Did I do Ok or not Ok??

[Bill Hollinger]

That is a nice carbine and a really nice price. Ya done good!

[deldriver]

SN is 5743XXX.

Okay, my eyes must not be as bad as I thought then! Anyway, I have a 5.74 Winchester too. Our guns may have had their serial numbers stamped on the same day in fact. Clearly there would be no UEF ordnance bomb on heal if it's a Winchester receiver, so that can be put away I'm pretty sure. Can you do a closeup of the left side of the barrel band? I am just making sure it's the correct one or trying to at least. Winchester was having some manufacturing issue during the time our carbines were produced. It's nice to see some of them still around.

[Bill Hollinger]

Here is my 5.7 mil. The rear sight is a tab lose but original. The punch marks shown in this picture line up but the sight is pushed off to the right side a bit.

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

I have a 5.74 Winchester too. Our guns may have had their serial numbers stamped on the same day in fact.

From a reference, the last Winchester number applied to a receiver for the day.

July 12 1944................5,742,670
July 13 1944................5,743,644
July 15 1944................5,745,805

[JasonA]

Cool....l guess mine was made on the 14 or 15th??? The day of the 14th in 1944 was a Friday. The 15th was a Saturday. Who knows??? I will take more pics of my rifle on Wednesday night and post them on Thursday.
Jason

[JasonA]

Ok all you experts, tell me what I really have now. I did the best I could with the pictures. The group was the first shooting outing with this one. My handloads at about 50 yds off my bench. I did take a picture of the barrel markings, but it has a capital W on it about 4 inches from the front sight and a proof mark behind that. My camera was not cooperation with auto focus and I could not get it clear after many tries, so I quit trying.

[deldriver]

I know what Charlie was seeing on the receiver heal now. I have seen that exact mark and similar ones on a few other M1 carbines over the years, but never a definite explanation of what was. If you go by the plum color of the trigger housing there's the possibility of it being a Bavarian mark, but there's little or no other evidence on the gun that suggests that's what it's a Bavarian carbine. Overall, it's a nice carbine, especially at that price. Looks like the stock has a M2 cut over on the left hand side. Are there any other markings on it?

[JasonA]

The stock appeared to be an aftermarket. It was an M2 configuration, but I don't like the bot bellied look and since there were no markings of any kind, I had a buddy of mine who is a professional stock man reshaped it and refinish it for me. It feels really good. I think the mark you are seeing is a number 3 in a partial circle?? I can't get my camera to focus on it... I tried. So... yes it does have the M2 selector cut-out. What markings would a bavarian used M1 have???

[Bill Hollinger]

I see the circle with a "3" inside it.

[deldriver]

The stock appeared to be an aftermarket. It was an M2 configuration, but I don't like the bot bellied look and since there were no markings of any kind, I had a buddy of mine who is a professional stock man reshaped it and refinish it for me. It feels really good. I think the mark you are seeing is a number 3 in a partial circle?? I can't get my camera to focus on it... I tried. So... yes it does have the M2 selector cut-out. What markings would a bavarian used M1 have???

Bavarian carbines usually, but not always are marked on the top left hand side of the receiver rail with the area and agency the carbine was assigned to. The finish is usually a black oxide that can be very black to a barely there look. Bavarian carbines often have a certain number of serial number digits stamped into most, but not all of the parts. Again, I don't see any other evidence that your carbine is a Bavarian other than the plum trigger housing, but that doesn't make it a guarantee either. Does the screw tip on the barrel band match up with the two round pinch marks or is it lower by a bit? There will also be a horizontal line about 2/3 of the way down the left side of the band. These are clues of the band being one used by Winchester. The right side looks good, but the left side will verify it as such.