Gun: Model 1000 Carbine
Manufacturer: Universal Firearms; Hialeah, Fla.
Chambering: .30 Carbine
Manufactured: c. 1968
Condition: NRA Excellent (Modern Gun Standards)
Value: $750
The United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1 was one of the most prolific firearms made in World War II, with more than 6 million produced. After that conflict and the Korean War, many returning G.I.s wanted one of the light, handy rifles they had carried in service for their civilian lives. The M1 carbine excelled at everything from plinking to self-defense to close-range, medium-game hunting. But until the 1980s, military carbines were still in active use and being distributed around the free part of the Cold War world. To meet domestic demand, the design was taken up by commercial manufacturers, who started building M1 carbines for the U.S. civilian and law enforcement markets beginning in the 1960s. More than two dozen commercial manufacturers have gone on to make several versions of the M1 carbine, including some contemporary ones.
One of these manufacturers was Universal Firearms of Hialeah, Fla., which started selling M1 carbines in the mid-1960s. Early commercial M1 carbines, including those made by Universal, used civilian-made receivers, but the majority of their components were G.I. surplus. During 38 months of World War II production, the individual components that comprised the M1 carbine had been subcontracted out to hundreds of companies. Initially, plenty of these parts were on the market in the post-Korean War era. As original-parts sources began to dry up, commercial manufacturers started making more of the rifle’s components themselves. One of Universal’s changes was to transition to a cast-aluminum trigger housing with a painted finish.
By about 1967 (around serial number 100,000), Universal redesigned the rifle so extensively, the result can be considered an M1 carbine in looks only, with few of its parts interchangeable with G.I. components. At this time, its official designation became the “Universal Carbine.” The way to identify carbines made after the re-design is by looking at the operating slide. Updated Universals have an exposed slot for the bolt lug, as opposed to the blind slot on G.I. rifles. The new slide lacked a bolt-hold-open device.
Internally, the rifles had two recoil springs instead of one, and a two-part gas piston. Many of these changes were covered by the company’s patent for a “combination manual and automatic bolt action for firearms,” so titled because the new gas piston could be rotated to close the gas port to allow for the rifle to be operated manually as a single-shot.
One of the most prolific of the commercial M1 carbine manufacturers, Universal would produce nearly half a million guns between the 1960s and 1986. The company’s catalog also included some interesting derivatives of the M1 carbine, including the pump-action .44 Mag. Vulcan, the .256 Win. Mag. Ferret, the cut-down Enforcer pistol and some stainless-steel models.
The rifle pictured is very early in Universal’s second generation of production and was manufactured around 1968. Its features were designated by Universal as the “Model 1000,” with its wooden handguard and lack of a bayonet lug. Starting in about 1967, Universal carbines came from the factory drilled and tapped for scope mounting on the left side of the receiver with the stock inlet for the optic mount. Originally, a thin, plastic filler block was included for use when a scope wasn’t mounted, but as with this rifle, that part was often lost. In NRA Excellent condition, this Universal Carbine is valued at $750.
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