For love of the PCC

Bungalow Bill said:

I love the M1 carbine too, and that might be the prettiest stock on one I’ve ever seen.

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The later pot bellied M2 birch stocks on reworked M1s are not as valued by collectors, but many of them have some nice tiger stripe figure in them. That one is way better than most.

The birch M2 stock on the M1 at the top is pretty average tiger stripe wise, and you can see the difference between the slightly deeper/stronger M2 pattern birch stock compared to the slimmer M1 walnut stock.

94win32spec said:

I'm starting to come around to the realization that the M-1 Carbine may be the best home defense carbine currently available.... especially with softpoint/hollowpoint bullets. This after 40 yrs of being a firearms enthusiast.

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I agree. It was after all designed as a personal defense weapon to substitute for the 1911 with rear area and support troops who for the most part could not hit the broad side of a barn with the 1911, let alone hit an enemy combatant at 100 yards with a 1911.

In the 1960s and 1970s the M1 carbine was popular for use as a patrol rifle for law enforcement officers, particularly rural law enforcement officers.

However I recall in the mid 1970s starting to see more articles in gun rags criticizing it as lacking stopping power. They rejuvenated the myth about the .30 M1 carbine round not penetrating ice encrusted Chinese padded cotton coats during the Korean War. They usually doubled down by pointing out it wasn’t legal for deer hunting in many states due to having just a few foot pounds less than 1000 ft pounds of energy.

But as always many if not most of those articles were written to appeal to and support advertisers who wanted to sell more modern alternatives like the AR-15, Mini 14 and the Ruger .44 Carbine.

Admittedly with lots of surplus ball ammo still floating around there also wasn’t much incentive for producing good expanding bullet loads for the M1 carbine and given the 1000 ft pound restriction. Most of those that were available were designed for small game and predators rather than deer.

Still, even though it was technically a Varmint bullet, the discontinued Hornady 100 gr short jacket soft nose bullet gave impressive expansion and penetration adequate for two legged threats.

I lamented the passing of the 100 gr short jacket when Hornady discontinued it. However, I’ve gotten similarly superb results with the 110 gr S&B factory load with 16-18” penetration and expansion around .6”. That’s actually much more impressive expansion than I got with the Hornady 110 gr FTX (around .45”).

With three M1 carbines in the safe and around 30 GI surplus magazines (bought back when they were dirt cheap), I’m still interested in finding a readily available bullet for hand loading That will also work well as a do everything plinking to personal defense load.

I’m interested in the Hornady 90 gr XTP, but it’s being marketed as a handgun bullet and as an action shooting bullet that is not optimized for expansion. But it will be interesting to see what it does at carbine velocities.

If I had a wife or girlfriend (may the two never meet), or adolescent child of either gender who had no problem with shooting guns, but was unwilling/unable to practice enough to be skilled with a sidearm, I think a PCC would be all but made-to-order for such people.
Depending on the caliber, the PCC offers "okay" to "WONDERFUL" fight-stopping performance, 8 to 20 rounds quick, low to non-existent recoil, rapid reloads, and sufficient accuracy to be a threat to, or fend off one from others, out to 50 yards, minimum.
In a household under threat, the more skilled shooters situate the PCC shooters in a (relatively) safe corner, tell them not to move, and to shoot anyone who is not wearing a badge or is recognized as family/friendlies. IDEALLY, the more skilled shooter(s) in the house will take care of things until the threat is neutralized or the constabulary arrives. The PCC shooter should never really have to use their weapon, but if the unthinkable happens, there's still recourse for the innocent.
In a traveling situation, the PCC offers less power per unit bulk than either a pistol OR a short rifle, but controllability enables hits, and hits are the major decider of conflict outcomes. Since other more skilled companions would likely address and "repel boarders" first, however, the PCC keeps its owner out of trouble if the "boarders" either get lucky, or try an "end run". Being armed and travelling armed are much like parachutes. Arming the less skilled with a PCC could be seen as providing them with a parachute (the presence of other more skilled and highly motivated defenders) AND a giant trampoline (the PCC).