Milsurp After Hours

Actually it's the parts from his IAI carbine migrated to the 1943 vintage barrelled receiver that arrived last week from the CMP.

My .30 Carbine Forster field gage arrived from Brownell's today so we tried the bolt from the IAI in the inland receiver. The bolt will close on a round of ammo but does not come close to closing on the field gage.

The barrel appears to be in good shape and a round of S&B shows the same amount of bullet when placed in the muzzle of the Inland barrel as it does in the nearly new IAI barrel.

The carbine is now all USGI except for the stock and I have about $475 in it.

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Yes, I know that the loading bench is trashed again.

A few years back I got bit by the carbine bug. As many of you know almost 6 million of these fine weapons were made. Mine as stated was a saginaw sg carbine that had been made about 1943. At one point in its life it was sent to korea. Then making its way to the sates had arlington blue sky stamped on its barrel. The stock was nothing to write home about and wood have served to make a small fire to boil your tea, At the same show I found a brand new birch stock and handguard that matched each oyher well.First time at the range shooting some ancient norma ammo I kept getting jams when feeding from the mag.Turns out there was aburr on the left feed rail, And also has stovepipes probably due to the acge of the ammo. Back at home I stoned down the burr and polished the area.Tests with fully loaded 15rd carbine magazines showed no more feeding problems.I replaced the gas pistom assembly and now she runs just fine, A lot of folks place great importance on markings on these little rifles. Muine may have the arlington stamped on the bbl, but there is a very readable winchester cartouche also on the bbl. I don't collect these rifles and do try to shoot as many as I can. Frank

Frank, I'm with you on this, I'm a shooter and competitor not a museum curator. I want a good, functional, accurate rifle and I don't particularly care if the parts match.

Face it, with US arms being designed around interchangibility the chances of getting an all original rifle are pretty slim unless you get one like the Greeks that CMP auctions periodically that hadn't left the crate since they were originally shipped.

I agree with you 100%. Most of all my mil surps are used except for the unissued but now fired yugo egyptian M48. Both myself and a very good friend shoot whenever we can and most times its a military rifle we bring along for some bench time. I have been to quite a few gun shows and it amazes me that the prices some dealers charge for some mil surp rifles.

My buddy is currently in oklahome doing the tulsa gun show. 11 acres of guns. I called him and he said that even cut down krags were going for $600 bucks. Jeeze, pricey for sure. Funny story about my krag, which was cut down with 25" bbl and shortened stock. Some years ago there was a tv movie "rough riders" with tom berringer playing teddy roosevelt. I was at our local range just after it came out. I told a friend about the movie and said there will be a bunch of guys out there looking for krags. No sooner than I had just said that then a gunsmith friend comes by and asks what I would take for my krag. But common sense prevailed and she is with me still. Frank

"...does not come close to closing on the field gage(sic)..." It's fine. The bolt should not close on a Field or No-Go. It should close on a 'Go'. What it does on a loaded round means squat. Go shooting.

Sunray, if I was cutting chambers I would agree with your point, unless, of coarse I was using a pull through finish reamer.

In this case loaded ammo tells me all that I need to know, that it will close on SAAMI spec ammo and milspec ammo. Since it closes on 3 types of commercial and 1 type of military I am confident that the chamber is at least minimum length and the field gage tells me that it is less than maximum.

Nice looking carbine!

My early Winchester. I'd like to swap off the later sight for an early one but I'm afraid that the staking marks would be too obvious.

This little gun is one of my favorites. It can shoot the tail off a gnat at 50 yards ! (Do gnats have tails?)

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Nice looking rifle!!

Maybe Santa will bring me one of those M1 stocks. I like the look of them over the M2.

looking good , i love these little rifles , my friend has become convinced he has to have one since shooting mine but he has this fetish about winchesters so ive told him to prepare for a search and brace for the price

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this is my national postal meter [my friend loves it but cant understand my wanting a rifle with such a name - if only he knew]