thebrassnuckles wrote:What caliber do you recommend? What gives the most power, while still keeping a good rifle life (no excessive stress cause by extreme recoil)
I would like something that would meet Cooper's definition of the Thumper, except the mag capacity, that isn't really feasible with M1 carbine mags.
My interest in the M1 is due to the fact that here in the PRK I can have detachable mags with a rifle like the M1, so low cap mags wont bother me too much, and I dont have to deal with a Bullet Button Can't use a button for rifling an already contoured barrel, assuming I understand your statement correctly. The barrel just expands out over the button and then contracts back to it's original shape, with no rifling pushed into the barrel, and besides there isn't enough barrel meat for these conversions, so a new barrel is needed and that M1c barrel is one of the most difficult to machine barrels, there is to do.
Two weeks after Cooper found out I was doing this he came to my shop, declared my conversion (then in 45win-mag) to the M1c, to be indeed "Thumper" and we became close friends in the following years. He'd come to my home to sleep on my couch, to get away from the telephone, eat my cooking, and to hang with some guys that just weren't doing the same old thing. After stepping up to Stoner's challenge, Col. Cooper finally wanted an AR converted my way, declaring the 45 Professional .."Thumper's Big Brother", and then actually saying that AR conversion went far further than he had hoped for, and it excited him to no end. I built the Col. one and he just adored it, he carried it everywhere he went for some time, before he became ill. You've got to remember, that the search for "Thumper went on for nearly 50 years, so he was way excited. He would always say, .."The man that developed the M16, deserved a special place in Haiti's".., but loved what I eventually did to that system, HECK, Stoner Loved what I was doing and bragged me up all the time.
Cal. Preference.. I love the M1c in 45win-mag, you do have to weld on mag release lugs, to the back of the magazine, or the sheet metal lugs will shear off (not true for the other cals) and tweak the feed lips. If capacity is desired, along with knock down aspects, then the 9mm win-mag is the ticket and you don't have to do anything to the mags. But for shear Horse Power the 475 Wildey is the way to go. You'd think that the 50AE would be the power house, but you'd be wrong. A strange thing happens when you hit 50 Caliber, it becomes less powerful and less efficient. If you take any 50cal cartridge and either neck it up some or down some, that cartridge becomes a way better killer, by far. I own an M1c in 50AE, but the 475 is by far a better weapon and the 45wm for it's bullet choices makes an extremely versatile rig. Heck I was putting an Armors sleeve into the chamber of the 45wm and shooting the 45ACP out of the 45wm carbine, talk about a plinker!
Cost? When I get back into them, I'll do maybe one hundred of them, I've got to do two in 41 rem-mag, so I might as well do 100 more in various calibers and cartridges. I think I want one in 480 Ruger, to go with my two inch 480 Ruger revolver. The 500 S&W is too long, but Corbon makes a special version of it and it will shoot in a standard 500S&W revolver to boot, of which I have two 4 inchers, guess I'll have to have another 50cal carbine, to keep those revolvers from getting lonely. My brother wants a 9mm win-mag and I'd like to convert a 30 carbine Ruger Black Hawk (
http://ruger.com/products/newModelBlack ... 10595.html), to shoot that nine, so one for him and one for me and two revolvers, unless some of you guys think you want some too, that really is a cool tool set-up and I like it for it's versatility, as in Capacity (12rds in a std 15rd mag), no magazine tweaking and I set them up to use any bullet from the 9mm, 357, or 358" diameter all going through a 9mm barrel, with no pressure problems, as long as you hold up your end of reloading safety and I've had that 147gr-FMJ-FP 9mm going well over 2000fps and that flat point just bowls over deer, I mean, cuts and wraps them too!! That conversion pair (9mm, m1c/revolver) will become my, .."take everywhere car gun", not the most powerful conversion I've done, by far, but more than enough power, to get any job done and capacity to boot, which makes this a very good trade off weapon. This is the weapon the US ARMY should have had in the NAM, things would have been far different, and the headaches, in that platform, were all worked out, two wars before.
So then, if Short and Light and enough power to stop any fight (The most powerful, light-weight, semi-automatic assault weapon, ever in the History of Warfare), is your gig, better step up, cause if all goes well, I hope to be building them yet this year or maybe over this winter, into next year, in other words, maybe in six months or more.
Price? Haven't figured it out yet and the conversion is extensive. I'd say, without really studying the numbers yet, that they'd be in the $1200-$1500 area and you supply the m1c?
Ok, a funny story. I built a gentleman a beautiful 45 win-mag M1c, he kept it in his safe. Seems two young boys broke into his house and stole the safe, they were 14 &15 years old. They got the safe outside and into the back yard, they were able to brake into it. The Cops came up one side of the house, to get into the back yard and the thugs went down the opposite side of the home, to get away from the Cops, where our thieves discovered the running and unoccupied Cop car. They jumped into the Cruiser, threw it into Drive and now the chase is on. So, visualize this, Two Kids, in a Cop car, being chased by dozens of other Cop cars. The bad guys decide they can shoot the Cop cars, to get them off their backs, now the Cops are in trouble and don't know it yet, because the 230gr Ball ammo at 2000fps plus, will indeed stop an engine block or Cops. So our hero's (sic) load the weapon and promptly shoot through the transmission of their own Cop car. The car comes to a screeching, sliding halt, having locked-up the Trans. The bad guys are so stunned by the blast in the car, that they were easily arrested.
Now, I did everything in the world to get that tranny, but it made it to the smelter before I could get to it. I wanted to hang that Transmission on my Wall, with a placard, made to look like an animal mount, to be displayed with the other trophies, but darn, no joy!!..t
Get one, shoot it first, if you don't like it, then tear it up. 
