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M1 Carbine - repro parts


jim_mi
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Hi Guys,

Can anyone tell me about what year repro parts started pouring in to the US for the M1 Carbine? I see so many parts, so cheap, that they must be repro.

 

Thanks,

jim_mi

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Huey - thanks for the heads-up on the carbine collectors club, neat site.

 

Garandy - thanks for the info. Unfortunately that means repro parts have had time to "age", so some will appear more authentis. Too bad...

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I was stationed in California in the Mid 80s and a guy used to sell parts at the big shows. His name was synonymous with repro parts even back then.

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I was stationed in California in the Mid 80s and a guy used to sell parts at the big shows. His name was synonymous with repro parts even back then.

 

Does he live by the "Side of a River" in California?

 

That guys been at it a hot minute.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

George has been at it, like L&S supply for well over 40+ years. Many US commercial carbine makers (60's) were making parts for their 'GI' versions. Now China supplies the bulk of them to guys like George and L&S. Some guys are really skilled at cooking modern knock offs to look like 70+ year old parts.

Best thing to do is send us a link or picture to The Carbine Collectors Club or over to Milsurps M1 carbine forum. The letter size and font is getting to be near perfect. But matching the milling work of the 40's with todays tools is a different story. We still have a bag of tricks to spot fakes. Including the fake cartouche.CC stamps.

Don't overlook the weight of original parts vs new/repro/fakes.

 

Cheers

Charlie-Painter777

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Related to this, I have heard L&S has a lot of repro stuff, so how does that relate to the book that they sell on carbines? Is the owner of L&S the author of the book? Is the book reliable as a guide? 

 

I guess I am always reluctant to own books written by people who produce and sell fakes...

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EmperorWangDong
12 hours ago, MWalsh said:

Related to this, I have heard L&S has a lot of repro stuff, so how does that relate to the book that they sell on carbines? Is the owner of L&S the author of the book? Is the book reliable as a guide? 

 

I guess I am always reluctant to own books written by people who produce and sell fakes...

Yes, the owner wrote the book and it features fake parts.

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Yuri Bezmenov

I recently replaced a bunch of parts on a Winchester carbine I purchased back in September. It was an early spring tube receiver gun with a serial number just under 1 million, 27 thousand. As I understand it, Winchester serial numbers started at one million so it was one of the first 27K Winchesters made. Anyway, it was a "mix master" carbine that had undergone an overhaul by Underwood at one point, I believe. It had all sorts of different manufacturers parts in it. It also had the stacked & brazed Type 4 trigger housing that I'm really not a fan of. Stock was in what I would call average condition but had two small holes drilled into the left side of it close to the bolt. The finish and bore looked good but the stock had definitely seen better days, probably owing to the fact it had been given out as surplus to a local police department sometime in the late 50's or early 60's - or at least that was what I was told.  

 

It was also giving me fits with lots of failures to extract and failures to eject when I finally took it out to shoot it. I can't abide a rifle that doesn't function properly so I decided to start replacing parts on it. This is the part of this long-winded post that finally gets around to the topic of fake parts. 

 

I don't think I really have to worry about any fake parts since I decided to overhaul it with all of the late production parts that would have gone on an M2 (minus all the naughty parts, of course). I actually like the looks of the M2 with the potbelly stock, round bolt, 30 round mag, bayonet lug, 4 rivet upper hand guard, etc. Plus I collect Cold War stuff rather than the WWII stuff so I decided to make it into a M2 clone like the ones that were used by the ARVN and US advisors during the early part of the Vietnam war. 

 

So, I set about buying the parts for it. I bought a walnut M2 stock for it from Numrich which was listed as "fair/good" but turned out looking like new (after I scrubbed the years of filth off of it and slathered it with Raw Linseed Oil). The stock didn't have a cartouche on it anywhere but it did have "A4" stamped on the left side which best as I can tell means it came from Anniston, Alabama. I also has a big "P" stamped on the pistol grip. I bought a firing pin and extractor (both new) from Numrich, as well. I got a NOS Underwood round bolt body from APEX Gun Parts. It was wrapped in that weird stiff cloth material and packed full of cosmoline when it arrived. I also got a Type 6 Inland slide assembly from APEX. It was listed as "used" but I thought they had made a mistake and sent me a new one until I found an old slide stop spring crammed up inside it that I had trouble removing. The remainder of parts I bought - including a Type 6 Inland trigger housing - were from a reputable seller on Gunbroker that goes by the username "81mm". I've heard good things about him so I wasn't worried about buying any "fake parts" from him. He did have a few "non USGI" M1 Carbine parts listed for sale but he made sure to clearly list them as such. 

 

Anyway, point being is that since I was buying late production (and several NOS) surplus M2 parts that would probably be the least desirable Carbine parts out there I wasn't really worried about them being fake. I could be wrong, but if someone was taking the time to make phony M1 parts, I would assume they probably wouldn't waste their time making M2 flip-type safeties and M2 mag catches with the extra lug. I would probably be on the lookout for parts like push button safeties, checkered safeties, flip-type rear sights, and early type barrel bands. If I had been out there trying to "restore" this thing to its original state the way it left the Winchester factory then I definitely would have put more time and scrutiny into the parts I was buying. But again, since I was putting the absolute latest production parts I could find on this thing to make it look like a Vietnam era M2, I really didn't worry an awful lot about buying fake parts. 

 

I also didn't purchase anything from "Van Down by The River" guy - though I did run across his website while looking for parts and thought his stuff was outrageously priced. I felt confident buying the parts I got from the places I got them. Numrich, APEX, and Mr. Yuja (81MM) have all got pretty solid reputations and aren't really known for pushing fake Chinese M1 Carbine parts on their customers to my knowledge. I have done business with Numrich and APEX for around 8 years now and have zero complaints about either. This was my first time dealing with Mr. Yuja on Gunbroker, but again, he appears to have a very solid rep on all the boards when it comes to the Carbine parts he sells. 

 

After installing all of these parts (none of which required any fitting), a brand new set of Wolff springs, and polishing the chamber up a little bit,  this thing runs great now. A couple of weeks ago I put 100 rounds of Sellier & Bellot soft point through it without a hitch. It's a handy little rifle and I have always wanted one since my grandfather was issued one when he was deployed to Europe during WWII. 

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