African Carbines

[ssgross]

How would you rate your barrel

Little? the tool marks and drilling chatter are still pretty pronounced, and there was no copper in any of it. Contrast with my Italian carbine from Midway this year, https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....l=1#post501062
I think that one was shot more. However the finish on the barrel of this Classic is maybe 20%, and the midway one is near 100%.
I've seen similar on my several CMP garlands. Sometimes the field grade has a much better barrel that's been shot less than the service grade, just less original finish left.
Maybe they super cleaned bores in Ethiopia after firing? doubtful. or maybe they did at the govt. refurb at SAA? If so, then the finish wear happened before it was left in a lend/lease crate and forgotten about.

I need to pick up a good muzzle wear gauge. Been on my list of a while. That will give you (us) the best idea of how much these were used.

[arcamm]

I'm not an expert on carbine barrels and I don't mean to hijack your thread, but when I bought mine, I wasn't expecting anything but heavily used rifle. When I looked down the bore, I first thought it was worn smooth, but after I ran some patches down the barrel and removed about a half pound of Ethiopian topsoil, It looked much better. In fact, like yours. I posted on another forum and was told that it didn't look like it was fired much (if at all). I don't have an erosion gauge either, but mine will take a .300 pin gauge and will only take about 3/4" of a .301. It won't take .302 at all. Maybe they just set the carbines to Ethiopia and no ammo. My stock looks like it was used more as a club!

[ssgross]

not hijacked at all. Did yours have a mismatched stock too? Barrel and receiver are about all the underwood I got.

[arcamm]

Mine has a M2 stock with both pieces stamped "IO". No cartouche, a "P" stamped on the hand grip and a "MR" refurb stamp on the left side. It looks like it was cleaned by beating it on a sharp rock. No cracks that I've found so far.

[DaveHH]

I think that a lot of this stuff has to do with war time production. They were slamming these things out maybe 1,000 a day in some instances. Barrels were the big hang up. Inland was asking Ordnance if it was OK to use barrels that weren't perfect and they said "Yes". My Inland is an almost new example 8/44 barrel. It looks like a Colt 45 barrel, very shallow rifling. Looks like it was shot a lot and it was shot very little. NPM was using anything they could get until IBM sent them a bunch of really nice barrels in spring of 44.

If you read "The River and the Gauntlet" by SLA Marshall at the end he spends some time with Ethiopian soldiers and they were probably the best, most well trained and effective troops in Korea. It goes without saying that they probably had excellent rifle care, Marine Corp quality rifle care. I had a friend who was stationed in Ethiopia for several years in the Army. He told me that if you deserted from their army, they cut one of your legs off. Ethiopian air marshals would respond to hijackers by gathering towels and slitting the throats of the terrorists right on the airplane. They didn't have any hijacked airliners after that. Historically: Read "The Blue Nile" by Alan Moorehead, a fabulous read.

[arcamm]

I would agree about fast production and the reduction of quality control. Defiantly as far as ascetics go. My barrel is an Underwood stamped 3-44. It looks like it was only rough cut and never finished. Inside and out.
As long as it goes bang when you pull the trigger. The GI that steps around a corner and is standing face to face with an enemy isn't too concerned with the fact that is rifle might be over 2 MOA.

[M1 C FAN]

Just received a Winchester from Classic that has a ventilated stock. Winchester barrel and receiver are in great shape. Bore is what i would call excellent condition? Stock would make great fire wood. Soaked in oil and beaten to death. Over all very happy.

[hett75]

Congrat. Just placed my order last week. Can't wait to lay my hands on it

[ssgross]

I finally got this underwood to the range tonight since I had my little brass chaser with me. My 11yr old daughter shot it while I worked up a ladder test on another build.
She shot the circled group at 25yds in the target below towards the end of the evening - after she already had put a box of 50rds through it. Wanting to see how it fared at 100yds I shot the remaining holes at that distance. The tight group bottom right shows the rifle's consistency - the same 2 minutes right that my daughter saw in her 25yd group.


Very impressed with how this little bundle of joy performed (and the carbine too! )
While Shots 2/3/4 exceeded my wildest expectations, the flyers in 5/6/7 were entirely my fault.
The ejection pattern is dead consistent at a straight 5 o'clock. My daughter shoots righty and I easily caught each case in my hat without hardly moving it. I shoot lefty which means every shot blasted me in the forehead. Shot 1 was the first round I put through it. Shots 2/3/4 I had the brim of my hat low enough to not notice. Grinning with pleasure on shot 3 hoping it wasn't luck, I took a step back and adjusted my head gear. POW! right in the forehead. I kept adjusting my cheek weld lower on the remaining shots to try and duck the brass. The last round was flung a high 5 o'clock, and landed flat against my neck. It was hot enough to melt flesh and stick rather than bounce off. So I went home with a divot just above my shoulders - a perfect impression of 30 US carbine right down to extractor groove of the case and the increased thermal mass of the case head vs. the case neck.

So I gave up and shot the carbine righty the rest of the night. I sprayed the bull, but nothing to write home about. Shooting righty might just be the best solution, but I hate to think so. Perhaps the extractor or extractor spring is worn/too stiff, and replacing it will change the pattern? I can trim a coil or 2 off the extractor spring - that for certain should have some effect. I'll tear the bolt down next, take pictures, and report back before doing anything irreversible.

[USGI]

Are you meaning ejector instead of extractor? I shoot right handed, but remember having one of my carbines that threw the empties straight into my forehead. Guys here told me what to do and it worked - only problem is I can't remember what it was, right now. Hope you bought that PPU when it was still cheap! - Bob

Edit: I searched on "forehead" and found this old thread and my post (#13) on page 2. It was an Inland that I still have, so will look to see if I can tell which bolt parts I changed.

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=38415&page=2