I never knew such a thing existed - way too cool!
Thanks for sharing.

Neat rifle!!!

In 1968 the Chicago PD bought 300 Universal M1 Carbines and 400 Winchester 1200 shotguns. This purchase must go down in history as the worst ever made. The guns were issued to the Detective Task Force of which I was a member. The carbines fared slightly better than the Winchesters, but that is not saying much. In less than two years ALL of the above weapons were either totally inoperative, or so unreliable that they could not be issued.
The carbines were replaced by personally owned M1s (unofficially), and the Winchesters were replaced by Ithaca 37s, over 700 of them. They lasted for years and were eventually replaced by Remington 870s which would not slam fire.
The universals were a total disaster for the most part, parts would not interchange, factory purchased parts did not fit, and the guns were incredibly unreliable.
In the infamous shoot out the day the 68 democratic convention started, I used a GI M2 Carbine issued from the CPD armory. It worked well.
The gunfight happened at 0400 which allowed the mayor to declare "no one was killed" because it happened before the opening gavel fell.
The DOAs' name was Dean Johnson. The interesting part was that his partner in crime was one Bobby Joe Maxwell who later gained fame, or infame as the LA Slasher. He should have died too, but he dropped his weapon and we just would not shoot him. I was a young detective then, a couple of years later and Bobby Joe might not have been so fortunate.

quote:

Originally posted by CAPT29:
In 1968 the Chicago PD bought 300 Universal M1 Carbines and 400 Winchester 1200 shotguns. This purchase must go down in history as the worst ever made. The guns were issued to the Detective Task Force of which I was a member. The carbines fared slightly better than the Winchesters, but that is not saying much. In less than two years ALL of the above weapons were either totally inoperative, or so unreliable that they could not be issued.

The universals were a total disaster for the most part, parts would not interchange, factory purchased parts did not fit, and the guns were incredibly unreliable.

That's the two usual complaints about commercial M1 Carbines... Non-standard/non-interchangeable parts and unreliability.

The commercial carbines from nearly all of the wide variety of postwar civilian manufacturers tend to be pretty hit or miss. Some owners have had no issues with theirs, while some have nothing but problems.

That's why if you want a M1 Carbine, I highly recommend sticking to USGI M1 Carbines.

I suspect the OP's Vulcan specifically will fare better in reliability, being manually operated. But the parts problem will be even further exacerbated by their limited production and heavily altered design.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by CAPT29:
In 1968 the Chicago PD bought 300 Universal M1 Carbines and 400 Winchester 1200 shotguns. This purchase must go down in history as the worst ever made. The guns were issued to the Detective Task Force of which I was a member. The carbines fared slightly better than the Winchesters, but that is not saying much. In less than two years ALL of the above weapons were either totally inoperative, or so unreliable that they could not be issued.

The universals were a total disaster for the most part, parts would not interchange, factory purchased parts did not fit, and the guns were incredibly unreliable.

That's the two usual complaints about commercial M1 Carbines... Non-standard/non-interchangeable parts and unreliability.

The commercial carbines from nearly all of the wide variety of postwar civilian manufacturers tend to be pretty hit or miss. Some owners have had no issues with theirs, while some have nothing but problems.

That's why if you want a M1 Carbine, I highly recommend sticking to USGI M1 Carbines.

I suspect the OP's Vulcan specifically will fare better in reliability, being manually operated. But the parts problem will be even further exacerbated by their limited production and heavily altered design.

I've never heard anything good about the Universal, that's why I have a Winchester M1 Carbine.

I didn't realize the Winchester 1200 was so bad, I had a Defender in the 80s, no problems that I recall.

I had one of the little Ruger 44 carbines.....It was a very nice gun until a part broke.
I called Ruger and all they did was to inform me that they didn't support it and wouldn't even tell me who they had sold their spare parts to.
They pleasantly told me that I was out of luck and they would not help at all.
Some people call that "customer service" ?? And people wonder why I avoid Ruger whenever possible.
BTW.... Numerich Arms has/had lots of parts for the Ruger . Go to Numerich don't waste your time on Ruger.

quote:

Originally posted by mike28w:
I had one of the little Ruger 44 carbines.....It was a very nice gun until a part broke.
I called Ruger and all they did was to inform me that they didn't support it and wouldn't even tell me who they had sold their spare parts to.
They pleasantly told me that I was out of luck and they would not help at all.
Some people call that "customer service" ?? And people wonder why I avoid Ruger whenever possible.

Every gun company that's been around for a while has discontinued models that they produced a while ago, but which are no longer supported.

If you have a S&W Model 39 and a part breaks, S&W Customer Service will tell you "I'm sorry, but we not longer service those guns".

If you have a Colt Python and a part breaks, Colt Customer Service will tell you "I'm sorry, but we no longer service those guns".

If you have a Winchester 1907 and a part breaks, Winchester Customer Service will tell you "I'm sorry, but we no longer service those guns".

As you've discovered, with older model, long-discontinued guns, you're usually going to have to source parts yourself from a third party like Numrich, or find one that you can cannibalize for parts. That's not because that specific gun company sucks, or hates you as a customer. But merely because they cannot be expected to provide parts and services for every model of gun they've produced over their 50+ years in business.

If it makes you feel better, it's not just gun manufacturers. If you a part breaks in your 40 year old GE refrigerator, GE Customer Service is going to tell you ""I'm sorry, but we no longer service those fridges".

And if a part breaks in your 1972 Chevy Camaro, Chevy customer service is going to tell you "I'm sorry, but we no longer service those cars".

Then just like with your old Ruger, you'll have to find a third party fridge/car parts supplier with either old stock parts or new reproduction parts available, or find one in a junkyard that you can cannibalize for parts.

WOW...........

Ok...so I guess that I should be grateful that they answered the phone.....

Maybe they should have an expiration date that states when the company will no longer stand by their product....

Sadly, that date is "a year or two, maybe three, after we stop manufacturing the gun". Put it this way - once they stop building them, how long do you think it'll take them to use up or sell off any remaining parts?