A friend of mine who knows of my interest in M1 carbines told me about an M1A1 for sale at a local gun shop. I've been lusting for an M1A1 for a long time now as my Dad was a paratrooper in WWII as well as a battalion commander in the 101st Airborne in Viet Nam.
Informed that this M1A1 was a rebuild by the owner, here's what I found:
A 4 mil. QHMC with type 1 sight and front band and what appears to be all original parts. The carbine itself (sans stock) looks like it's been together for a long time, no band shadow. (I can't believe I forgot to note who made the barrel). I separated the rifle from the stock but left the trigger group in place but I could see Quality hardware codes everywhere, including a QA marked sear & ty lll LT-Q hammer. Also, the rear sight (also Quality) had the type staking that it peculiar to the make. No sign of post war stake marks or the repair of same.
The stock looks original to my inexperienced eye. It has an Augusta Arsenal rebuild stamp, circle P proof, parkerized (black anyway) rivets, casting marks inside the buttplate. There are marks on the nose of this stock that indicate type 2/3 barrel band usage in the past. I was told that the last owner had bought it in this configuration nearly 40 years ago. If that is the case, it appears that someone got hold of an M1A1 stock and thought their Quality would look better in it (who really cared about original stocks back then anyway?) so they just swapped the QHMC into it.
Now my question: if this is as it seems, would it be worth $2700? I need a Quality for my collection (going for 1 of each maker for now) as well as an Inland, which MUST be an M1A1. It just seems to me that it will be much easier to find an Inland carbine in the M1A1 serial # range than it would be to fine a decent, original QHMC stock with proper ordnance stamp and no rebuild stamps or type 2/3 barrel band marks. Stocks like that seem to be impossible to find.
Any opinions and or advice would be appreciated!
