Finally finished a project! M1 Carbine Early with AO receiver

[Smokeeaterpilot]

Hey Guys,

I wanted to throw this up so see what you all think. Posted a thread when I first bought this a couple years back. I initially just wanted to replace the bolt but then started to look into replacing most major components which got increasingly frustrating. I know I'm not fooling anyone that you will be able to tell it's a "put-together" but I if you see what I started out with and what it looks like now. Doesn't look half bad. Tried to breath new life into it. It's my first major overhaul. I don't know if I'll attempt another one. But wanted to see what I was able to do.

Let me know what you think.

The first few shots were what I had to start with. Essentially a "complete" M1 Carbine that had no correct parts. The barrel was import marked. The stock was a late war low wood (covered with like a polyurethane), the Bolt was an early flat Winchester (in the white). But it was an early IBM A.O. stamped receiver which is one of the rarer marked M1s. And it was "cheap" relatively so I thought I'd take a chance.









The reason a couple shots are doubles. I'm no photographer so I wanted to take a couple in different lighting to try and show the color of the wood best I could.

Next several shots are what I ended up with. Most major parts have been corrected. Found a Highwood early IBM stock (it has been cleaned with Homer Fromby's Furnature refinisher then some boiled linseed oil BUT NOT sanded which is key). I found a nice IBM barrel, the rear sight is correct flip type IBM rear sight. The trigger assembly is Inland but 90% of the IBMs I have found all had Inland trigger groups so that might actually be the original. It has the correct push type safety. The hand guard is actually not even the hand guard that came with the stock but I think it matches perfectly, I found the hand guard about 4-5 months ago and got lucky that it matched. My IBM flat bolt just came in and it looks to match almost perfectly. Slightly off but really tough to tell.

First project I've "finished" and I don't know if I'll invest anymore into it. But pretty happy with how it turned out. Considering what I started with. Not sure if the buttplate is IBM, probably not but it's close. They didn't mark their buttplates you have count the rows and match them up by style.

Pretty happy with it but it was a frustrating project. Just because early parts are so hard to come by.

[Smokeeaterpilot]

I also really liked the receiver because it has a "L" in the serial number. A local gunshop owner who has about 75 various M1 carbines in his collection told me that probably a number "1" stamp broke and before they could replace it instead of stopping production they just used a letter "L" in the mean time. Don't think it hurts or helps the value but kinda neat story behind it. I'm not sure if that's true or not though.

I'd welcome any opinions out there.

[joem]

Much more better. I like it. Good Job!

[EricR]

Great job, huge improvement.

[Smokeeaterpilot]

Yeah I just felt bad leaving it the way it was. Thank god I found all the parts. Never trade luck for skill.

[Tuna]

IBM did not use any Inland trigger housings during their production. And when your carbine was made Inland parts that were used were some firing pins in January 1944 and sears at the very end of production in April 1944. Your carbine dates to about February 1944.
You need a type 4 trigger housing marked BE-B, a type 2A magazine catch, type 3 safety and a type 2 sear marked GB.

[Underwood]

Nice looking carbine, but you should have checked with Tuna before gathering parts. The Man knows carbines and all their parts.

[Tuna]

While I know something's about carbines but I don't know all or even pretend to know. There is still just so much I don't know and no one does know. It's all on going education that I have been doing for many years and there are some who do have more knowledge about our little carbines then I do but I'm catching up to them and some of them have been wrong about something's just as I have been some times. There is so much we don't know yet but we're all trying to find it. I am more then willing to try and help anyone who needs it. Just ask and I will do what I can.

[jimb]

Plus we also know that there were many undocumented parts transfers. There is a series of IBM carbines that correctly sport Quality hmc rear sights. No documentation exists for this transfer but, there are sufficient numbers of original carbines with these sights to support their use.