Yeah, I'm another newbie with issues. I've come here in hopes that you folks will know more about these things than anybody else on the planet.
While I'm not new to the Garand action and it's derivatives, I am a little new to the carbine. Like many of you, I'm kicking myself HARD for not picking up one or two (dozen) carbines when they sold for less than $200.

I've been wanting to quench my thirst for a pistol caliber carbine for plinking and a Mini 14 because I really enjoy them. The often overlooked M1icon carbine was a viable option. I'd seen them around but never tried one on and certainly didn't take them seriously. When a friend picked up an Inland, I talked him into letting me take it out for a walk. I dumped 16 rounds into less than 3" at 50 yards my first time out and I was hooked. These things are like 10/22s for big boys! That clenched it for me. The cutesy little M1 Carbine would satisfy my "needs" for both types of guns. I had to have one.
My plans for the carbine involve tin cans, bowling pins, various other things that need shooting, and no doubt many things that really shouldn't be shot. Stepping up to a progressive reloading press will be beneficial.

After doing a little research and getting hurt by tons of sticker shock, I settled on (gasp!) a commercial variant. While I don't abuse my firearms, I certainly put them to use. The carbine will end up as a truck gun so to speak and I really don't want to beat up a collectible piece.

I brought home an Iver Johnson dirt cheap. The wee beastie seems to have full interchange with the GI versions. We tore it down and played mix-n-match with that Inland. Believe it or not, the Inland's bolt even drops in with good head space.
The disturbing part is that it was seriously Bubba'd. You see, Bubba had some sort of problem and tried fixing it with a welder, grinder, and felonious use of a hacksaw.
I think the gas cylinder split at some point in time. Bubba, being the fix-it sort that he is, tried to put the gas cylinder back together. Apparently, he was unable to remove the piston nut and took out his frustrations on it using a hacksaw. Think of it as Leatherface defending his family's honor with a chainsaw.



Careful inspection of the weld shows that it's far from pretty but it should not fail. However, the gun doesn't run properly. It has a random failure to feed at least once per magazine. We used three mags including those that run in the Inland. It's a bolt over base failure like this:



I'm assuming that much of the problem comes from the gas port and piston. I wasn't smart enough to bring along more than one type of ammo so I can't rule that out.

I'd like to pull the nut off the barrel but I simply can't get it to turn. A sharp punch and mallet won't do the trick. I can easily clean up the welds and repair the damage assuming he didn't cut too far back into the gas block. The problem is the piston is in the way and I can't take my usual approach to removing damaged fasteners. I'm a hot rod guy with a machine shop at home so labor cost isn't an issue.

There's a good chance I'll have to rebarrel the receiver. If that's the case, would it be a better idea to use an in-spec GI barrel or one of the aftermarket barrels? Who makes those barrels? Is there any accuracy advantage to be gained with new vs in-spec GI?

No doubt this post looks like a train wreck but I'd appreciate any input you folks could offer. Think of it as me abusing this old turd instead of bashing around with that Rockola I really want.
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