A Quiet Camp Carbine!

By Alan Clay

Years ago, the .45 ACP was the favorite of Target competition with the Colt 1911 pistol. It’s also highly respected as a defensive caliber. When Marlin came out with the Camp Carbine in .45 ACP many jumped at the chance to have one. It wasn’t too expensive and it was so much fun to shoot. It had excellent reliability and would function with any rounds from 230-grain jacketed bullets to 200-grain and 185-grain lead wadcutters. It was a popular choice to hunt jack rabbits out on the plains. It was highly effective on coyotes, wild boars, and turkeys too. Sadly, the Camp Carbine is no longer made by Marlin. Both calibers were discontinued in 1999. They used to have the 9 mm Luger version too. Both were fun rifles to shoot. Fortunately, there are a quite a few of them on the used market.

In Arizona, Doug Melton, the owner of SRT Arms (**srtarms.com**) developed the Quiet Camp Carbine in 45 ACP with an extremely effective full barrel-length suppressor. I first discovered it at the SAR West Gun Show in Phoenix, AZ. The suppressor has a 1.5 inch diameter and is about 18-inches long, a little more than length of the original 16.5-inch barrel. The micro grooved barrel inside the suppressor is shortened to about 12- inches. It also is ported to allow gases to escape into the rear part of the suppressor.

Shooting the suppressed rifle is a pleasure because ear plugs are not necessary at all. The suppressor is extremely effective, and amazingly quiet. SRT Arms says the integral Camp 45 metered at 119 db with commercial Winchester white box 230-grain round nose jacketed ammo, when new. The setup was metered with the Larson Davis labs 800B meter and ¼-inch mic according to Mil-Std 1474D. The rifle, with its micro groove rifling, is capable of grouping about 4-inches at 100 yards when sighted with an 8X scope, but the Bushnell TR-25 ultra compact red dot is much more fun to use. The original Marlin wood stock was wonderfully comfortable but, later, Choate Machine Tool came out with a folding stock that made the rifle more compact for hiking and camping.

Making a Quieter Camp carbine

As the Suppressed Camp Carbine fired, the cycling of the action makes a significant noise, too. I came up with an idea to make a Quieter Camp Carbine. This little device slides into the action just behind the bolt and is held in place with a small, but strong, magnet. When you fire the rifle, it blocks the action and keeps the bolt from cycling. The shot is much quieter. Of course, you need to pull the blocking device out and cycle the action by hand for the next shot. It’s very quick and simple to do.