1944 Inland

[ShaveTail]

Hey guys, new here, but I read a lot of posts here before I bought my new little friend, so I wanted to throw up a few pics--and ask for an opinion on the parts.

I wandered into Cabella's a few weeks ago looking for ammo and, of course, ended up in the Gun Library. Turns out they had a pretty descent overflow of used firearms--including an Inland M1 for $499. Went home, debated for two days, read forums, and went back and bought it. I've wanted one ever since shooting one owned by a friend of my dad's ten years ago.

Flawlessly reparked. After a thorough field strip (I re-dyed and oiled the stock--reason to follow) I found the following:

Frontsight: P
Barrel: Inland, 5-44 (jives with the 5xx serial) Here is also the only mar on the weapon, a rather large import stamp. Such is life.
Receiver: Inland, with a B and a BI inside
Trigger group: A faint U in what looks either like a little house, or the peeked shape on the old Inland logo
Stock: SA potbelly--probably from a 60s rebuild. BUUUTTT--some jackass deliberately sanded down the cartouches! Under the pistol grip and on either side of the sling well--sloppy as hell too, left lighter patches and sand marks. Grrr.
Handguard: OI
Band: Type III JI
Mag release: M on the outside, EI on the inside
Mag: IU
Rearsight: I.R.CO
Hammer: IK
Slide: C AOB Faint, only marks I can find
Bolt: AI
Recoil plate: DI

What do you guys think of the mixing? Assuming (and I don't know if that is a good thing here) that the I's are for Inland, that seems like a pretty fair number of correct parts. Not really concerned with that--bought it for fun and, well, it feels so very right in my hand But curious nonetheless.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32654494@N08/

Information

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[Bill Hollinger]

Nice looking post war rebuild. I wouldn't change a thing.

[3ky]

Nice Inland. Mine is 7-44. Good thing about late Inlands if you do decide to rebuild they are easy to find parts for. I just found out the type 2 bands are out there as well as the stocks. The mag buttons are also easy to get. Might have a problem with the safety. People here will help you out if you want to rebuild. Also fun to shoot as is!!
Michael

[johnc]

Nice looking.Remember Carbines get OIL, Garands get grease.

[shadycon]

Nice find, get some shells and start having fun!!

[frankderrico]

Shavetail, nice carbine, at $499.00 plus tax you did good. I would leave it as is and make it your shooter. Your going to be hooked now. By this time next year you should have about seven or eight more......Frank

[ShaveTail]

Thanks guys, I'm quite taken by the little thing too. I can't remember if I read about it here, but somebody recommended a mix of BLO, denatured alcohol, and melted beeswax to finish the stock instead of straight tung or linseed. What I ended up doing was steaming the stock and scrubbing it with dilluted dish soap to get out the old oil. Then I smoothed out the rough marks from the guy who took off the cartouches and rubbed in the BLO and alcohol, but this still left visible spots from the sanding, so I moved on to the Rit dye.

One packet of dark brown Rit, one half of black, and two parts denatured alc. This did a great job, but still didn't sink in perfectly (kept getting dye on my hands even after it dried!) so I melted beeswax ($1.50 from a toilet tank ring, used about 1/10th...so...plenty for more carbines ) Mixed this with BLO and DA, then added some of the left over dye. This dried into a goopy brown mess that worked SUPER! Rubbed it in with a rag and it not only evened out the color, it left the grain visible, wood super smooth, and finish sealed against water without being shiny at all. Result as shown in those photos.

I don't think I'm going to touch anything else. In a war I'd have wanted every upgrade I could get, so why mess with a good thing? Only thing I may do someday down the road is have the barrel re-crowned--it's a little rough. Still over a quarter inch of bullet showing on a penetration test with a .30-.06, but...still.

Next is a Garand. I didn't realize until this week that I live within an easy hour and a half drive of the CMP North Store !

[rondog]

Great looking carbine! I recently scored my first, also $500 from a private seller on another gun forum. He'd read my whining about how much they are around here and the wait from the CMP, and he offered me a choice of two in his collection. It's GREAT fun to shoot!

I didn't realize until this week that I live within an easy hour and a half drive of the CMP North Store !

Oh, God help you! Hey, wanna pick me up some ammo?