A month ago I bought a new M-1 Carbine.
Had I known how hard it would be to procure ammunition for the gun, I might have chosen another rifle. Finding ammo for this piece has been, to this point, impossible. I've heard/read all sorts of reasons for the shortage, but this one sounds most plausible:
Many small police agencies are beginning to experience what the large city forces have experienced for years... outlaws or gangs armed with weaponry that make a .357 Revolver seem like pretty small potatoes. These Police forces are buying rifles like the M-1 to carry in their patrol cars. They need ammunition for those weapons, to include practicing with them. The .30 caliber carbine ammunition is made for only one gun: the M-1 carbine or its clones.
(Sound reasonable, CJ?)
For all intents, with no ammunition for the rifle it might as well be a baseball bat 'cause the only way I could hurt someone with it would be to use it as a club. Heck, the ball bat would actually be a far better weapon!
But today my friend the gun dealer smiled as I walked through his door. He had lied to several people when they asked if he had any .30 carbine ammunition, and secreted three boxes of 50 rounds each for me. Today I bought the ammo and two 30-round magazines, and left the store a happy (but less wealthy) camper.
I can now use my neat little rifle for something other than a doorstop. Let's commence with the shooty fun!
7 comments:
Gosh, I've got a few boxes of such ammunition. Been trying to give it away for years.
Alas, overseas shipping nigh on impossible.
It is left over from when we had to hand in all our guns.
It is a 7 year gaol term to be caught with the stuff, but hanging onto it seems safer than disposing of it.
Sounds about right to me, GB. Of course, few cops use revolvers any more and they have been beefing weapons up for several years. Remember that shoot out with the bank robbers wearing full body armor? The cops were breaking into gun stores trying to find the fire power to stop those guys.
cjh
Any kind of gun without rounds is surpassed ten fold by the common brick.
A friend gave me a Dillon Precision press, I had no idea how to work it so I took it to a shop that sold reloading supplies and they walked me through it and opened my eyes on how simple it was to reload any kind of caliber for a fraction of the price. Yeah it's laborious, mindless and you can blow your eyes out if you double charge a shell but, fall into a rhythm and before you realize it you have several hundred rounds to play with.
Enjoy your comments on Desiree's blog.
watch out for the M1 thumb, the old timers said it's downright painful, I wouldn't know myself only fired M16 and M60 only at rifle ranges at Fort Leonard Wood, never fired a weapon in anger, well maybe anger at a certain D.I. that was freshly returned from being in country and was still really pissed.
No M-1 Thumb for the carbine. it has a removable box magazine like the m-14 M-16 FAL etc. The M-1 Garand had the 8 round enboc clips that were pushed into the internal magazine with the thumb, and you have to be fast to avoid getting your thumb slammed by the bolt.
For 30 carbine ammo go to the Civilian Marksmanship Program of the US Gov't:
http://estore.odcmp.com/store/catalog/catalog.aspx?pg=catalogList&cat=AMC
RE the CMP I just clicked onto the .30 carbine ammo and noticed a 5 month delivery delay... OUCH!
Thank you Kevin. Someone else pointed out the CMP program to me. There's another glitch with CMP... they warn that much of that ammo is corroded and unusable... and it can be a pretty large percentage.
It's a new gun. Right now I think I'll stick with new, brand-name ammo.
(Next purchase will be bulk!)
Post a Comment