Books on Carbines & Garands

[uvarmint]

What are the best reference books for collecting Carbines & Garands? Once I get feed back from you I'm going to post a WTB.

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[mar53]

My Opinion on some good books and documentation is as follows:
1- Best reference docs - a full collection of Carbine club Newsletters
2- War Baby by Larry Ruth - Best historical work on this rifle. Also has good parts descriptions and lists of subcontractors by maker
3- M1 carbines wartime production by Craig Reisch - is a decent reference on parts variations and what serial ranges used which parts (it has some mistakes, but is a good overall reference)
4- M1 carbine owners guide by Ruth and Duff - a good book on nomenclature of parts, disassembly and assembly and a few other topics, like zeroing, cleaning and service.

[uvarmint]

Thank you

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

My Opinion on some good books and documentation is as follows:
1- Best reference docs - a full collection of Carbine club Newsletters
2- War Baby by Larry Ruth - Best historical work on this rifle. Also has good parts descriptions and lists of subcontractors by maker
3- M1 carbines wartime production by Craig Reisch - is a decent reference on parts variations and what serial ranges used which parts (it has some mistakes, but is a good overall reference)
4- M1 carbine owners guide by Ruth and Duff - a good book on nomenclature of parts, disassembly and assembly and a few other topics, like zeroing, cleaning and service.

Some others you might consider adding to that are the other Ruth books.

1. "War Baby Comes Home"

2. "M1 Carbine - Design, Developement & Production" his first book from 1979 is pretty good.

3. The FM manuals are useful too. Different years show upgrades to the early ones.

[DaveN]

Bruce N. Canfield's COMPLETE GUIDE to the M1 Garand and the M1 Carbine. Kill two birds with book. alsoThe Complete M1 Garand by Jim Thompson.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

I agree with DaveN (and was going to say the same thing since you were asking about both) -

Bruce Canfield's book covers many of the basics for both the M1 and M1 carbine, and goes into some detail.
I think it's an enjoyable, interesting read. It's intended to be an overview for both and I think it's a great book to start out with and costs about $40.
Here's a link from his web site with more info if interested.
Bruce N. Canfield - Gun Collector, Gun Collections, Author, Collector, and Historian of post-Civil War U.S. Military Weapons

The other books mentioned above are also very good and go into further details.
You'll need to go into specifics though (M1 Garand or M1 carbine)

I hope this helps,
~ Harlan

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

This is Ruth's first book. I'm waiting for his next to come out someday.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Holy Cow Jim! Is there anything carbine related that you don't have?

Honestly, it's great to have the knowledge of long time collectors such as yourself to keep us informed
(and humble!)

I'd love to dig through that garage you have!

Thanks sincerely for all of your contributions here.
~ Harlan