M1a1 $1600

Looks pretty good for the price!
M-1 Paratrooper Carbine 1943 Inland * Korea wCanteen, Bayo, for sale (933717945)

Someone already made an offer to buy, but I sent him a message anyway.Thanks for the heads up.

Be glad you didn't bid on it. Since when is the leather cheek piece held in place with bolts and nuts. Should be rivets. Inland barrel is right but it's been changed and is five months or so too early. Changed during the rebuild but the bolts for the cheek piece were not used then.

FWIW, from what I can see I think that stock alone is worth pretty near the $1600 offer. Rivets can be replaced, the condition of the wood and metal look great to me.

Seller said it is sold. I would have had the bolts replaced. I thought the stock looked good otherwise. Didn't realize the barrel wasn't correct.

I'm not the expert but Ruth says the 1,000,000th Inland was 'presented' (not assembled) on December 20, 1943. That sounds like a sure as shootin' hard date of record to me. I have an 890k Inland with a barrel date of 10-43 that I'm pretty sure is original. I think that means my carbine and the 965xxx Inland were probably made in November, or close to it, about 4 months after the subject 7-43 barrel date. I'm not sure of the time period but at some point I recall Inland barrels were predating the probable assembly dates by as much as 4-5 months, which to me makes the 7-43 barrel plausible. I know the estimated production dates vary from reference to reference but I have seen many carbines/barrel dates that support the probable assembly date of my Inland in 11-43. I wish I had had a shot at that carbine. JMHO

Your barrel date is correct for your carbine having been made about November 1943. But the M1A1 is way off and not just with the bolts or the barrel. It was a total rebuild and the barrel is a replacement as the serial number dates it to about December 1943. In looking at the pictures of the butt plate on it the numbers appears to be stamped into it. Real ones are cast and the letters and numbers are raised. The mold number is a 5 and it appears to be a bit off. This is one carbine and stock that one should have in hand before buying it.

Bruce: We learn something new everyday! At first I thought the butplate was legit, but after comparing it to pics it's easy to see the difference.GK