when they started using birch on replacement stocks in the 1960's they were not marked, this is one of the first examples
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when they started using birch on replacement stocks in the 1960's they were not marked, this is one of the first examples
I have a birch stock similar to yours. Nice and fat. Mine is stamped with a boxed "P" on the pistol grip. Where did you find those hand guards?
The birch replacements began to appear about the time the M14 came along in 1957 and were standard by the time the rebuild program began in the 1960's for the Vietnam training programs. I have two rebuilt and unissued M1's from CMP stores that came from the Letterkenny rebuilds. These are birch all the way up and new. Both came from a batch done in '65. But Shooterm1 said that '57 saw the earliest birch replacements. Many birch came with new Acceptance stamps during the same period and I have a stock for an M14 that is so marked.
A lot of confusion exists over this wood. Some WWII stuff is actually cherry and I have one in cherry, but it is for a Carbine and NOT an M1 Garand. It often turns out kind of a yellowish color when cleaned and refinished if sap wood is present and can be mistaken by some for birch:dancingbanana:.
I use to check racks of M1 rifles looking for birch handgards, I did find some nice walnut with a burl until I found birch years later.
Notice the front is missing in my photo ? I had modified a gas cylinder for a M70 scope block as I shot at steel plates alot and it was perfect - until they closed the range !
Very nice looking stock there RCS.
Jeff
That looks like some really nice "flame birch." Nice wood, very nice wood.
Theres not mark one on this stock either, now if I can only find handguards to match :(
Dan
https://www.milsurps.com/images/imported/deleted.gif
I have a birch on a 6,000,000, not as nice as that but with a circle P and acceptance stamp. Hmm, it might be beech.
I seem to recall reading something about the birch wood coming from trees that were felled on Springfield property in the '50s. Any truth to that?
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...irchc008-1.jpg
This one is a 12/64 Tooele rebuild. The stock has an uncircled non-serif P but no DAS.
Thatchweave, the property you're thinking of is the Quabbin Reservoir. Don't know if the story is true or not though.
My question is were the stocks and the hand guards made at the same location? If so why is it that hand guards with flames are very rare? The wood needed to made stocks and hand guards would have came from the same trees right?
Jeff
The stocks and hand guards would not have been made out of the same piece of wood. The stock blanks would have been cut to optimize the number of finished stocks out of a log. Another blank optimized for the hand guards should have been created. The Arsenal didn't care about matching wood or pretty figure. What was important was the optimum use of the log and minimum cost/waste. Matching, pretty wood was an accident of assembly, not the plan from the start.
Bill
This front handguard has some nice fancy walnut on both sides
I have 2 or 3 good flame birch stocks that have the SA type circled P on the pistol grip and a 1/2 DAS cartouche. I have been able to find some nice birch handguards to go with them. But they are not flamed as much as the stocks. If you want this type of flaming in handguards, you may need to have them made. Contact Macon Gun Stocks (in Georgia, I think) to see if they can help.
Figure or flame in stocks and handguards was always seen as weaker wood than straight grain wood by U.S. arsenals.
That's why we usually only see the highly figured walnut stocks and handguards during WWII when it was more important to get stocks and handguards onto rifles FAST than it was to worry about the less toughness and strength of firgured wood.
It makes it very tough today to find figured handguards that match a figured stock because there were fewer figured handguards to begin wth and the figured handguards broke or wore out faster. Still, it can be done if you live in an area where a lot of these parts occasionally show up at gun shows and if you are VERY patient.
An early WRA perhaps?Quote:
Originally Posted by RCS
It is very pretty. May we see the stock?
Gus Fisher is, of course, correct about WWII stocks and speed being a necessity in production during the war.
It puts things in perspective to understand that equipment usually had a serviceable life expectancy of less than 30 days in the WWII battlefields. The rifle was of paramount importance, but it didn't last too long either. Wood was likely less of a consideration than we think today. But, service life was very brief indeed!