Ok, from what I can tell here's what I see.

The reason the stock looks funny is there is no handguard on the rifle. The stock is low wood, and handguards are easy to find.

The front sight has had it's ears ground off. Front sights are an easy fix, and the part is available. I have the tool to take it off, so if you buy the rifle I'll lend it to you.

I can't see a single stamp on the stock, but it might just be the bad photos. The stock appears to be real.

Both the rear sight and trigger housing are early production and don't appear to have been upgraded. An M1 carbine with the original rear sight is a rare thing because when the rifles went through a rebuild the rear sight was replaced as a matter of course. All manufacturers switched to the adjustable rear sight before the end of the war, some sooner than others.

The push button safety was a wartime switch, with all rifles getting the new rotating safety and they were worked on at depot level. Troops were confusing the push button safety with the magazine release, and it was causing problems in combat.

No bayonette lug on the barrel band. This would match the flip rear sight and push button safety as Winchester was a bit behind other manufacturers in making running production changes to their carbines. This also indicates the rifle never went through a depot level rebuild.

As the drawings were modified to take reflect wartime modifications, manufacturers used up whatever stock of older parts they had on hand. It's generally acceptable because of depot level maintenance to find newer parts on earlier production rifles, but you almost never see early parts on late production guns. The general rule is a 90 day window from the date stamp on the barrel, if there is one, because they were building these guns to equip an ever expanding military, and no one wanted to stop production waiting for parts. Sometimes older parts made it back into production because they were what was on hand.

Not all manufacturers made all the parts in house. Some never made barrels and some were slower or faster in adopting the newer parts into production. Much of this is known and documented, but the M1 carbine is an extremely complicated collectors field, and once you think you've see it all something pops up and confuses everyone. You won't know how much Winchester is in that rifle until you get it home and take it apart.

Bottom line is buy that gun! It's worth far far more than what's being asked.

Thanks for the info.
Yes, I noticed the front sight ears and thought they were missing, but knew nothing of the rear sight.

There’s still 10 days until the auction. We’ll see if people wake up and bid the hell out of it.

My fun money is a bit low at the moment due to my ankle surgery back in April. But, maybe it could still be a good deal.

quote:

posted June 12, 2020 07:13 PM Hide Post
No date on the barrel?

Barrels are a tough way to date those firearms. Used in rough conditions with corrosive ammo at times the barrels were routinely swapped out. .

quote:

Originally posted by rscalzo:

quote:

posted June 12, 2020 07:13 PM Hide Post
No date on the barrel?

Barrels are a tough way to date those firearms. Used in rough conditions with corrosive ammo at times the barrels were routinely swapped out. .

I agree to a point. I don't believe US GI .30 carbine ammo were ever corrosive.

C-Dubs, thanks for the link. It’s not bad, I did email you back. Forgot to mention the missing parts, like the handguard, and the front sight wings. Depends on the price it will go for.
SgtGold gave good info, I’ve just recently gotten re interested in the carbines and garands, so am learning as I go.

quote:

Originally posted by Windhover:

quote:

Originally posted by rscalzo:
Barrels are a tough way to date those firearms. Used in rough conditions with corrosive ammo at times the barrels were routinely swapped out. .

I agree to a point. I don't believe US GI .30 carbine ammo were ever corrosive.

Correct. Because there wasn't a way to easily disassemble the gas tappet assembly for cleaning, all US .30 carbine ammo was noncorrosive from the start.

But there were a few countries, like France, China, and the Dominican Republic, that did produce some batches of corrosive .30 carbine ammo.

I want to thank everyone for their replies and information given.

Pretty amazing to be able to narrow the production time down to a roughly 3 month time period from 76 years ago.

The wealth of knowledge here continues to impress me.

We'll see what happens in the run up to the live auction date later this month.

C-Dubs, good luck! I’ve always found good info here myself, this place is full of helpful people. Keep us posted if you bid, and hopefully win!