African Carbines

[lboos]

Good work on the stock clean up, look's like that one had a very hard life.
How's the clean up on the rest of the rifle going ?

[ssgross]

How's the clean up on the rest of the rifle going ?

Done and assembled, waiting on the stock to dry. Should be shooting next week.

[ssgross]

Put everything together. looks real nice. I was hoping the slop in the action would go away with everything cleaned and tightened up, but no luck. With the band tightened up, the action easily slides forward 1-2 mm - the force of the bolt closing is enough to push the receiver off the plate by 1mm, and pulling the trigger shifts it back.
So, the wood in the barrel bed is tired, and the band is not capturing the barrel into the wood. Nothing a business-card shim can't fix for now. I'll tune it up so it at least doesn't rattle and shift in my hands when I pull the trigger, then I'll be shooting it. Suppose I could sell the stock for a pretty penny and put new wood on it, and fund a few more projects, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

[USGI]

I was hoping the slop in the action would go away with everything cleaned and tightened up, but no luck.

My older brother who has owned and worked on guns for at least 50 years, bought his first (and only) M1 Carbine from the CMP about 15 years ago. He lives in CA and called me asking why the action was so loose in the stock. I was trying to tell him how to tighten up the trigger housing fit with the receiver, but he said, "No, it's the whole damn thing". His is an Inland and I asked him to check the fit of the receiver to the recoil plate. I ended up mailing him an SG marked Type 3 recoil plate and it solved his problem. He sent me the one that came in it, which is an Inland DI Type 2. With your action out of the stock, see how the recoil plate fits up to the tang of the receiver. It shouldn't go on without at least a slight bit of drag. You might be able to adjust the fit of the one you have and make it work. I broke one of mine, so you need to be pretty careful. I think user Matt_X posted about his method either here, or on the Carbine Club website recently. If your plate is a Type 2, I'd recommend getting a Type 3, though. - Bob

Check posts #15 & #18 in Matt_X's thread located here:

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=75273&page=2

[browningautorifle]

the action easily slides forward 1-2 mm

So, why not epoxy a sliver of shim stock to the front side of the receiver hook and it should eliminate the movement? No damage, can be reversed and should tighten it up. If 1mm isn't enough, use 2mm...so on.

[jimb16]

I would put a thin wooden shim on the top of the recoil plate cutout and maybe a little more on the front face of the receiver cut out where the rear of the recoil plate rests. That will move the recoil plate up and tip it just a bit. That should tighten the fit of the receiver and lift the barrel just a bit. I've done that to a couple of stocks to restore proper receiver "tension".

[ssgross]

Toying with the idea of some part swapping with my midway NPM. It has an underwood stamped trigger housing, with some feeding issues described in my other thread. So may get a 2fer...underwood gets a correct trigger housing, and NPM might not have feeding problems anymore. That NPM is pristine too, with a tighter stock. I've thought about getting new wood for it and stock furniture (saving the original of course for value), and tuning it to the best it can be.

Thanks guys. all good suggestions. I'll play with shimming just to get it to the range. Always best to shoot first before changing anything - especially permanent changes. From the sounds of your suggestions, I think I may have a collection of compounding issues...recoil plate and loose inletting at the front of the mag well.

[DaveHH]

I read this somewhere and it works: The best shim available is to make it from Starbucks stirring sticks. I used this wood on a loose Garand and it tightened it right up. It is probably made from some rain forest teak in Asia, regardless, it is kiln dried, straight grained, tough wood that glues and sands well.

[ssgross]

This carbine has a type 2, unmarked recoil plate. With action out of the stock, I checked the fit on the tang and sure enough as expected there is substantial play.
I checked my midway NPM...it has a type 3 inland recoil plate that fits good, no play but not snug either. I tested it on the African carbine and...nice-n-snug fit. Presses on with a just a little thumb pressure. I added 4 layers of business card to the front of of the trigger gaurd, and everything slid in a little snug, but not tight. It's range ready now. If all goes well, I'll slather some grease on my business card spacer. Posterity can read my name on it.
So, that type 2 plate was loose on the NPM as well. I pressed it slowly in my vice between aluminum blocks to tighten it up, checking progress with a micrometer. After 3 iterations of of this, I had about half the slop out of it, but was still pretty loose. As I pressed it once more...you guessed it - snap. It was just too loose to correct.
Type 3 recoil plate is on the way to make all well.

I'll switch over to getting the matching 1942 underwood typewriter working again. Is anyone interested in seeing that? I think I have its problems figured out. It freezes up and won't advance after 3-5 key presses.

[arcamm]

I picked up a Standard Products from Classic a couple of weeks ago. The barrel looks to be in similar condition. How would you rate your barrel as far as round count goes? Is it a little or a lot?