I recently purchased this stock for my M1 and neither myself nor the previous owner has any knowledge of the red '48' that is on the butt of the stock. Any ideas?
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I recently purchased this stock for my M1 and neither myself nor the previous owner has any knowledge of the red '48' that is on the butt of the stock. Any ideas?
Its a Rack Number, not that uncommon. You will see them in all different configurations, colors ,etc
That's a good one...George Woody marked and Ogden rebuild. I'd love to clean that up a bit and see how it looked after.
Units used rack numbers because it was hard to find your serial in barracks racks, especially in dim light. The large painted number made it much easier.
The location of the rack number often depends on the type of rack or storage area used - most of the rifles that I saw in the A frame racks had the rack numbers painted on the handguard for quick identification - while wall racks might have the rack number located in the pistol grip area
Of note we still assign rack numbers to our weapons in the armsroom. The marking system is determined by the unit and there isn't a published standard. Some things never change.
Here is a photo of an M1 rifle rear handguard with the rack number carved into the wood