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Apache Arms Carbine: A Saga of Compliance and Crappy Manufacture (Ad-free)
🕑 Added 2025-11-03 12:00:09 +0000 UTCThe Apache Arms carbine was a Thompson SMG lookalike that was made in small numbers in the late 1960s. It was the successor to the Spitfire carbine made by the same people, after the Spitfire was deemed a machine gun by the IRS. The Apache used M3 Grease Gun magazines and was chambered for .45 ACP. It uses a square receiver tube and many of the same cast parts as the Spitfire. It is a very interesting look at how the design was adapted to be legally considered semiautomatic.
Spitfire Carbine video: https://youtu.be/GHJ7OHzlFGg
Comments
FrugelViewer
I'm thinking if I wanted better quality, fit and finish I could find it in the Khyber Pass.
Dana Arbeit
At the very end you talk about price and availability in 1968. I was 19 years old then and there was very little on the market in what we now call PCCs or intermediate cartridge carbines. There were some M1 Carbines around. M1 rifles were hard to find and most were "rebuilds" as the military was still using them as training rifles. AR-15s were just coming on the market for civilian sales. If one wanted a handy carbine class rifle in a medium or pistol caliber, things like the Apache and a few others I can't remember, were all that were available. i love the choices we have now.
