We used M1 Carbines as jail rifles for a spell. They were bought by the BC Government from the Bulgarian Government after they were fed up with them.
I shot a possible with one of them at my first qualification, back in 79. That was amazing, actually, because I had no stoppages, while everyone else had stove-pipes with their rifles.
The funniest thing was they did not know how to clear them.
By the time I became an instructor, we only had the handguns (6" M10's (+ 4-model 1950's) and 12 bore Model 870's.
Fun guns, all.
I used a .38/44 Outdoorsman (allways possibles), until I had worked on 2 of the model 10's, triggers and actions for the 2 of us instructing. I just smoothed them up a bit and polished the bores. Never picked up a spec of lead, after that.
Actually worked nicer than those old model 1950 .38/44's.
The sight radius was a definite boon as well, over the 4"bl. on the Outdoorsmans.