First M1 rifle gas port barrel dated S-A 6-40

The first M1 rifle barrels to have a date (month & year) were the gas port barrels manufactured in June 1940. Note: these are very rare to find now and less than half a dozen are known to survive. Beside new production, these barrels were also used on "direct conversions" too.

Also note there is an extra circular groove cut behind the gas cylinder lock threads. do not know the purpose but once in awhile you will other mid 1940 barrels with this extra feature too.Attachment 123038Attachment 123039Attachment 123040

How rare are 10-40 barrels?

All 1940 dates are on the rare list, one of the most difficult to find (besides S-A 6-40 and S-A 7-40) is the S-A 11-40.

A nice S-A 10-40 with a nice bore and without chrome at the gas port should bring $800 to $900. Alot of these 1940 barrels were used in the direct conversions of the gas trap rifle tp gas port before WW2. If you can find a nice reasonable early gas trap receiver, you could use your S-A 10-40 barrel for restoration.

Most faked 1940 barrels that I know about are S-A 8-40 and S-A 11-40

Yep, have seen a few fake 8-40... Texas?

The early fake barrels were advertised from a company in North Carolina, first they sold nothing but fake Winchester barrels.
I would bet these barrels are still on rifles. Dick Deane did a short article in the GCA Newsletter showing photos of these
fake Winchester barrels. The fakers then took these barrels and applied Springfield 1940 and early 1941 barrel dates.

If you knew about barrels, you would notice the gas port hole was almost never in the groove, the groove for the rear hand
guard band was shorter than an original gas port barrel groove. The number 4 was always with a open top plus the drawing
number was not even with not all the number the same size.

can you spot the fake dated barrel ?Attachment 123078Attachment 123077Attachment 123076

Heh heh, hard to fool an advanced collector like RCS... they can always find a fault the fakers didn't get right :)

This are rare to find. Thanks for sharing

I have seen over the years some S-A 7-40 and S-A 8-40 dated barrels around on rifles but never just the early barrel by itself.

These early barrels were used in both new production rifles and the direct conversions of the gas trap rifles to use the new front end (gas port barrel with new gas cylinder)

Here is a pair with late SA SPG stocks and July dated barrelsAttachment 123465Attachment 123466Attachment 123467Attachment 123468