I've got an old M1 Carbine that used to be my dad's.  It was made by a company called Universal(not sure if there is a Industry or Arms behind Universal).  They were/are located in Hialeah, Florida.  Does anyone know if this company still exist and if these rifles were any good or worth anything now?  I'd like to get it park'd but don't want to ruin it's value if any.  I did have to refinish the stock as it sunk in our boat about 14 years ago and my dad neglected it.  The gov't sure can screw up a nice peice of wood, you should see colors and the grain in it!

Universal was a commercial carbine company.  Few, if any, of its parts will interchange with GI.  Some people have had good luck with them, the general consensus is that they are junk.  They have no collector value and I don't believe the company is still in existence.

Universal redesigned the M-1 Carbine quite a bit.  They claimed they had improved it; actually they only made it cheaper to produce.

Universal went out of business in 1982.  Their tooling, etc. was purchased by Iver Johnson who apparently made the rifle until the early 1990’s, when they went out of business.

About half the parts are interchangeable with USGI parts.  The stock is not (personal experience!).

A NIB (new-in-box) one might have a little collector value.  Yours certainly doesn’t.  It’s really not even worth having it professionally refinished.  If it were mine, I’d refinish it myself using Brownell’s spray-on Teflon/Moly Gun Finish.

A universal carbine was the first firearms purchase I ever made.   Bought it for $75 brand spanking new when I turned 18 at a discount store.  Didn't know squat about them or small arms in general, probably didn't clean it or lube it very much if at all and had hours of fun with it.  The only problems I had with it were with misfeeds when using 30 round mags, the 15 rounders worked flawlessly.  Nice little gun for the money.

Universal is long out of business.  Their carbines were fairly popular in years past, due to the shortage and high price of US carbines.  Not mil-spec by any means.

My limited experience with them was poor.  It seems the steel used was too soft.  Gun wore itself out after a couple thousand rounds.

Little if any collector value.

I had three, a universal a plainfield and a USGI Rock Ola. The Universal was by far the best one of the bunch, but I wouldnt say it is the best all around. I think I just got lucky and got a good one.

I have 2 Universal carbines and a GI.  One of the Universals is a .256 Winchester Magnum, called a Ferret, and is a collector's item.  The ordinary GI clone Universal is like the others say, not a collector's item really.  HOWEVER, the Universal and maybe the other clones have one feature that is worth thinking about.  The bullet feed ramp is twice as long as on a GI carbine, and will feed soft nose bullets perfectly.  I have Rambo'd many 30-rd mags through mine as fast as I could pull the trigger.  The GI would frequently fail to feed the soft nose rounds.  It used to be nearly impossible to buy FMJ carbine bullets, so I reloaded thousands of soft nose bullets, and the Universal was the only carbine that would reliably feed them.  If I saw ANY brand of carbine clone in ANY condition at a gun show cheap I would buy it without hesitation.  You can always fix and replace anything wrong except an AFU receiver...

Numrich Arms bought up all the remaining Universal/Plainfield/Iver Johnson parts when that merger-mess went out of business.  The remaining stock of Universal parts is at:

www.e-gunparts.com/products.asp?chrMasterModel=3830zCARBINE

and

www.e-gunparts.com/products.asp?chrMasterModel=3830zMISCELLANEOUS

someone correct me if i am wrong but the best
commercial carbines were manufactured by plainfield machine, which were all GI parts.

Yes, the Plainfields were the best of the clones and were interchangeable with GI parts all the way.  I think the Iver Johnsons were, too, but I've never seen one.

What I would like to find at an affordable price (ha ha ha) is a Universal Enforcer carbine pistol.  It was a very slick looking chopped carbine, and was nearly worthless as a firearm, but were very kewl looking.

I have a Universal with USGI parts in it & it works great. Eats any ammo I feed it & is quite accurate for a 30 carbine. My daughter shot her first moving target with it when she was 7yrs old. She sure knows how to make daddy proud!![:D][:D][:D]

ColtShorty

GOA KABA COA JPFO SAF NRA

"I won't be wronged,  I won't be insulted
and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do
these things to other people and I require
the same from them."

I bought one when I was 18.
It was the biggest piece of shit I've ever owned.
My friend named it "BangBangJam" because it never worked.
Later I traded it for a Mini-14, it ran ok.