[andy]

and they didn't have to forage, and carry everything on their backs, either.

 

[John in AR]

There are no better men than me. :dgrin:

And post-shtf, I also would prefer an M1 carbine to an M1 garand. Not much around here you'd really need the 30-06 for, and the carbine's smaller than a 10-22. In some other areas (alaska, etc), different situations could mandate otherwise.

 

[andy]

I'd still pick the canned CAR, alaska, Africa, or anywhere else. Everywhere, men are the greater threat,and everywhere, there's lots more game for which a 22lr is more appropriate than any centerfire, much less a 308, ferchrissakes. There WERE better men than you, for sure, but a lot of them are long since dead. The WW2 guys like Audie were just flat amazing. He DELIBERATELY stayed in the "cover" of a burning tank (ammo ready to detonate any second) because he knew that the Krauts would probably never think ANYBODY would be crazy enough to use such a thing as cover.

 

[Hard Ball]

when I went to Korea I had a choice of two personal shoulder arms, the M1 Garand or the M2 Carbine. I was an artillery forward observer assigned to an infantry rifle company. My job was to direct division and corps artillery fire to support the infantr. I did not use my personsl weapon until the Chinese were in the wire and about to overrun the position. Then I wpold be shooting at 30 yards or less using rapid semiautomatic fite/.
So I chose the M2 Carbine. It offered 30 round msgazines (I carried 14), light recoil and fast engagement of multiple targets at close range It had enough power for the job and it never let me down.

 

[John in AR]

Never have used an M2, but as "soft" as the M1 shoots, the M2's got to be a slick little full-auto.

Godallmighty, fourteen 30-rounders. And I thought I was a "belt & suspenders" kind of person...

 

[andy]

It's actually a bastard to control on full auto. It's got 110 grs at 1900 fps, as vs the 230 grs, 900 fps, of the .45 acp in the Thompson. Its cyclic rate is a bit faster than the TSMG'S, and it weighs about half as much. The TSMG was well known for its propensity to "climb" in full auto fire, so GUESS what the M2 does on full auto, eh?

 

[DJetAce]

But the carbine was prefered by combat men for close range use. All of them admitted it did not have the range or penetration nor power that the M1 Garand had. And pleny of men in Korea found the M1 Carbine froze up in the very harsh winters.

If you want to limit yourself to a short range rapid fire weapon then I would pick the Carbine over the 11" POSCAR any day. At least the Carbine you would not kid yourself of it's power and the Carbine is pretty light weight.

Notice the 11" POSCAR gets a 77gr bullet at 2500 fps and the Carbine a 110 at 1970 fps. The 7.62x39 gets a 125gr bullet at 2400+. Now which is more powerful? No contest, is there. And we know the AK is far more reliable than any 11" POSCAR or even the M1 Carbine.

 

[Magnum88C]

You kinda beat me to it DJetAce, If I HAD to have a short, light, fairly short range weapon, the reliability of the AK would win over the ARpistol.

 

[Hard Ball]

"Godallmighty, fourteen 30-rounders. And I thought I was a "belt & suspenders" kind of person.."

The most I ever used in one action was 11. In this case the fighting consisted of a series of attacks and counter attacks.

 

[Garand]

Hard Ball do you have any thoughts on a comparison of the reliability in cold weather between the M2 Carbine and the Thompson SMG.

 

[Hard Ball]

There were two models of the Thompson SMG used by the US Army in WW2, the original M1928 and the simplified M1A1. Both were used in Korea. The !928 due to the complexity of the Blish lock and the 50 round drum magazine was less reliable than the M2 carbine, The simplified M1A1 eliminated the Blish lock and used 30 roubd box magazines and could not use the drum magazines was slightly more reliable than the carbine.

 

[DJetAce]

HB, was either M1 Carbine or Thompson (simplified version) as reliable in VERY COLD weather as the M1 Garand or BAR?

In fact take that a step farther, is the M1 Carbine as reliable as a AK in cold weather, or warm weather, or in any weather (I bet we all know the answer to that one.)

 

[Hard Ball]

HB, was either M1 Carbine or Thompson (simplified version) as reliable in VERY COLD weather as the M1 Garand or BAR?

In fact take that a step farther, is the M1 Carbine as reliable as a AK in cold weather, or warm weather, or in any weather (I bet we all know the answer to that one.)

The M2 Carbine and the M1A1 Ehomson were reliable in very cokd weather IF properly lubricated. THe M1 Garand requires less maintanence as long as the bolt lugs were kept lubricated with lubriplate. The only time M1 Garands were unreliable was when the bolt was exposed to prolonged heavy rain.
I have no combat experience with AK-47s so I cannot say. They ought to be reliable in cold weather, but I really don't kmpw.

 

[Garand]

Well Melvin, I now have a .30 caliber M1 Carbine!