Winchester Rifle History

[ArtPahl]

I am sure this question has been asked thousands of times, here and elsewhere, but here goes: I have a Winchester, made in February, 1944. The barrel, obviously a replacement, is a Springfield marked 2-S-A-11-43. The parts are mixed, mostly SA. I even contributed to the mixture, replacing the stamped trigger guard with a milled one because I like the look of the milled one. The stock cartouches have been sanded off except the circle P. Now the question:

Is there any way to determine the history of the rifle, ie., what unit it was issued to, etc.? There was a lot of war to be fought after Feb., 1944, not to mention Korea.

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[browningautorifle]

Is there any way to determine the history of the rifle

Other than using the serial number to check against the Martial arms list of possible issue, no way to know it's history for sure. There are some tells if you post pics that might give us clues to where it has been but little is certain. You forget all the bush wars Uncle Sam sent M1 rifles to help fight and the other countries that used M1s for their service rifle after the US. All these are possibilities too, and who knows?

[old tanker]

They Army can't even tell you where all the guns they have now are, much less where one was in WW2.

Here's what Springfield Armory has to say about the subject:

The only US issue firearm which has records approaching to what you want to know are the pistols issued to General Officers. This book has a list of Colt Pocket Autos that are tabulated by both serial number and by the name of the GO to whom they were issued.
"U.S. General Officers Pistols: A Collectors Guide"