M1 carbine straight pull

[huntervixen]

I quite fancy one myself, cashing in on the new relaxed (and sensible) converted Sec 5 attitude trail blazed by the L1A1 conversions, these M1 carbines are the real deal with WW2 dated receivers I believe.

I wonder if you get similar extraction problems?

Very nice to own and shoot one...Orignal Garands have to round the corner, now a straight pull WW2 dated Garand would be very cool indeed!

Just out of interest what relaxation has there been and where is it documented?

If you look back at the L1A1 straight pull posts on here you will see all needed info re Sec 5 to Sec 1.

The basic jist of it is (over simplified), Sec 5 dealer buys...lets say a batch of WW2 Garands, they are then stripped back to component parts and placed in parts bins, at this point the Sec 5 weapon has ceased to exist.

Make new barrel (without gas bleed) and modify the working parts in the bins, Gas block, operating rod etc, in order to make it very difficult/impossible to re-activate back to auto condition.

Then......build "new rifle" with modified/new parts...... and one new Sec 1 rifle pops out at the end.

Then the hard part, you have to get Home Office approval of your conversion and get them to agree it is now Sec1!

Before we go down the "once a Sec5 always a Sec5" arguing route again....fact...it has been done and certified by the home office for the L1A1.

I have a very nice L1A1 in my gun cupboard to testify to it!

If the conversion work is carried out correctly, there is no reason why we can't enjoy shooting the classics again!

Common sense has prevailed, a very rare thing in this country indeed.

[Charlotte the flyer]

I'm waiting for someone to do a BREN. Cash waiting for whoever steps up first. Might need to knock off a museum first. There's a 7.62 one in Buenos Aires military museum that's technically property of HMG, they probably won't miss it. Hasn't been fired since April 1982.

[majordisorder]

I quite fancy one myself, cashing in on the new relaxed (and sensible) converted Sec 5 attitude trail blazed by the L1A1 conversions, these M1 carbines are the real deal with WW2 dated receivers I believe.

I wonder if you get similar extraction problems?

Very nice to own and shoot one...Orignal Garands have to round the corner, now a straight pull WW2 dated Garand would be very cool indeed!

Just out of interest what relaxation has there been and where is it documented?

If you look back at the L1A1 straight pull posts on here you will see all needed info re Sec 5 to Sec 1.

The basic jist of it is (over simplified), Sec 5 dealer buys...lets say a batch of WW2 Garands, they are then stripped back to component parts and placed in parts bins, at this point the Sec 5 weapon has ceased to exist.

Make new barrel (without gas bleed) and modify the working parts in the bins, Gas block, operating rod etc, in order to make it very difficult/impossible to re-activate back to auto condition.

Then......build "new rifle" with modified/new parts...... and one new Sec 1 rifle pops out at the end.

Then the hard part, you have to get Home Office approval of your conversion and get them to agree it is now Sec1!

Before we go down the "once a Sec5 always a Sec5" arguing route again....fact...it has been done and certified by the home office for the L1A1.

I have a very nice L1A1 in my gun cupboard to testify to it!

If the conversion work is carried out correctly, there is no reason why we can't enjoy shooting the classics again!

Common sense has prevailed, a very rare thing in this country indeed.

Well that does sound totally logical. I've recently written to the HO to ask whether a similar process could be applied to S5 .22LR pistols. I'd assumed that building a "new" pistol from a bunch of parts with a replacement barrel would be okay...... I'm awaiting a response.

[Robert303]

My understanding is that as long as the parts were never assembled as a Sec 5 firearm they can be used in a Sec 1 'Straight Pull'. So if you have a load of M1 receivers and a load of barrels you can make them up however if you have a load of already barreled receivers they cannot be used for conversion. That's what I've heard but I cannot swear to it.

[huntervixen]

I'm waiting for someone to do a BREN. Cash waiting for whoever steps up first. Might need to knock off a museum first. There's a 7.62 one in Buenos Aires military museum that's technically property of HMG, they probably won't miss it. Hasn't been fired since April 1982.

As nice as having a SP Bren would be, cocking would be a major problem....SP L1's bad enough, plus the removable barrel would not make the Home Office happy, insurmountable probems I think....nice thought though.

I will take your Bren and raise you a Vickers gun...or is that just stupid :lol:

[Sim G]

There was a particular gunsmith, together with an author/gun rights activist who sourced some Bren guns. They smoothbored the barrels with sleeves, filed the full bent on the sear and put a big blob of weld over the "auto" position of the selector....

They punted these out as S2 semi shotguns pre 1988....

They narrowly escaped prison and allegedly, were the reason that detachable mag shotguns went onto S1 with the 1988 Ammendment Act...

[PaulR]

I managed about 11 years ago to to buy one of the first M1 Carbine straight pulls imported by Cotswold Arms. It's one of the legal ones as the barrel and gas sleeve was never gas port drilled, the tappet is welded. The receiver and barrel were new build but are of the correct parkerisation colour.

They really are a joy to shoot and are very versatile being a fairly competitive Service rifle out to 200yds and you can shoot them on most gallery rifle ranges. Incrediby accurate as well.

The round is inexpensive to shoot and on the IAI manufactured ones sold by Cotswold extract with no effort at all. I would guess that the Surrey Guns ones would behave the same.

I looked at the new ones at the Phoenix show and I have to say, that I wasn't that impressed with the finish. Woodwork and metalwork fit OK as they're using original receivers and stocks and I'm sure they shoot fine. It's more the colour than anything, they've finished them Black which the M1 Carbine never was. Olive grey or gunmetal but not black.

I also got a M1 Garand from Cotwold 10ish years back in 30.06, that's fun but it ain't the semi version that I lost after Hungerford.

Here's the Carbine.

[Blu]

These are nice little rifles and over the years I have had a shoot on one or two of them. As I said on another thread, my mother in law was on the M1 Carbine assembly line during WWII when they were made at the General Motors plant in Saginaw, Michigan. They were also made at many other plants all over the United States. So anyone who has a Saginaw made M1 Carbine, my mother in law had a hand in making it.

Blu

[huntervixen]

I managed about 11 years ago to to buy one of the first M1 Carbine straight pulls imported by Cotswold Arms. It's one of the legal ones as the barrel and gas sleeve was never gas port drilled, the tappet is welded. The receiver and barrel were new build but are of the correct parkerisation colour.

They really are a joy to shoot and are very versatile being a fairly competitive Service rifle out to 200yds and you can shoot them on most gallery rifle ranges. Incrediby accurate as well.

The round is inexpensive to shoot and on the IAI manufactured ones sold by Cotswold extract with no effort at all. I would guess that the Surrey Guns ones would behave the same.

I looked at the new ones at the Phoenix show and I have to say, that I wasn't that impressed with the finish. Woodwork and metalwork fit OK as they're using original receivers and stocks and I'm sure they shoot fine. It's more the colour than anything, they've finished them Black which the M1 Carbine never was. Olive grey or gunmetal but not black.

I also got a M1 Garand from Cotwold 10ish years back in 30.06, that's fun but it ain't the semi version that I lost after Hungerford.

Here's the Carbine.

Very cool collection you have there Paul, said it before, but can anyone have a better Military straight pull collection than you?

.....tell me is that a straight pull .30 Browning mounted on your Jeep....now that would be hard work :lol: :lol:

[huntervixen]

Hi Paul,
I see yours is based on the pre overhaul and upgrade M1, with the original fire selector and missing the bayonet bar.

Very cool rifle mate!