?'s about a 6.7 million Inland

[Ls6man]

No one is arguing "what if" as whether or not the handgaurd left the factory on that carbine or not..you nor I will truly ever know. Will I change it...who knows...if I want a "text book" rifle..then "yeah" but I have others for that...it is a solid rifle regardless. My whole point was simply that dismissing something based on it not fitting a book or what is commonly known or accepted is wrong.

Ever seen a Remington '03 marked "03a3?" I have..true transitional rifle...do the books even show it? "Nope"...yet know the guy well who sold it a few years ago and got a chance to inspect it..Stuff does happen as these were never meant to be "collectible."

As far as my comment...it was my opinion...and last I looked I was allowed to have one. If you didn't like it or it bothered you that much..sorry. BTW..I didnt take offense to your opinion...just how you presented it. We can agree to disagree.

[Johnny in Texas]

Nothing is ever 100% in this type situation but i'm sure anyone could theorize a way an Underwood barrel got on a late inland or anything else for that matter. What if the production manager at Inland needed to get one more carbine made to get a big bonus and they were short one hand guard so he went to the testing range and removed on from a test gun that was sitting in a rack not being used. That could have happened but is very unlikely. We will probably here that story repeated sometime in the future as well as many other theories.

[jimmyzwei]

and they were short one hand guard so he went to the testing range and removed on from a test gun that was sitting in a rack not being used. That could have happened but is very unlikely.

Actually the scenario is not that far fetched, just being able to prove it to provide provenance is.

While manufacturing Howitzers, I have actually directed that parts be removed from a test gun to be used to make the monthly schedule of a new production gun (18 months of "on time" delivery record at stake). Parts were replaced on test gun the next week, but had we waited for them we would not have made the previous months delivery. Now proving that it happened is another story, which is why it happened in the first place.