I want to see the one Larry Potterfield got.
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I want to see the one Larry Potterfield got.
One? he likely set aside one of each. I recall reading they all went through at least one US refurb in Europe before the Italians got them. I doubt any of them had original flip sights - maybe someone will jump on here and correct me. I also read somewhere there was no paper trail or other knowledge of exactly how the Italian national police ever obtained them.
I bet if we email midwayusa, they would could kindly get him to supply a pic of the best-of-the-best in this lot. Is Midway a sponsor of milsurps?
Years ago, BQ pointed out that when the Depots changed to type 2 and 3 sights they were supposed to retain the flips for future possible use. Maybe there is a huge supply somewhere?
I never could understand the logic of bitching about a greatly improved rear sight? How a beat to heck, jammed in fake piece of Chinese crap was so cool to the eye and brain. A mod that completely screws up whatever the depot did to make the adjustable shoot dead on.
https://www.milsurps.com/attachment....7&d=1626841782
Yes Very nice stock. A good deep cleaning would reveal much more of that beautiful figuring.
I'd be using it also...... Congrats
@Ben,
A couple pictures of your stock's wood bridge and just forward of the bridge to see the size router bit used to clear out the Op Slide channel could help ID it.
It's hard to tell from your pictures what maker your Stock is. Trying to narrow it down we can see it's a Type II High Wood Oval cut Oiler Slot.
The bulky front nose style is similar to WRA stocks. WRA Stocks are often found with a letter or number on the inside right shelf along and sometimes on the top of the cross wood bridge.
1st: See if there are 3 holes under the Butt Plate. If there are 3 we can narrow it down to these makers with 3 holes who made Type II Hi-Wood stocks-
WRA, SC-B, SC-U, M-U, BR-B........... J and SA stocks are 3 hole but did not make Hi-Woods.
2nd: This link will list 3 hole stock makers: https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=73123&page=1
3rd: WRA and M-U stocks (Marlin made for Underwood) feel and look familiar, both having 3 holes, thick wristed, bulky nose and often have a tapered leading edge at the front of the left side slingwell. WRA used a smaller, less aggressive router bit to clear out the channel inside for the Op Slide box.
4th: Look this link over for help seeing WRA STOCK traits: https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=46635
Lastly inside the left slingwell:
WRA will show 3 cutting passes with the middle one being more narrow than the top and bottom passes.
Marlin will also show 3 cutting passes but they are relatively the same width, example pic below you can use to compare to the WRA pic in WRA STOCK traits link above.
M-U Sling Well Cutting Passes:
I think with enough people documenting these, in the configuration they got them from Midway, we can narrow down the most likely versus least likely journey for this batch of carbines. I'll come back to this.
Amen. I have my dad's K-Bar as well. Same deal except his only somewhat hot zone was the airfield in Operation Beleager. There's no way to prove it was his other than my word. So it goes.
I got my Midway second hand, but it seemed to me the metal refinishing was not recent. I'm not 100% convinced the importer didn't have these cleaned and assembled or some such operation, but do think its more likely they did nothing or minimal cleaning.
The trails of carbines to DCM and CMP are generally known, just not their individual deep back story. People can help you with getting a little further with those carbines.
Whatacountry has surplus Korean era (D-tip) if you are OK with a non-WW2 era sling. There are also other slings used at various times and organizations, including the mystery of what the Caribieneri were using in the 1970s.
See https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=74403
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...1/11/275-1.jpg
:clap:
I can't say I'm doing the same with mine. I bought mine for shooting in matches and have already changed a couple internals including a type 1 extractor.
However I like your thinking. The configuration its in is a record of its service and I appreciate the curators approach.
This is exactly what happened to mine. A fake flip was installed (backwords) on mine by someone who thought he could restore it to WW2 appearence and resell it ot re-enactors (as he had done with a number of Garands). He apparently couldn't understand why I wanted the Type 3 rear sight or why I would return his flip sight (which I have no use for).
He himself got taken with a faked C-tip sling. Who changed the sling swivel is a mystery but its possible he got it with a bent one and so he did that too.
I think we can collectively figure out a little more about these carbines by pooling our information. Just looking over the things have been publicly posted or reported we know: that some have a unique butt plate
some of have bent sling swivels (all type 1 ?) were some replaced ??
all seem to have received a black finish on the exterior metal.
None of the Midways so far show FAT stamps
Its my gut feeling based on this, that this batch came through a different journey than the returns that went through FAT refurbishment. I think its possible these came out of US Army stores already in Europe, possibly including many repaired or in-service overhauled weapons. I do not beleive they went into storage in the early 1950s, although it is possible they were received by Italian military as early as 1944.
Italian M1 Carbine info and Requests - The Carbine Collector's Club - Page 1
The guy in that pic must have a "bionic" left thumb!