I have an original M1 Carbine that my Dad recently gave me. He purchased it through the DCM in 1962 and the gun looks like it's new. It is an arsenal rebuild. Bore looks mint.

I finally got it out to the range yesterday to shoot it for the first time. I fired 200 rounds of Sellier & Bellet FMJ ammo through it. Out of the 200 rounds, 3 of the cases got stuck in the chamber. None of the malfunctions happened until after I got to about 125 rounds (gun was clean when I started shooting).

Here's a detailed description of the malfunction.  I would be shooting and the gun would jam with a empty case still in the chamber and it trying to feed a new round. So the extractor is slipping off of the empty case and the operating rod/bolt is recoiling and picking up a new round. It's not the extractor causing the problem because the empty case is really stuck hard in the chamber and the extractor rim on the case is mangled where the extractor slipped over it. To get the empty case out of the chamber, I let the bolt slam over the stuck empty case and then whacked the operating handle hard with a piece of wood. After a couple of whacks, the shell came loose.

I am thinking it's one of two possibilities that could be causing this. 1) the chamber is rough and possibly I should polish it??? or 2) There is something about the Selleir & Bellet ammo that is causing this???


Any ideas???

I would check to see if the extractor is damaged or chipped or maybe an extractor spring replacement is in order...

Quoted: I would check to see if the extractor is damaged or chipped or maybe an extractor spring replacement is in order...

The key piece of info here is the empty case is stuck in the chamber. That should not be happening.

I'd try a different brand of ammo before blaming the gun. S&B is notorious for less than high quality brass.  Try some remington or PMC Carbine ammo and see if the probelm persists.
If it continues to be a problem, then it might be an extractor/spring issue, or the chamber may have slight burrs (unlikely in a US Mil firearm from that era).

Edit to add....from your description, I'd blame the brass from the S&B ammo, as you say the brass is really "Jammed in there" and the extractor is mangling it.

Quoted: I'd try a different brand of ammo before blaming the gun. S&B is notorious for less than high quality brass.  Try some remington or PMC Carbine ammo and see if the probelm persists. If it continues to be a problem, then it might be an extractor/spring issue, or the chamber may have slight burrs (unlikely in a US Mil firearm from that era). Edit to add....from your description, I'd blame the brass from the S&B ammo, as you say the brass is really "Jammed in there" and the extractor is mangling it.

I guess one of the things I wanted to know is if the brass is too hard and not springy enough, can it expand and stick to the chamber? Normally, the case should expand and stick to the chamber while the pressure is high, and then when the pressure drops, the brass should contract to allow for extraction.

I'm sorry, but for a split-second I thought you had posted about EJACULATION problems with an M1 Carbine.



All I can say is, if I found a nice M1 Carbine, I'd probably have that problem!

Failure to extract and eject are fairly common on M1 Carbines...

They like to chew through extractors like dogs chew through toys.

Not to mention all the springs in it are, at a minimum, 50 years old.

Also...S&B isn't exactily the highest-quality .30 Carbine around Pick up a bunch of American Eagle or similar make of .30 Carbine...

If you're sure that during the overhauling process they swapped out the extractor (and it wasn't beat before you got to it)...then I'd suspect the ammo before the weapon.

Couldn't hurt to break out the bore scope and inspect the chamber, though.

Quoted: I'm sorry, but for a split-second I thought you had posted about EJACULATION problems with an M1 Carbine.

I saw it and thought it said, "Help---Erection Problems With M1 Carbine"

Great minds, and all that.

As far as the rifle, I'd sure start by cleaning that chamber really well and try it again with a better quality ammo.

That has happened with me also. S&B ammo.
I tried some winchester and pmc and it would happen again at about 50 rounds.
I changed all my springs with the Wolff M1 Carbine spring replacement set and it would work fine for a while before it would happen again.

My bolt/slide had a lot of slop and jiggled around so I went out to find some replacement parts.
I found a "new" slide on ebay and I found a new in wrap 1956 underwood bolt at a gun show. so far I have not had this issue happen again. I have fired about 400 rounds of Wolf .30 cal and have not had any issues to report.

I would also get ejection problems like this...

and so far I have not had one with the "new" slide and new bolt. I would inspect the extractor, my original extractor was broken, half the "lip" was missing.

I have had similar problems with S&B but not with Wolf in my M1 Carbine. It would ALWAYS extract when I fired but not always when I pulled the bolt back manually.

It could also be the extractor or spring

Changing ammo is the easiest fix. You might want to change magazines too. The 15 round USGi's are the best IMO.

Quoted: I'm sorry, but for a split-second I thought you had posted about EJACULATION problems with an M1 Carbine. All I can say is, if I found a nice M1 Carbine, I'd probably have that problem!

OMG!


Like the other suggestions, try other ammo.  Next step is to replace the extractor which might not be gripping sufficiently.

Try different mags (USGI) and ammo.
My M1 didn't like S&B.
Get a new slide a bolt now, while you can.
They'll need to be replaced eventually anyway, and dropping in a new bolt is always a quick fix.

No issues with my Iver Johnson using PMC or Remington UMC, several hundred rounds.

Check the extractor itself and check that the extractor is functioning properly (it should freely move slightly away from the bolt and back)

edit:
here is some detail about the bolt

www.surplusrifle.com/m1carbine/boltdisassembly/index.asp