Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another
video on ForgottenWeapons.com. I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at the James Julia Auction House taking a look at some of the machine guns that they are going to be selling in their upcoming spring of 2017 Firearms Auction. Now this is not just an M1 carbine, this is actually a fully transferable M2 carbine. So the M1 carbine was originally
requested in 1938 and adopted in 1941. And it was a gun to replace the
1911 pistol for support troops. And not just support troops, but front line combat troops whose
duties precluded them from carrying a full-sized M1 Garand. For example, bazooka operators, mortar
operators, artillery guys, these sorts of troops. It had been found that the 1911 was responsible for an
incredibly tiny number of enemy casualties in combat, because as a handgun it's really kind of a
difficult gun to shoot well and shoot effectively. And it was decided, wisely, that a small light handy
carbine would be a much more effective weapon for those sorts of soldiers than a pistol. Even as early as the very first trials, being selective
fire was one of the requirements for this carbine. However, that requirement was dropped
between the first trial and the second trial. And the ultimate adopted version
of the gun was only semi-automatic. But pretty much from the very moment that it went
into combat, guys were asking for full-auto versions. There were a lot of troops who really appreciated
the lightness and the handiness of these carbines, especially in the Pacific, and wanted a way
to increase their capability for firepower. And the Army relented and in 1944 they formally adopted
the M2 carbine, which is virtually the identical gun. In fact it pretty much is the identical gun, with
the addition of some full-auto components and an extended 30 round magazine in
place of the original 15 round magazines. These would see just a little
bit of combat in World War Two, I believe they were actually used on
Okinawa. That's probably about the last major combat situation where they
were actually found in World War Two. They did then see substantial service in
Korea in particular, and also in Vietnam. Now technically the M1 and M2 and M3
carbines were replaced by the M14 rifle in 1957, but that didn't really mean that all the
carbines just disappeared overnight. They continued in service, especially they were used
to outfit South Vietnamese troops in the Vietnam War, and so some of the US advisers were also carrying
them. They continued to see service through Vietnam. The carbines here are in this kind of interesting
legal situation, because the carbine receiver itself is no different for an M1
in semi-auto and an M2 that's select fire. Literally the receivers are identical. It's only ancillary
parts around the receiver that make the difference. This was extremely handy for the military
in that they only actually made 217,000 original factory produced M2
carbines from the ground up. All the rest of the guns were actually
just converted from M1 carbines. What the military produced was a literal conversion kit,
and you dropped those parts into an M1 carbine and, presto, you have an M2 carbine. And
so what you'll see ... are guns like this one, where the receiver is marked M1,
and that's been over-stamped with a 2. So the US government has a position on
these where technically any receiver that is marked M2, including over-stamps,
is considered a machine gun. But that's not always quite the case, because
years ago the Civilian Marksmanship Program did formally release M2 over-stamped carbines as
semi-auto M1 carbines, and those are legal to own. It's kind of a weird grey zone because of the fact that the
receiver is not changed in any way, and it's only additional parts. And those additional parts are unregulated to own,
but if you own those parts plus an M1 carbine then you're in ... what's called
constructive possession of a machine gun. Anyway, I don't want to get too bogged
down in the minutia of the legal details because this is a registered and
transferable M2 full-auto carbine. So we are going to take it out on
the range and see how it performs. There are some people who say these
are a complete waste of time in full-auto because they're too light
and they are uncontrollable. There are other people who say that they are in fact
a fantastic little, effectively, submachine gun, sort of. The .30 carbine cartridge is in this grey zone in
between pistol and intermediate calibre cartridges. So the only external indication of a full-auto
carbine is this little switch sticking out. In the forward position it is full-auto,
and in the rearward position it is semi-auto. You'll notice there is a little bit of a relief
cut in the stock to make room for that lever. This is a good example of an
over-stamped number. So this was originally US Carbine [Calibre] .30 M1.
That M1 has been over stamped with a 2. This was done by the military as well as just civilian
manufacturers. This particular gun is a civilian conversion. Then the one other change that was made on the M2
was to increase the strength of the magazine catch to ... accommodate the heavier 30 round
magazines. So originally you just had two tabs, here and here, that would
hold the magazine in place. And they added this bracket on
the far end of the magazine catch. The original two magazine
tabs are right here on the back, and then for that third bracket they
added this ... punched out section. So the ... M2 carbine magazine, the 30
round magazine, has three points of support as opposed to only two on an M1 carbine mag. Now internally what has been added here is an auto
sear, which is connected to this lever by way of this bar. So the lever here sets the bar ... into
one of two positions to determine whether it will be used, in this
position, or simply do nothing. This is semi-auto where this bar is
basically disconnected and does nothing. In full-auto what this does is cycle up and
down which pushes on the auto sear here. And it is cycled by the carrier here. So when this goes all the way forward,
this is when the bolt is locked in place, then this bar goes up, which impinges
on this, which allows the hammer to fall as long as the trigger is being held back. The purpose of this is to ensure that the hammer
doesn't fall until the bolt is in position and locked, so that it will fire safely. Aside from
the safety issue, this is also a way to ensure that the hammer gets a clean
strike on the firing pin, rather than riding the bolt forward which
would rob it of some of its energy, and then might produce light
strikes and unreliable fire. Got a little spring here that puts some tension on the trip
lever. You can see how that impacts where that's sitting. So, that is the M1 to M2 conversion. You can see that none of this stuff
actually impacts the receiver itself. This is attached to an existing
pin in the fire control group. There is some modification
required to the ... op rod here. But it's the op rod and bar and its related components. So that is the M1 to M2 carbine conversion. Addition of some parts, modification of a couple
parts, although interestingly not the receiver. Alright, time to get this out on the range. So the M2 carbine really falls into this kind of grey zone
between being a submachine gun and being an assault rifle. And the reason is simply its cartridge. The .30
carbine is more powerful than say a 9x19 pistol, but it's also substantially less
powerful than a 5.56 or 7.62x39. So it really kind of is a gun that
defies easy labelling these days. But in its original semi-auto form it was
an excellent personal defence weapon. Now, I'm curious how it will handle in full-auto.
Will it be as controllable as a submachine gun? Let's find out. Well, I have a little bit of practice with machine
guns, not nearly as much as some people, but probably more than the average person. And I'd say this kind of falls right
in between in terms of controllability. It's more controllable ... than a 7.62
calibre machine gun, the 7.62x39 AK I'd say. I'd say it's pretty darn close to a 5.56. What makes this harder to shoot
accurately in full-auto at long range it's not the cartridge but it's the weight
of the gun. Because this thing is so light, and because it has a dropped stock,
it does tend to climb under recoil. Now if you're a ... novice machine gun
shooter, I think this would climb quite a lot. If you're someone who's used to a
bit of full-auto, who knows how to effectively hold down the muzzle
of a full-auto rifle, it's a lot of fun. It's also very easy to fire in relatively short bursts. 3 rounds is easy, 2 rounds with a
little bit of practice you can do as well. And that's where this would have been the most useful.
You're not going to hose something on full-auto with this. It's short controlled bursts, which really
is kind of true of all machine guns actually. Alright, I know people are going to ask about
these stories of guys in Korea using these and dumping large numbers of rounds into Chinese or
Korean soldiers and having no appreciable effect. And I think there's ... a lot to unpack
in those stories. There are issues of controllability and whether they were
actually making hits. There are issues of ballistic effectiveness of .30 carbine.
That is the subject for an entirely separate video, there's a lot ... to that
story, so we'll tackle that separately. For now, it's a pretty slick little submachine gun. This particular M2 carbine is of course coming
up for sale here at the James Julia Company. So if you are looking for something
that could be actually a pretty darn cool introductory machine gun, these are
relatively affordable as machine guns go, ammunition is certainly available
and cheap and affordable today. And in addition to that they are a
cool piece of US military history. So take a look at the link in the description
text below, that will take you to Julia's catalogue page where you can see the
pictures, description, provenance, etc. on this ... machine gun, and place a bid right
through their website if you're interested. Thanks for watching. [ cc by sk cn2 ]
If the ARVN don't have the M1 and M2 Carbines, something has to have gone VERY wrong. The ARVN LOOOOOOOOOOOVED the M2.
I see Gun Jesus. I upvote Gun Jesus.
Seriously though..... I wouldn't mind more gun options in game.
If they don't get it for riflemen (I imagine the Garand will be the semi auto counterpart if so) then definitely for pointmen, combat engineer, radiomen, and commanders.
Lee Enfield first.
[Insert excuse here]
I want this gun in general. It's my favorite firearm besides the Mosin