The Rifle
Collectors and WWII aficionado's - prepared to be disappointed. The rifle I bought is not a true GI WWII M1 Carbine, but is instead an "IAI M888". This rifle was made sometime in the 90's in Texas, US by a company called "Israel Arms International". This company used surplus GI parts (unless the cost was too high, in which case commercial parts were used), barrels were newly manufactured and the receivers were cast. Some of the receivers were cast in Spain via subcontracting, and some were cast in Texas, as per my rifle. However, with this in mind, the rifle is still made on the M1 Carbine pattern and is identical to the M1 Carbine. It disassembles in exactly the same way and the parts are interchangeable.
The woodwork is in pretty good condition as this is a used rifle. A couple of dents here or there but nothing you'd complain about. The metal upper handguard/heatshield was standard on this model of rifle but was not often seen on the original M1 carbines. I think it looks pretty cool and definitely different!
The rear sight is very nice, it is not the "battle sight" with the flip up sight for two different settings but rather has notches for 100, 200, 250 and 300 yard notches. There is also built in windage adjustment in the rear sight as you can see in the picture. I believe that the windage knobs adjust windage by 1" per click at 100 yards.
The trigger is... heavy. I'm spoilt for choice with my Remington 700 and other modern rifles with fancy triggers. But I also shoot a Mauser and Lee Enfield and they still have nice triggers compared to this carbine. I haven't measured the trigger pull bit it is noticeably heavier than my Mauser, such that I noticed the front post moving away from the centre of the target as I squeeze the trigger. Time behind the trigger will sort this out.
The rifle action is just like a straight pull AR-15. Pull the charging handle back, then releasing it will chamber a round. Repeat after firing. I disassembled the rifle and you can easily see that the gas port has been welded shut. I cleaned out the metal and reapplied some grease so the rifle is nice and slick now. The bolt has a bolt stop feature which works quite nicely. The last picture shows a small button on the charging handle and there is also a small hole underneath the handle. When you retract the bolt and depress the button, the bolt is held in place just like the picture. I found that loading a mag with the bolt held in place this way will cause the first round to be pointing upwards too much, which will then not chamber when the bolt is released. This is due to the fact that the rear of the first cartridge is pushed down into the mag by the bolt, which is not held back far enough. If you let the bolt forward, insert mag, then load the first round you will not get any problems with feeding.
The magazines needed a bit of work. The feed lips were very sharp and were marking my brass (I intend to reload) and were cutting my fingers whilst loading the rounds. A quick polish with wet silicon carbide paper smoothed out the feedlips and still function great without marking my brass.
I bought the rifle from a local RFD for a very good price, which included a ten round magazine, two fifteen round magazines with mag pouch, and the rifle sling. The magazine pouch is designed to slip over the buttstock for easy access, however, I will probably buy another pouch as this one has a punched metal hole on the side that may mark the stock.
http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_iai.html
The rifle with all items that came with the sale
Rear sight showing windage adjustment, and the receiver showing it was made in Houston, Texas, USA.
Front of receiver showing calibre as "CAL 30 ML": notice that this is ML not M1.
Upper vented, metal handguard
Receiver of M1 - note the button on the charging handle which keeps the bolt held open
