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Well, I got another one of those wild hairs. I bought a nice little Camp 9 thinking I could use it for carbine matches instead of my AR since Ammo and reloading components are like Unicorns. I would have switched to my M&P 15-22 , but .22lr is like a myth. Soooo, why not spend way too much for a 14 year old carbine, and then win auctions on 4 30 round mags and 2 20 round mags.????

The irons were accurate, but with my vision, they were hard to aquire, the rear seems really low. I bout a rail mount and installed an old red dot Center Point scope I had in my drawer. HOLY smackers Batman ! She drills holes like a bolt gun at 25 yards. Haven't had time to try farther out yet. She needs a trigger job badly, so I'll look at that soon. Luckily I read about the old buffers being brittle, so I changed the buffer and spring. SHe shoots like a .22 however the "whack" down range is much sweeter.

I let a 71 YO retired Marine Colonel shoot it this evening, and he drilled the centers out of every target he shot at. He said, "that's a very interesting piece of machinery, very powerful"...

I know if there aren't pics it didn't happen, I'll see if I can get some.

Anybody else have one of these?

Sweet, good story Seabear. Congrats on the new carbine.

Sweet non-EBR carbine. Back when the first came out, I had a second generation S&W 659 and wanted the Camp 9 because it takes the same magazines as the early S&W double-stack 9mms. Never did get one, though, since it wasn't quite high enough on the priority list at that time. Enjoy....

had one for years, sold it without ever firing it, had the long mags for it too, probably sold it too cheap like I did most things

RPB wrote:had one for years, sold it without ever firing it, had the long mags for it too, probably sold it too cheap like I did most things

I think I have only owned one gun in my life that I sold without firing it, and that's because I bought it to get the holster. LOL

Nice rifle.

I think I am going to remove the sights.

That goofy red, hooded front sight sticks out and the hood slides off.

Here she is without the sights. I like the profile MUCH better

Did you look at any other type of 9mm carbines prior to buying this one? I have heard about the buffer issues too, glad you corrected it before anything happened. Do you think it is rated for +p ammo? It is pretty and glad to hear it runs good.

To be honest, I had looked at a couple and almost bought a Hi-Point which was about half the price of this fine weapon. You know what they say, "sometimes they just speak to you", and this one did. I really wasn't looking for a 9mm carbine, however I have started enjoying our local carbine matches...using my AR. I don't have 10,000 rounds stored up, and reloading supplies for .223 are hard to come by as well. (Heck reloading supplies for 9mm aren't a whole lot easier.) The fact remains that loading for 9mm will cheaper and easier than loading for .223. I will still load for .223 , however I can load 9mm on my Square deal at the rate of 400-500 an hour and .223 on a single stage is a bit more work.

I'm rambling, but let me add to the test report. I took it out to our steel challenge practice tonight. It was flawless with factory ammo and then I switched to my new load for 9mm (3.7 grains of Clays under a 115gr Berry's) All I can say is WOW, way too much fun.I might could reduce the load sincce out of the carbine it is screamin'. I let two other shooters take a couple runs with it and they were very impressed. One of them is one of our fastest shooters, and he ran it almost as fast as his M&P 15-22(with factory ammo), and then refused to shoot it any more because he said he was afraid he would have to buy one.

So...the point is I LOVE IT!

It is going to be one of my favorites.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I installed the 16.5 lb. spring and have a 21 lb coming. Supposedly either can take +p, however I would bet the 21lb would be better suited. I will try it out when it comes, but I am thinking my reloads will like the 16.5 better.

Great to hear. How bout some accuracy tests? Maybe 25 & 50yds?

Back when these things first came out, they had a .45 ACP version of it too, and I badly wanted one. I never did get around to buying it because what I REALLY wanted was a M1 Carbine—of which my son gave me a nice example for Christmas 2011. Anyway, different calibers, but the Camp Carbine and the M1 Carbine are really just different iterations of the same kind of idea: a light carbine chambered in a pistol caliber........in the case of the .30 Carbine cartridge, something that is in the neighborhood of a .357 magnum.

I bought an extended mag for the camp .45 but never got around to buying the gun in .45 either.