leo/M1carbinestrippingserger.htm

However, the #1 rule for ALL firearms is to clear the chamber but still treat it as if it's loaded. If you didn't rack it, how did you know it didn't contain a live round? That foolish mistake might have cost someone's life, including your own.

lfi guy

Mine's a Quality Hardware, with an Underwood barrel.
Sounds like just a stiff spring on the hammer. Mine is broken in pretty well- no real resistance.

If using reloads- be sure to use the Lee factory crimp die to keep the bullet from moving back in the case under recoil (esp. a 30 rnd mag) and causing unpleasant problems. [B)] Guess how I know this.