Hey Lrcdmnhd72,
It has been more than a year since I saw this film and posted this thread, and now I can hardly remember that much about the film. That might be the good part about getting old and forgetting everything. I can read a book or see a film tonight, and three months from now I can read that book or see that film again, and it will be almost like seeing it or reading it for the first time.
As I recall, Arthur Franz played the shooter, and I seem to remember his using a rifle that somewhat looked like an M1 Carbine. I also seem to remember something about the rifle that made me doubt it was an M1 Carbine. I am quite familiar with the M1 Carbine, but if I remember correctly, he took the barrel out of the receiver as a take down model. I certainly could be wrong, but I doubt that any M1 Carbine would be used for a take down sniper rifle. The M1 Carbine barrel is very tightly screwed into the receiver, and I never heard of any take down variations in that rifle.
I know you can mount a receiver scope on an M1 Carbine, and the scope certainly could be detachable, but I just cannot believe anyone would go to that trouble to use the M1 Carbine as a sniper scope. Unlike the M1 Garand which fired a 30-06 cartridge, the lowly little M1 Carbine used a .30 caliber straight-walled case, and it was essentially equivalent to a pistol bullet. It had very little recoil due to the small cartridge it used, but the M1 Garand with its big 30-06 cartridge also did not have very much "felt" recoil, thanks to the gas operated system which absorbed the majority of the actual recoil.
I had one M1 Carbine and three M1 Garands for many years and enjoyed shooting and reloading for them all. If I were in combat, however, I would much rather have the M1 Garand than the carbine. Both are .30 caliber, but the Garand with its 30-06 cartridge would be far more comforting than the carbine. They are all fun to shoot, however, and I must admit to having some seller's remorse after parting with all of my guns.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile
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dannieboy20906
8 years ago
Hello, Gentlemen;
I hope I'm not butting in. Just my two cents.
I think they used an M1 Carbine because it looks exotic. The bad guys (Thrush) used a modified Korean War vintage M2 with the night time infrared scope in The Man from UNCLE tv series. In reality it would make a poor sniper (long distance shooting) weapon as David Wile stated. The muzzle velocity is low for a rifle (less than 2000 fps), the bullet is round nosed (designed for subsonic flight and will slow rapidly), and has a low impact energy. It penetrates well at shorter ranges because of bullet mass (110 grains). But the shooter will need to be within 100 yards to get a tight group. After all, "one shot, one near miss" is not quite the right motto.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
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dannieboy20906
8 years ago
I noted that the receiver group has also been modified. It is no longer capable of magazine fed semi-auto or full auto firing. It must be loaded with single rounds through the ejector port, which also seems to have been modified, enlarged to permit easier single round loading. With that much work on the receive, it seems likely that the barrel connection would also have been modified, and he does do all of his shooting at relatively (<100 yards) short range.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
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davidwile
8 years ago
Hey folks,
As noted in my last post of 28 Oct 2015, I saw this film in September 2014, but I no longer remember very much about it. My memory banks are rather sad I am afraid.
I seem to remember at first thinking it was an M1 carbine, but then noticed the shooter removing the barrel. A stock USGI issue M1 carbine would not have a barrel capable of being removed except with the proper barrel vise, barrel wrench, and a good deal of effort. That is probably the main reason I doubted the rifle was a "regular" M1 carbine.
If I read their comments correctly, both Lrcdmnhd72 and Dannieboy20906 also seemed to think it was an M1 carbine, albeit modified in some way. Considering this was a rather low budget film, I doubt they would have spent any bucks on "creating" a new rifle for the film. I suspect they grabbed whatever rifle they could find in the studio prop room. Someone saw this rifle, whatever it is, and thought it looked "exotic" as Dannieboy noted, and thought it would look great in the film.
Thanks for your comments. At least I am not the only one who had at least some confusion with this rifle.
Best wishes,
Dave Wile
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