Has anyone out there got involved in "Sporterising" M1 Carbines? I just completed a conversion from 30 Carbine caliber to 45 Winchester Mag.. In addition to the caliber conversion, which I might add made one hell of a nice little deer gun, I also re-stocked it with a AAA fancy grade Mannlicher style stock, a high polish hot tank blue and 1.5-5 power scope. I am now working on my second conversion, a 221 Remington Fireball. Has anyone out there ever done this conversion or know someone that has? I am having "ammo feed" problems. I have seen this same conversion done before so I know its possible, I'm just not sure they did to correct the feed issue? If anyone has any ideas let me know, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks, Dan
When you say feeding problems are they extracting properly? Are they not fully going into battery? Are they going nose up and jaming? Are they reloads? When I started reloading for my ar15 I used the same dies as my bolt 223 and contender 223 Wouldn't feed in the ar which is a pws Found out I had to get a sb die for resizing sb means small base takes the bulge out closer to the rim. The shells would stick in chamber 1/4 inch from battery. Otherwise if your feed rails are good it should feed great. You can use a sb 223 die on your 221 as they are same basic size except length they both are based from the 222 you won't come close to shoulder at all. Kinda need more info. Could be a gas problem also Not enough or to much Spring pressure is important also.
As with the above, without knowing the exact nature of the feed problem makes for speculation. If jamming is the issue, look also into the magazine feed lips. They would have to be altered for the larger round.
Well after a close inspection and the help of a gunsmith we found the problem and corrected it by: 1. Opening up the magazine "Feed Lips". 2. Opening up the "Bolt Face", very slightly. 3. Use of a different bullet type. Originally using Nosler "Polymer Tipped" (factory loaded) 40 gr. bullets. Changed to Nosler "Hollow Points" again factory loaded but found the Hollow Points to be much shorter overall length. This shorter length allowed the bullet to chambered much smother, without any hang-ups (so far)! I only had one box of hollow points, 20, fired them all without a single problem, where is, the Polymer Tipped bullets were jamming about every 3rd. round. Not being set up to re-load it kind of limits what I have to work with, as I have been told going to a "Round Tipped", like you would normally see on a 218 BEE, would even work better on the Carbine Conversion. Now I can move forward on my next conversion, the 45 Winchester Mag Carbine. You guy's have a good day, Dan
Sounds like your going forward. Seems like the little things are what cause the most problems. Hope the 45 goes smoother.
Right now I have three, all three are WWII Military carbines. Two of the three are "custom", re-stocked, polished and blued and re-barreled too, one 221 Remington Fireball and the other 45 Winchester Mag., the third is still a 30 Cal. for now. As for having a 5.7 Johnson Spitfire, I do not, I did up a 221 Fireball instead. The Fireball is a more powerful cartridge but not a easy conversion where the 5.7 Johnson is a very easy conversion. Except for barrels and stocks, I do not use any aftermarket parts, the main reason being the aftermarket (non-military) actions/receivers are much weaker and may not handle the higher pressures created by the conversion calibers. You have to do a lot of looking and searching to find Military Surplus Carbines at a reasonable price, $500.00, or less, but they are out there, most having already been modified in some way making them not wanted by the collector. Have a good one, Dan
