GunBroker.com Item #707892840
Rock Island Armory
Item Title: (1944 M1 Carbine Rockola Receiver Underwood Barrel)On Gunbroker#707892840 Rock Island Armory - 1979-1985
In March 1985, author Larry Ruth interviewed David Reese and was told Rock Island Armory Inc. had completed assembly on 800-1000 M1 Carbines using surplus GI parts with commercial receivers made using the dies and tooling previously used by National Ordnance Inc. of South El Monte, CA. 100 of these carbines had been turned over to Springfield Armory and marked with the Springfield name. At the time of the interview Rock Island Armory Inc. and Springfield Armory Inc. occupied the same building. [War Baby Comes Home by Larry Ruth p. 755]
The master dies and tooling used by National Ordnance was manufactured in 1960 and used by National Ordnance throughout production 1960-1972 in addition to Alpine 1962-1965. After the death of the owner of National Ordnance in 1974, the equipment passed into the hands of Federal Ordnance who sold it to SARCO in New Jersey. The Reese family purchased this equipment from SARCO.
One of the definitive identifiers of the dies and tooling used by National Ordnance was the bottom of the receiver along the length of the recoil spring, which was cast in segments to avoid issues related to drilling the deep hole from the front of the receiver to the rear of the receiver.
The only advertisement for Rock Island's M1 Carbines located so far appears in their January 1983 catalog. Note the description indicates the receivers were newly manufactured from 4140 steel. By the 1985 catalog the carbines were no longer listed.
Rock Island Armory catalog
January 1983
Example #1
RIA
174
Example #2
