Many throw rocks at the effectiveness of the .30 Carbine as a battle weapon. Obviously it is not a Garand, and was initially never intended to be used as a battle rifle. Its purpose was to arm rear area personnel (cooks, truck drivers, clerks, etc.) and officers as a more accurate weapon than a .45 Pistol. But it caught on. Audie Murphy used one all during his service, and he felt it was perfectly adequate for knocking over Germans. I once worked with a former Marine officer who hit all the beaches during the WWII island-hopping campaign in the Pacific, and he carried a Carbine the whole time. He once commented to me that he never shot a Jap who didn't fall down, and if he wasn't stopped, it was because an American Marine missed his target. Regarding grouping, the typical Carbine will throw 5-shot groups between 4" and 5" ES at 100 yards. Plenty good enough for it to be effective out to 200 yards. One weakness discovered in Korea was that it had reliability problems in very cold weather. Lots of stories came out of Korea about the .30 Carbine being unable to penetrate the quilted suits worn by the Chinese and North Korean troops. That's simply a falsehood - never happened.
