What's the deal with Universal M1 Carbines?

[wingnut948]

I agree with Fate and K-101. My first carbine was a later model Universal with the 2 recoil springs and I had a lot of misfeeds.

I got rid of that one and got one of the IAIs with the "Made in Spain" receivers and it worked perfectly. It still wasn't the "real thing", so I sold that one and now I have an IBM and a Saginaw. The only time I ever had a misfeed with either one was when I reassembled a magazine with the spring in backwards. Go USGI and you won't regret it

[gun toting monkeyboy]

I have one. I got it because it was cheap, and I was a starving student. It runs just fine. My guess is that it is probably an older one. If you can get a GI or a new one, go ahead. Why risk getting a junky one?

[smle-man]

I watched a guy at the range on Monday shooting one; his jammed about every other round and he was using a screw driver to pry the fired cases out of the chamber. Looked like a lot of work to me. Universal carbines were known as bad news back in the 70s when I bought a Plainfield instead which worked just fine.

[kendog4570]

Some early Universals were close to USGI because they used a lot of scrap Govt. parts.
Good luck finding parts for one of the late production ones. They are total crap.

[buffybuster]

As stated, the early Universals were made mostly of surplus USGI parts and were pretty decent. As the surplus part % went down, so did the reliability. When they went to the two recoil springs and the stamped op-rod, those are the ones that gave Universal the terrible reputation.......for good reason. By that time, their design had diverged so far from the USGI that it's really another firearm.

[drummerdude1188]

By that time, their design had diverged so far from the USGI that it's really another firearm.

Mine has a metal top hg as well, not a wood one. looks like the heat shield on the mossberg 590's, with the holes. Just more deviation from the original. although i do kinda like the look of it (puts flame suit on)

[deadcoyote]

I had a universal. It was a jamomatic. To be fair to universal, I bought it heavily used for about $200 so who knows how many prior bubba mods or what-not had been performed on their product.