Laurie,
I don't know how much shooting you would do with a "B" coded either, being 1 of 25,000. But if you get one, I would love to see a picture of it hanging on the wall behind your sewing machine.In the mid 80's I hung an IBM up behind my wife's new computer, an IBM PC. It was only a 256K when it came out. What a Dinosaur now.
I see you are in St Louis. Also in the 80's I was there and had an opportunity to tour the Corvette plant before it moved to Kentucky. At the time I had a 1959 Corvette. It was a pretty cool tour. You had to be a long term employee to get to work there.
Have your collector friend lend you some of his Carbine books. Some interesting stuff about these guns. Welcome to the forum.
Jim