Family Reunion

[Newscotlander]

Information

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[Garandrew]

Chris..speaking of late war WRA's...I wish mine would clean up so nice, perhaps id keep it..beauties! More collectable than earlier carbines?
Andy

[Faulkner]

Very nice collection.

I too, like bringing mine out for a breather from time to time. Last summer I was honored to loan out seven of mine for a 21 gun salute at the funeral of a marine who had been decorated at Saipan.

[Newscotlander]

Not all mine. Only two are. Like I said, a family reunion.

Andy, I'm confident that, with a little work, yours could look as nice.

[BrianQ]

Chris,

Are you going to post how close of a reunion the first two are or save it for a NL article?

[Bubba-7]

Chris did not want to tell you, but I refinished all of those carbines last week, I parkerize what needs to be parked and blue the rest. The dark blue WRA bolts is a sure sign of my work.( The real ones are gray parked you know.) One of the hardest things is to get right is the park on the recoil plate close to the receiver color. I have found that leaving the recoil plate in the solution exactly half the time the receiver is in works just fine. You can see the results here. I put five coats of True-Oil on the stocks then buffed them with steel wool for that "real GI" look. The big question is... "How many of these have E.W. flip safeties?" Oh that's right, I am suposed to know that. I worked on them. I don't remember. Well got to get back to my shop. I have a dozen original EPB push safeties I just cranked out ready to go to Riverbank.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

You're killing me Bubba....

The king has no clothes!

[BrianQ]

Chris did not want to tell you, but I refinished all of those carbines last week, I parkerize what needs to be parked and blue the rest. The dark blue WRA bolts is a sure sign of my work.( The real ones are gray parked you know.) One of the hardest things is to get right is the park on the recoil plate close to the receiver color. I have found that leaving the recoil plate in the solution exactly half the time the receiver is in works just fine. You can see the results here. I put five coats of True-Oil on the stocks then buffed them with steel wool for that "real GI" look. The big question is... "How many of these have E.W. flip safeties?" Oh that's right, I am suposed to know that. I worked on them. I don't remember. Well got to get back to my shop. I have a dozen original EPB push safeties I just cranked out ready to go to Riverbank.

Dream on

[dbarn]

Very nice Chris. Proud to say I've seen at least two of them in person. Now that you've pointed it out to me, the gray paint on the rear sight really stands out. No finer, late example Winchester carbines exist anywhere.

Glad you and Roger made it home safely. Really enjoyed your visit. Best regards,

David

[Newscotlander]

Roger's just ribbing me.

At this point there is not enough new information to write a Carbine Club newsletter article beyond what is already written about them (NL 196, 337, 348). The two carbines in the first photo are out of a wooden crate of ten carbines that a well known dealer was selling back in the late 1980s through early 1990s. The serial numbers of the ten carbines were stenciled in the side of the crate. All of the carbines were of Winchester manufacture and had very late features. Their condition was like new. The carbines were never accepted by the Government and do not have the cross cannon stamp on the right side of the stock.

My theory is that the carbines came from the Winchester Museum in 1975 when the collection was being loaned to the Cody Museum. The Winchester collection was subsequently donated to Cody in 1988. There is evidence that the museum sent some carbines back over to Winchester to be sold (NL 97). This crate may have been part of that inventory.

The last two carbines and the crate were purchased in 1991 by a collector. He was able to purchase two more of the box of ten, for a total of four. After owning the carbines and crate for fifteen years, he sold the crate and three carbines separately. He still owns one. Brian and I each own one. Ours were not ones that the collector had. I have been unable to track down the crate or the other seven carbines. They are out there somewhere.

So you see, the two carbines in the first photo may well have been sitting next to each other in the same crate for many years. And on a Spring day in March of 2009, they were rejoined for this family photo.