m1 carbine slide is stuck

[rugher]

hey all!! i recently bought a m1 carbine, universal, a couple of weeks ago, took it to the range, and at first the slide did not go all the way forward, after hitting the charging handle a couple of times, it loosened up and shot fine, i like this gun alot. took it home, cleaned it and that was that. took it back to the range, and the charging handle stuck, and it was not ejecting the spent round, i had to do it manually. and then it got stuck again. i striped it, and found the it was getting stuck at the gas block, this was with no mag in it. its not the mag, its not the ammo, there is a tiny bump by the gas block, where i think its getting hung up on. has anyone run into this problem? i dont want to get rid of it, i like this gun, its accurate up to 200 yards. and its fun to shoot. please help. any ideas or suggestions? i will probably take it to a gunsmith to get this fixed.

[joem]

IMHO you should do a search on Universal carbines. They had operational problems and in some cases are down right dangerous. Good Luck!!

[rugher]

thanks joem, i have been talking, and researching about universal m1 carbines. down right dangerous? i have not heard anyone say that before. im just looking to see if anyone has run into this kind of problem before and what the solution is. the carbine shoots great, when the slide is not sticking...

[jimb]

If it is a 2 spring model, it does not have any of the safety features that the original GI carbines had built into them. It is possible for them to fire out of battery. And they had a whole shopping list of other problems.

[kcw]

What do you mean by "stuck" rugher? That the slide is jammed tight and will not freely move? Or that the piston in the gas block is not imparting enough energy into the front of the slide? If it's the latter, and you're dealing with the newer two spring model (stamped steel slide) you can remove the piston for cleaning (that's likely the issue) purposes by drifting out the pin which runs sideways through the gas block. You can then tap/drift the piston from the block which will then allow you to clean the internals, including the gas port that runs from the barrel and into the block. Note that the piston on these models is reverseable; put it in one way and the gun will operate in the normal semiauto fashion, put it in the other way and you have a manually operated, straight pull bolt action.
The piston/gas block/gas port are probably just carboned up from shooting. It should be noted however that there t was a bunch of corrosive Chinese ammo sold about 15 years ago. (stamped LC 52). If that stuff has been used in it you may also encounter some rust issues.