M1A1 Cracked And Fixed

[frankderrico]

Hello everyone, I had this early M1A1 come in for repair and thought I would share before and after pic.
Best Regards.....Frank

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Information

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[Clash77]

Excellent work! If you don't mind me asking, what methods do you employ in fixing cracks like that? (as an amateur woodworker I'm always interested in others techniques)

[firstflabn]

Assuming you haven't reinstalled the grip, is the grip screw (the threaded wood screw under the hinge cap) 2-3/32" or 2-3/4" long? If it's the shorter of these two, can you tell whether the pre-drilled hole for the shank of the screw is 1-1/8" or something less?

[frankderrico]

firstflabn, I do not have the grip, only the stock. The rifle is mine only for effect of the picture of it repaired. Interesting question though. The rifle was not through a rebuild so I do not know it had the modification stated in *MWO ORD B28-W2.

Best Regards.....Frank

[Bill Hollinger]

Frank, you do awesome work!

[firstflabn]

Thanks, Frank. Trying to puzzle out the shank length on the early grip screw - but don't want to ask anyone to disassemble theirs solely for that purpose. The wording in the MWO fails to say how deep the original hole in the top of the stock was, so I don't know if the deepening per the MWO was enough to easily notice.

For those who haven't seen this MWO: Ordnance wanted a longer M1A1 grip screw (presumably to hold the grip on better - and they selected a commercially available screw). If anyone takes the early grip off an original appearing M1A1 (or, one early enough to have MWO-1 - the straight hammer plus the 26-1/2" coil hammer spring), please measure the screw length.

This data has never been collected (to my knowledge) and is the first step. We now know there were reporting requirements for MWO status, so if those reports are located someday, the door may open a bit for learning more about where a stock served in WWII - I can dream, can't I?

[BrianQ]

In the picture below, which is not scale, the original screw is on top while the commercial replacement screw is on the bottom.



I have disassembled hundreds of M1A1 stocks throughout the years and have learned that at least one arsenal used a replacement screw longer than the original but not as long as the one called for in the MWO.

This is/was one of the better ways to tell if an M1A1 stock is truly in its original configuration.

[firstflabn]

Thanks, Brian. Very helpful. Previously I couldn't understand how using a longer screw could prevent grip cracking (as described in the MWO). Shorter shank might help a little.

Obviously the significantly longer threaded portion on the MWO screw would hold better - and help extend the life of grips starting to wobble.

With MWO-W1 being issued the same day as -W2, it would be interesting to see if an otherwise original M1A1 that had one of these MWOs performed also had the other. (for those who don't remember, MWO-W1 replaced the hammer and hammer spring to reduce trigger pull).

[wtmr]

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New Album 7/23/14 10:47 PM

Thanks for the fix!