Quality Hardware question for the experts

[ncblksmth1]

Sunray:

I have a question about your "No "all correct" " quality hardware carbines. If Quality Hardware only made Receivers and all other parts were farmed out, would it not be a correct carbine if all the part's markings were of Quality Hardware sub contractors? All Quality Hardware made maybe not, but all Quality Hardware assembled in my estimation would be correct.

Bob

[Johnny P]

Exactly. All the manufacturers farmed out parts to subcontractors. If the logic is used that if all the parts were not made by the manufacturer that the Carbine is not original, then none of them would be original.

[jimb]

One of the biggest problems with subcontractors is that not all of them are known. Just because a particular maker is not known to have supplied parts doesn't mean that they didn't or that the parts were not sent over form another maker to keep the line moving when supplies of a particular part ran short.

[m1911a1]

On method to check, but not fool proof, is to look at the length of the barrel skirt. A long barrel skirt "may" indicate that the barrel was not replaced as it was practice to grind down long skirts when in refurbishment. (Assuming it was an early barrel with long skirt to begin with…) I have one such Quality H.M.C. from May 43 w Inland barrel.

[jimb]

Be careful with that too. Sometimes barrel skirts were damaged in shipment and were ground down in order to be used anyway. Since it really made no difference in the proper operation of the carbine, later barrels were just made with shorter skirts. So a short skirt may have started out longer. IF the skirt is long, that is one thing and is fairly definitive. But if the skirt is short, that doesn't prove anything.