Watch Your "Brass"

By Dick Culver

(A version of this was originally published in the April 1998 Edition of the CMP Newsletter "The First Shot")

     Here’s a tip once well known to all the old time M1 shooters. I personally learned this lesson at Parris Island so many years ago, I won’t bother to mention the actual date (ahem…). Many a Marine Recruit got lumps on his head when he insisted (to his disbelieving Drill Instructor) that he had cleaned and lubricated his faithful "M1 Gun" properly even though his ejected brass was flying well off to the right and to the rear.

     A properly lubricated M1 will almost always eject the brass to the 1 – 2:30 (o’clock) position of the shooter (the direction of the muzzle indicating 12:00 o’clock). The dirtier (and less well lubricated) the rifle becomes, the further to the rear the brass will be thrown!

     This allows you to perform a sort of self-diagnostic analysis if your rifle seems to be acting up. Before you head for the armorer in a state of panic if you are having trouble with feeding, extraction or ejection, be sure to "check your brass"!

     This little truism may well have gotten lost in the "mists of time", but for the dedicated "M1 Gun aficionado", it’s a piece of trivia well worth remembering.

NOTE: For those of you wondering what the best lubricant for the M1 is, remember that in the jungles during WWII, the M1s were occasionally locking up during torrential downpours. The "fix" turned out to be a marvelous lubricant called "Lubriplate". This pale yellow stuff was issued in little "itty-bitty" plastic containers that would fit in the butt well of the M1. Lubriplate is still one of the all time great lubes and is available from Brownells (among other places). My personal favorite is a lube that came along in the latter days of the M1 (and also works great on the M14/M1A). The stuff is called "Plastilube". It's a dark brown lubricant (originally issued in the same "Lubriplate type container") that is sorta' like "Lubriplate with steroids" and would be my lubricant of choice for either rifle. This is absolutely fantastic stuff, won't wash off in the rain and lasts longer than it should be expected to. The only source (that I am personally aware of) for "Plastilube" is from Scott Duff (check his page out from the Gun Talk Links).