I took my M1 Carbine and M1 Garand out to the Casa Grande public range today for a tryout. I brought 100 rounds of Federal American Eagle commercial .30 Carbine, and a couple of bandoleers of the Greek HXP M2 Ball I bought from the CMP for the Garand. As seems to be standard practice when I go to Casa Grande, I forgot to take my spotting scope.
While I was interested in the accuracy potential of the little Carbine, mostly I was interested in how (or whether) it was going to function with the magazines I bought last year. The good news: It functions pretty damned well. I loaded ten rounds into each magazine. Out of the 100 rounds, I had one failure to feed that was very simply cleared. I had one magazine, one of the two Union Hardwares, that didn’t want to fit in the well. It did, but it’s pretty tight. Other than that, the rifle cycled like a sewing machine.
Without sandbags or any other decent rest, and my eyeball Mk. I sighting system, the Carbine was capable of holding minute-of-paper-plate at 50 yards. I’m certain that this is mostly me, and with some work I can definitely improve on that. I was startled to discover that the adjustable sight is dead-nuts on. Set at 200 yards, it hit (pretty much) where I aimed at the 200 yard berm, and set for 250 yards I was able to hit the (rather large) steel plate set into the 250 yard berm with regularity. Set for 300 yards I believe I was lobbing the rounds over the top of the 250 yard berm.
Overall, I’m very pleased! Now I just need to get some more ammo and practice!
I let some other shooters try the Garand and the Carbine. That put some smiles on faces! There was already a Garand shooter at the range when I arrived, and when I left the guys at the table next to me were shooting a Lee Enfield No. 4 Mk. I.
Damn, I love old rifles!