BR leaf sight

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

This sight has a BR leaf in a round S base that is not marked on the other side.
Maybe taken apart for a bad spring and just put back together from parts bins.
Shows pitting on edges, and marks by the pin.
Should I leave it alone? Comments welcome.

Information

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[dbarn]

Jim,

The leaf may be fine and possibly the base. However the pin is definitely suspect, casting doubt on the other parts and leading me to believe it's been put together. JMHO

[Bill Hollinger]

Jim, that sight looks very much like the sights ABCLiegh, Mitzi, No Guts No Glory or whatever the heck he goes by was selling a while back. It looks too repop to me.

[painter777]

That sight came off a carbine that was bought from the CMP.
NO question that both the leaf and base are real.
Look closely and you can see parts of the remaining round stake marks that were placed around the original pin/base.
We can only guess but the issue is how or why the pin got replaced. Leading one to believe the leaf spring was worn or rusted out. Another possibility is that the original leaf was damaged or might have had the 'V' cut on it that many GI's liked for better low light conditions. To fix the problem you wouldn't knock the base off but would knock out a Staked in Pin set a new leaf spring in and replace the leaf and spring. Knocking out a Original Staked Pin might have enlarged the opening making it impossible to replace it with a correct pin. This brings us to when this was being worked on...If at the DCM/CMP was there more than 1 carbine needing this same repair? Very possible...chance of the leafs getting swapped around? Very possible.
Remember the DCM/CMP wasn't concerned about making everything match....just that that carbine funtioned correctly-with in specs.

Another possibility may also be that's the original leaf sitting on that base, just with a replaced spring and new pin. I miss placed my copy of War Baby a year back but have it written down here that INLAND was getting both Flip sight bases and leafs from Underwood. Page 358 of War Baby states that Underwood supplied to Inland the following:
12-28-43....4000 rear sight leafs
4-3-44.......5394 rear sight leafs
4-3-44.......2233 rear sight assemblies

Who knows, the BR marked leaf might have been a parts transfer we don't have documented yet.
Remember the 1 flip sight and 2 bases I found in a dealers 5 gallon junk box?
The one complete flip had a rusted in half spring. To repair it I tapped the pin out and was amazed at the crud under it. Only after a hard wire brushing did I find a .U. stamped inside the bottom of the base. The leaf had no marking. Maybe this was one of the flip sight bases that Underwood sent to Inland. We haven't seen the inside bottom of the flip sight in question here...........who's to say it may or may not be marked on the inside. Since the pin looks to be a obvious repair/replacement, I would knock it out and look. But you guys know I'm crazy. Marcus once said I needed my fingers cut off!

Here are some pictures of the 3 flip sight bases I bought. The side view will show the one marked with the .U. inside on the left.
The picture of my original Inland 5,061,238 with barrel date of 3-44 shows the leaf stamped with a .U. I'm still too scared of Marcus to tap that pin out to see if that base is also marked inside with a .U.

Bottom Line- a replaced pin doesn't make this a repro.

Regards
Charlie-painter777

[Jim Long]

On my 50,000 s/n range Inland the spring or flipper is rusted to the point that it would flop around... I cut a .010" piece of shim stock & shimmed it.. The shim doesn't show so it's OK by me & good enough because it's a ratty but all Inland coded carbine that makes a dandy, looks like it's been in a war carbine. Just saying a thin little spring can get rusted and need replaced..

[Bruce McAskill]

Charlie I,m sorry but I have to agree with the others that it's a fake. I cannot see any sign of a stake mark around the pin what so ever. But compare the S on your sights and on his. They are not the same. Remember they were making fake type 1 rear sights a long time ago too.

[painter777]

Bruce,
no need to be sorry......sometimes we'll never know.
Cheers
Charlie

[Bill Hollinger]

Charlie, I was not saying the sight was fake because of the pin, replaced or not. I'm saying it's fake because I truly believe it is a fake just by what it looks like and what I know to be fake. I still say it is a fake.

[painter777]

relax guys....nothing personal here.

Cheers
Charlie