Crack in Winchester Receiver

[MountainScout]

I recently added a Winnie M1 Carbine to my milsurp collection of Garands and M14/M1A's. Having not been involved in the Carbine world, I had no idea what I was looking at but when a customer asked to trade for a AR10 lower, I jumped on it. After making the deal and getting the rifle home for a detail strip, I found a crack under the spring tube in the receiver which was very disappointing. It appears the crack had to be from improper manipulation or removal of the op rod at some point or maybe even dropping the rifle on the op rod handle ??? At any rate, this sure seems to be a weak point in the receiver and I'm wondering if this is common ? Anybody ever repair one of these cracks by weld / machining ?

Keep in mind this is not an all original Winnie so if I have to go with a new receiver, it wouldn't be the end of the world but if I have my carbine history correct, the only tube style receivers are the older winnies and rock ola's ???

Advice from all you Carbine guru's ??? Thanks from a FNG...

BTW, The receiver serial is 1036*** if it is needed or makes a difference.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

If you weld a receiver I think you have to re-heat treat it. It could pull it out of shape too. I had an early Winchester that cracked along the upper left side of the receiver along the bolt track. The top edge came up from the track so the bolt had no guide. I just wrote it off to metal fatigue and someone had refinished it to make it look better than it was. They just don't last forever. Who knows how many wars these have been in? Live and learn!

[MountainScout]

Jim,

Thanks for that. I am in this thing cheap enough (about 325.00) that even if I have to go with another receiver, I might be ok. The customer gave me 500 or so rounds of ammo, rcbs dies, four magazines, two boxes of speer 110 gr bullets, etc. TE on barrel is between 1 and 2.

Am I correct though that I would need to look for either a winchester or rock ola to replace this receiver ?

[frankderrico]

Scout, welcome to the forum. Win. first block started with 1,000,000, so that is a fairly early reciever. I wouldn't give up on it yet.
Post some pics of it and close ups of the crack.
There are some real good guys here that do alot of work on guns and can give you some advise.
Does your barrel have a date on it?
If you change recievers I don't think it matters if it's a spring tube or not.....Frank

[CrossedCannons]

... if I have my carbine history correct, the only tube style receivers are the older winnies and rock ola's ???

*ALL* receivers made by QHMC throughout the war used the tube. For some reason, they never "evolved".

[BrianQ]

*ALL* receivers made by QHMC throughout the war used the tube. For some reason, they never "evolved".

You mean de-evolved back to the original design.

[MountainScout]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the info and advice. The learning curve on the carbine is a bit different than what I went through on the garand and m14/m1a.

I'll see if I can't get a decent pic of the crack. I have to flex the op rod track a bit to be able to see the actual crack but I'll give it a whirl.

MS

[Tired Retired]

Scout, if you can't get a clear pic with bare metal, you may want to see if you can get some chalk along the crack to highlight it. but don't use too much - its like sand, hard to get out.

[DaveHH]

I'm not so sure that it is a fatal flaw. It seems that by reading about Winchester, all of the springtubes were susceptible to fatigue cracking. All that area does is retain the tube and spring. And some did fail in the 6,000 rd test, and they were not rejected over that flaw. Quality I believe made some subtle changes to increase the strength in their spring tube receivers. When Winchester got their deep drilling equipt, they dropped the springtube pretty fast, kept on making tubes too. My point is that I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a Winchester with these type of cracks. If the broke away, then I'd weld them.

[MountainScout]

Here are some pictures of this rifle. Let me know what you all think... It would be great if it was still operable.







and finally