My first M1 Carbine

[painter777]

Clash,
While your looking it over. Look for the Stamped Proof P on your barrel. See if it has a Punch mark near it.
The way I understood, all the barrels used by NPM had the NPM Punch mark.
More than likely it would be stamped /hidden by your bayo band.

FWIW,
CH-P777

Example:

Information

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[rokwell]

I had another thought about the stock, not that this fully explains all the play around the recoil plate...but....maybe some (cleaning the stock under the plate probably will help as Charlie says)....could it also be that it's dry and over the years has shrunk back a bit from where its original 'edges' were? A couple years ago I bought a very nice Inland and the front handguard was a bit loose even after tightening the barrel band. I put it in the safe, and a couple months later got it out and noticed that the handguard was now TIGHT. I had done nothing to the carbine, the only explanation could be that the wood took on some additional moisture and expanded a bit. This even though I have one of those 'golden rod' de-humidifiers in the safe...

This is a pretty good article on 'wood movement' : Wood Movement...... from this page, and it's amazing to think about this:

"The rule of thumb is that if the board shows mostly flat grain on its face, allow for 1⁄4 inch total wood movement for every 12 inches across the grain. " (and now I'm thinking, how thick is the carbine stock, 2 or so inches?)

Also what are the markings in the sling slot of the stock, out of curiosity?