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I have a swaged barrel with I cut front sight grove and stamped with P over W in oval. Is this a Winchester, an Inland or IBM? I have never seen this vacation before. Looks like the one in Harrison book that he says he's only seen 2 like this. The barrel is very good shape, what manufacturer and S/N would I put it on?
Thanks so much for the help, I'm really stumped
H L Smith
Said to be later production. For free use program? (just from old memory). I have one. Not rare like the book says. Not common either.
EDIT: Though I haven't paid attention to how my gas cylinder is configured. So...take that for what it's worth. Win made some of these barrels with a kerf cut behind the rear sight. Maybe not an I-cut. Mine is too buried to hunt down right now.
You have a Winchester post war replacement barrel. Winchester used IBM machinery which was stored at Winchester to make the barrels under a government contract. Oh and don't use Harrisons book as it contains outdated and false information.
The IBM Barrel on my NPM is not the swaged type, it is the integral type. Winchester also made the integral model barrel. Why would they go to a swaged barrel for this contract when neither company used swaged barrels?
All because of the machinery they had stored at Winchester. Winchester had asked the government to store all of the machinery used by the other carbine makers at the end of the war at Winchester. The government owned the majority of the equipment. Winchester did not want to stop any of there commercial production so used this equipment to make the replacement barrels. Barrel making equipment from Inland or Rock-Ola or others and the barrel cutting slot equipment from IBM. Didn't matter to Winchester as long as the barrels were good, proofed OK and were accepted by and paid for by the government.