Iver Johnson... Yay or nay?

[Faulkner]

I've owned a dozen Iver Johnson M1 carbines. I was fortunate enough to be aware of when Iver Johnson was going out of business after they'd moved to Jacksonville, Arkansas. I bought a number of Iver Johnson firearms at fire sale prices, including a number of carbines. Most of these would be the late production models and I can attest that they were of acceptable fit and finish and IJ parts were interchangable with USGI carbine parts. I took one mixmaster USGI Inland carbine I had and swapped all kinds of parts around with one of the IJ carbines and never had an issue with part interchangability or the function of the carbines with mixed USGI and IJ parts. The IJ receiver is not as good a quality as a USGI receiver, but the IJ is completely serviceable.

Although I have a good number of USGI carbines in my colleciton, I find I do a lot of shooting with an Iver Johnson and it's always the one I hand out when I take others to the range. I reload .30 carbine ammo and I've run hundreds of rounds through them without any more issues than one would have with a USGI carbine, and that's usually magazine issues.

Unlike some folks who poo-poo Iver Johnson carbines without any real hands on experiance, my experiance has been that they are an acceptably less expensive shooters than most USGI carbines these days. Oh, I much prefer USGI carbines like everyone else, and I probably would not have ever bought one (much less 12) If I'd not gotten them brand new on the cheap, but my experiance has not been the least bit negative with them as a functional firearm.

Here is the image of one of mine that's still new in the box that I bought about 20+ years ago.

[Tuna]

The military bought a large number of Plainfield carbines but not for the troops. It was for the DOD police departments on military bases around the country. When bases were closed the carbines went into storage and finally they went to CMP. Some base police departments may still have some in inventory.

[Allen]

The military bought a large number of Plainfield carbines but not for the troops. It was for the DOD police departments on military bases around the country. When bases were closed the carbines went into storage and finally they went to CMP. Some base police departments may still have some in inventory.

Years ago I bought a large quantity of Plainfield (mostly) carbine barrels from an individual. I asked him where the barrels came from, he didn't really know but had heard they were from carbines issued during the "Bay of Pigs" uprising. Strangely all the receivers he had were demilled and all Inland. There may not be any connection between the receivers and barrels though because he had no other parts in quantity.

[edlmann]

The flash suppressor is not a normal carbine accessory for any commercial or USGI carbine and was most likely added by a previous owner.

If you mean an M-14 type flash suppressor, I'd agree. See here for Bill Ricca's input on carbine flash hiders.

[edlmann]

I have two Plainfield carbines built from CMP receivers. Both receivers had military barrels and accepted GI parts. I believe some Plainfield carbines were returned with the Military Assistance Program rifles from South America. I think the receivers were the only non GI parts on the export carbines.

The military bought a large number of Plainfield carbines but not for the troops. It was for the DOD police departments on military bases around the country. When bases were closed the carbines went into storage and finally they went to CMP. Some base police departments may still have some in inventory.

Best guess about the Plainfield carbine receivers from El Salvador is that they originated in a pawn shop in South Texas and migrated south during one of the unrestful periods in the past.
As far as DoD buying Plainfield carbines for DoD police, I'd have to see some documentation on that one. When CMP sold carbine barreled receivers several years ago, the only provenance was that El Salvador returned them along with whatever MAP carbines they returned.

[gwp]

Best guess about the Plainfield carbine receivers from El Salvador is that they originated in a pawn shop in South Texas and migrated south during one of the unrestful periods in the past.
As far as DoD buying Plainfield carbines for DoD police, I'd have to see some documentation on that one. When CMP sold carbine barreled receivers several years ago, the only provenance was that El Salvador returned them along with whatever MAP carbines they returned.

On the way back machine https://web.archive.org/web/20060414...es/carbine.htm not much information was provided about the 176 Universal and 256 Plainfield receivers. All of these receivers, to include the commercial non-military Plainfield and Universal, were transferred to the CMP by the the US Army.

At $50 each, I ordered two Plainfields and a $225 'S''G' receiver that was in the IP serial range.