Broken Repro M1 Carbine bolt

[30Mauser]

Well, I'm having no luck with the stainless gear this week.

Got about 17 rounds through my Iver Johnson stainless M1 Carbine (late 1980's vintage) this morning when it stopped firing. Realized it wasn't going into battery and as I looked more closely (after dropping the mag and removing the unfired round) I found this...

Buddy who sold it to me thinks his gunsmith is good enough to fix it and will cover it if I'll send it to him in TN... Guess we'll see (unless someone has an identical one they want to throw my way )

Turning to the old, reliable shotguns for some Tuesday night clay busting to get my spirits back up...

 

[30Mauser]

Guess I should add... Anyone know of a source for late-model SS Iver Johnson M1 Carbine bolts in case we can't fix this one?

 

[Rcharnitsk]

Have you tried numrich

 

[30Mauser]

Have you tried numrich

Thanks for the reminder, definitely will!

Here's a picture from the underside... Guess I should be thankful that I didn't lose any fingers or eyes!

 

[Romeosierra616]

http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/Search.aspx?filter=m1+carbine

 

[30Mauser]

http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/Search.aspx?filter=m1+carbine

Thanks as well for the Numrich lead... Looks like they only have GI bolt assemblies.

 

[vellnueve]

Thanks as well for the Numrich lead... Looks like they only have GI bolt assemblies.

IJs should be compatible with GI parts.

 

[45collector]

Yes, they should.

I wouldn't attempt to fix that bolt.

 

[30Mauser]

IJs should be compatible with GI parts.

That would be GREAT news... though I thought I'd read somewhere that they made some incremental "improvements" throughout the years that may have made them ultimately incompatible with USGI parts.

I also suspect it's not a great idea to mix stainless and blued hardened-steel parts... but I admit I know little of metallurgy and could be completely wrong there??

 

[vellnueve]

That would be GREAT news... though I thought I'd read somewhere that they made some incremental "improvements" throughout the years that may have made them ultimately incompatible with USGI parts.

I also suspect it's not a great idea to mix stainless and blued hardened-steel parts... but I admit I know little of metallurgy and could be completely wrong there??

That's Universal carbines, not IJs.

 

[30Mauser]

That's Universal carbines, not IJs.

Thanks for the clarification and that's great to hear... any insight into the stainless/blued mix question?

 

[atmay]

Thanks for the clarification and that's great to hear... any insight into the stainless/blued mix question?

Should be fine.

 

[30Mauser]

The replacement milsurp bolt carrier arrived yesterday from my buddy, encrusted in old cosmoline. Now to get everything over to Rustbluing to be properly cleaned up, assembled and headspaced. Hope I'll be throwing rounds downrange with her again by the 10th!

 

[30Mauser]

Arrrrgh! It wasn't cosmoline, but rather veins of rust buckling up under the bluing... Damaged beyond repair.

So Sergey at Rustbluing Gunsmithing found another milsurp bolt at the Springfield show and put it all together for me again... Hopefully I can get a whole box of ammo through it this time before something else breaks. If not, it's going up on the wall as decoration...

 

[45collector]

Hopefully I can get a whole box of ammo through it this time before something else breaks. If not, it's going up on the wall as decoration...

Don't give up so easily. M1 carbines are tough little rifles and unless your receiver is somehow screwed beyond repair, any other little problems should be easy to remedy. Keep us posted.

 

[mark056]

One thing to consider about stainless is that many manufacturers were just getting into it in a big way in the 70's and 80's (yeah, I know that S&W introduced the Model 60 circa 1965). There were lots of problems with many manufacturers stainless guns especially galling between the slide and frame of 1911'a then (anyone remember the AMT Hardballer ?) Also getting the right hardness with stainless is tricky as well and it took time for the gun industry as a whole to master it. At this time too, Iver Johnson was going through a period of transition and in 1978 acquired Plainfield which made carbines in Dunellen, NJ. IJ move there from Fitchburg to NJ. Then the company finally moved to Arkansas. The Plainfield carbines were sold to foreign powers in military assistance programs with many going to South Vietnam, some actually ending up in the hands of American troops there. Plainfields had good reputation overall as opposed to Universal. According to the website http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/parts.html both Plainfields and IJs were GI part compatible, not so for Universal. I have never heard many consistent things about Universal and YMMV. Personally I would go with parkerized or blue GI Bolt make sure it fires and is safe and you should be good to go.

 

[mac1911]

my buddy gave up on his universal carbine after 2 bolt and extractor failures. All parts where purchased from numerich and installed by gun smith ?

 

[30Mauser]

Thanks for the (realistic) encouragement!

The new bolt is blued milsurp, so I'm cautiously optimistic. will keep you posted!

I'll have it at the Holbrook shoot Sunday if anyone's interested.

 

[45collector]

Cool I'll be there too. I wasn't going to bring my M1 carbine but I will now, (you know, just in case you need to compare the fit/ function of parts and such)