My First Carbine

Yes, and let me reiterate that this Carbine shown was in excellent condition. Look at how little the finish is worn as proof. There's no wear from the bolt or slide like you normally see. The feed ramps have no discoloration wear through. Look at the left inside surfaces where the left bolt lug rides. Superb condition. No failure would be expected of a Carbine in this condition. And it failed the way Universal is known to. The same day I saw this one another one in identical condition with the same kaboom walked in the show within a couple hours. The owner said he bought it from his brother, and he fired 2 rounds through it but on the 3rd round it grenaded in his hands (and face). Fortunately he was wearing glasses.

Here's the cracked receiver again with some annotation and high lights. The weak spot is on the right side of the receiver where the slide cutout upper inside surface approaches the sloped top surface of the receiver that the bolt rides back and forth on. When you hear of a Universal kabooming it's frequently this with the bolt and slide breaking free and flying upwards or toward your face in general. No warning will be given.

One of the finest commercial receivers I've ever seen was a first generation Universal that even appeared Parked like a USGI model. I emailed Jim about it and discussed the barrel that a round was sticking in. He said they can still have an issue with the barrel over time and that this one was the product of two piece design sleeved into the rear section and the chamber was now fouled from this process. Instead of reaming the sl*g (forum has this word protected) migrating into the chamber Jim said to just replace it and have a nice commercial Carbine. In my layman's opinion the best commercial receivers are the first generation Universal, the Fulton forging and the Springfield forging. Everything has a life span. That one is shorter than the earliest Universal. Only get the earliest version.

If anybody wants this kaboom receiver below as a wall hanger buildup, you can have it for $37 shipped. It has to be transferred of course since it's not C&R and still complete and intact.

The actual point of the pictures is to show the result, and that it's not rumor, and it's not due to condition. How often do two identical firearms walk in a show by 2 diff people with identical KB? I've owned about 10 different makes of commercial.

That weak part breaking is the result of out of battery most likely. The out of battery issue is what everyone sites and it's specifically valid, but people don't seem to understand because you see them continually openly suggest that it's not a risk or theirs must not be at risk because they've shot it repeatedly and it's one of their best shooters. Sometimes it sounds like mysticism to them I think.

The stellar condition of this particular Carbine which has almost NO wear still grenaded anyway. If you have a working one of these I suggest you get rid of it while it works and before you end up with at best 200 worth of remaining parts after it happens. The second one that walked in that show wasn't as nice but he said something hit him in the face when it blew up. Identical problem. Same era of gun.

WB3 shows J as only parkerized. we now know there are blued ones.