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Legacy Member
What an outstanding piece Robert. A great piece of history.
That would be a very fun to restore back to it's original form.
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09-20-2019 10:39 PM
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WRA
Winchester never intended to manufacture the M1 Rifle in anything but gas port configuration. The bulk of the Winchester documentation cited in my book came from the personal files of Edwin Pugsley that I was fortunate to acquire a number of years ago. It is clear that Mr. Pugsley and the WRA engineering staff was not fond of the M1 rifle and was ambivalent about accepting the Educational Order in the first place. The Olins who owned Western Cartridge Company (which had previously acquired Winchester) was very cautious about the Educational Order as well but gave Pugsley the go-ahead to accept the contract. There was a lot of tension and animosity between Springfield Armory and Winchester during the course of production but the "greater good" prevailed as both entities shared a common goal.
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Legacy Member
Early Winchester production
Attachment 102953Here is a photo of a Winchester from my collection, it was purchased from the CMP Auction in 2011 as a receiver. The serial number was stamped on Wednesday, Jan 15, 1941. Some collectors think that the Educational Order rifles were serial numbered 100,001 thru 100,500 but it did not happen that way because of spoilage and receivers pulled from production to be reworked.Attachment 102952
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Advisory Panel
I had an educational rifle come past me on the shoulder of a new owner/shooter at a gunshow some years back. I asked to see it and couldn't believe it...told him what he had and I think all he got from the story was "It was special"... It was of course completely rebuilt through the years.
Something I just noticed is the zeroing indices on the receiver aren't centered. They lie to the right of the (geographic?) center...interesting...
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Legacy Member
Jim, They were made that way, it is the contour of the receiver machining. Now the front sight blades were off-set to one side, just a small amount.
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Legacy Member
Does anyone know what is the actual serial number range for the educational contract? Actually the better question would be what is the highest verified serial number of the educational contract and the first verified serial number under the production contract?
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Advisory Panel
Originally Posted by
RCS
They were made that way
K, I just never noticed, all that I've seen, held...owned...
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Contributing Member
Ed Serials
As new collectors we assumed they went from 100001 to 100500, but as we understood the process better over the years we realized that (a) they did not assemble the guns in exact serial order, a receiver was a receiver, and (b) there were a lot of rejections and recycles in early production. As RCS points out, we are guessing the highest serials went near 101000 and maybe even higher.
Bruce Canfield's records are helpful: "Some sources have stated various dates that the 500 rifles were completed by Winchester but the following memo dated March 12, 1941 from T.I.S. Boak reveals the exact date this occurred: “The five hundred M1 rifles called for on Educational Order Contract W-ORD-343 have been completed and final shipment was made today."
On March 11 they were stamping serials at about 103000, so plenty of room above 100500 by the time the Ed contract was done.
Real men measure once and cut.
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Legacy Member
Great information and thank you.
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