I gave my kids carbines for Christmas last year and included with each a copy of "The M1icon Carbine Owner's Guide" by Larry Ruth and Scott Duff. It has complete instructions on everything (with excellent diagrams) plus a thumbnail history, troubleshooting advice, and so forth. You can get it from many sources including Midway MidwayUSA - "M1 Carbine Owner's Guide" Book by Larry L. Ruth with Scott A. Duff or Amazon.com

The field and technical manuals are good too of course.
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