Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire M1 30 carbine for deer

I seem to remember my Dad saying that the M1 Carbine was issued to guys like him......he was in a howitzer unit, truck drivers, officers, essentially behind the lines people.....who were not going to see combat unless things went to hell and they got overrun. It was handier than a full sized Garand for people to at least have something if things went to hell while not having to tote a Garand day to day. I don't know that "countless enemies" fell to it.

I would not use either but I'd use a 223 every day of the week over a carbine.....simply because of the velocity and that fact that you can get good big game bullets for it. There is probably a reason you don't see pictures of deer on boxes of 30 carbine ammo.....but ya'll use what you want. These "how much is enough" arguments never get anywhere.

much better choices out there..........

hell even the 270........

Thanks for the responses, sentimental reasons were the primary reasons for hunting with it, its my aunts favorite rifle who if lucky is 5' tall and maybe 100 lbs. I know she's killed a bunch of deer with it, so I thought it would be cool to pay homage to her. Looking at the ammo in her clips it looks like standard ball ammo which I have no intention of using to hunt with. Honestly after I lost three fingers last month including my trigger finger I didn't have much of a urge to go hunting

Wow! Sorry to read that, Irving! Hope you are coping.

Your aunt wasn't just a decent shot, she was no doubt a good hunter too. That is, she got close.

And a bigger gun means that it'll wound at a longer range. He wounds deer with an '06 at 400 yds because he can't shoot and the 300 Mag allows him to wound them at 500+. They never tell you how many they wound at long range, do they?

I’m going to kill a deer with my .36 cal Bobcat CVA muzzleloader one of these days. Just to do it.

I have maxi bullets for it.

Barnes makes a 110 Tac-TX I always wanted to use on deer....300 Blackout

Haven't yet...these Ruger American's are a handy truck gun....

110 gr Nosler or Hornady V max shoot well inside 200 yds..coyotes

Long live the 300 BO !

Guys have been hunting deer for 70+ years with the M1 Carbine. Back in the 50s and 60s you could pick them up cheap. Even in the late 80's I was able to a few that came out of Korea for $125-$150 each. Clinton ended those imports.

In all those years, the general consensus of those hunting deer with the M1 carbine is that is marginal at best, and less than a perfect shot usually lead to an unrecovered wounded deer.

Broadside shot at less than 75 years? Yeah, it will work, but don't ask for much more from it.

On another note, I used to take my M1 Carbines to our 200 yard range and use the 10" metal gong as a target. With the issued open peep sights , I could hit the gong 7/10 times on a calm day. Fun, but no tack driver.

Honestly, hunt deer with something else and save yourself the frustration of tracking and losing a deer because you were under gunned.

One step above the AR-15 and that ain’t saying much!!

So what is your stand on, "These "how much is enough" arguments never get anywhere."?

What you are saying is indeed the intended purpose of the 30 Carbine when it was introduced.

The fact of the matter is that it was widely used by infantry and airborne troops in both theaters of World War II and Korea and beyond. As a result of its popularity and effectiveness, an official number of 6,121,309 of them were produced from July 1942 – August 1945 for the US military. That number far exceeds any other firearm produced for military use in WWII.

Why? Because many actual combat troops preferred it over the M1 Garand.

Is it an ideal deer rifle? No, but lets not trivialize it military importance to justify not hunting deer with one. I own two of them but I will probably will never hunt deer with one simply because I have other better choices at my disposal. That said, like Dan stated earlier,

How small a magazine are you looking for?

Five round:

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/543610

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Ten round:

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/543620B

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DIY magazine plug:

http://www.uscarbinecal30.com/forum/reducing-carbine-magazine-capacity_topic2561.html

Bruce

My dad used one in the Korean War. He didn't like the stopping power at all.

My Dad had an M1 with the stock cut down in the Sherman with him. Toward the end of the war, he had an M2 in same garb.

He was not behind the lines.

My 7yo killed his a nice buck with a 300bo I built for him, shooting those barnes.

Not so much a ballistics question...as it is an ethics question. Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should.

It means that if you're going to shoot a deer use a more powerful cartridge.
While the 30 carbine will kill a deer, it is marginal at best.

Riddle me this. If a .45 flintlock is suitable for deer...why not the .30 Carbine? Flinter has a slight advantage in projectile weight, but less velocity....is nostalgia deadly?

What a series of ridiculous arguments. What the .30 Carbine did in war has nothing to do with what it will do in hunting scenarios...hint: expanding bullets. Pick the right bullet and put it into the vitals from as far away as you can reliably hit them and the deer will die. Picking the right bullet is probably the hardest part of this scenario.

That ^ , and besides your pig hunting experience, there is always the .25-20 Jordan Buck argument too.

Being so armed, and being hungry, I would not hesitate to take the shot. Even with mine or Slummy's .36 Cal smoker.

But, I do have others I'd likely bring if I knew I'd be in that position.

Irving, I'd say go for it for sentimental reasons should you choose to.