Taiwanese M-1 Carbine

It does look an awful lot like an USGI receiver and that was before I went over to Jim's website and compared pictures. The Rockwell mark in front of the rear sight is interesting.

sleeplessnashadow wrote: It looks like someone removed all the markings on a GI receiver and replaced them with the Thai Police logo and a serial number in the sequence Howa used for the Thai police. I'd already noticed the logo looked off center but thought maybe it was just the angle of the pic. The serial number doesn't look as deep as those by Howa. Photos of the sides and bottom of the receiver should answer the question of what it was originally. Howa didn't do the lightening cut on the left side of the receivers for Thailand or their commercial sporting carbines. But they also didn't do the rear sight dovetail like yours or the length of the slide track like yours. The question then is, who dun it. My first thought was the Thai Border Police. Records of the Military Assistance Program indicate Thailand received 73,012 U.S. carbines between 1951 and 1976. Their border police were/are para military. There were enough carbines floating around S/E Asia from us, the Brits, the French, and the Dutch that the weapon was pretty common. Changing the serial number isn't logical but this is jungle armorer logic with an agency that didn't take good care of their carbines. Howa made carbines for their Self Defense Forces. I haven't seen one yet. Only info is 2nd and 3rd hand that they were sold in or to S/E Asia and Australia. We may have a lead on a location that has a couple of them. It's been on hold so we didn't overwhelm them with requests as they have a few items of interest. Time to ask. I suspect your receiver is a GI receiver that's had it's markings replaced. Jim

The photos below were shared with me back in 2012. I can't recall who shared them but it was the owner of the carbine. I can't recall where he lived but don't think it was the USA. May have been New Zealand or Canada. Or I may have that wrong and just don't remember.

Point being, the carbines made by Howa weren't the only carbines used by the Thai Border Police.

The second pic may be upside down.

(To view a larger version click on the image)








Jim

I'll post new info here then Jim. I was thinking that Winchester Carbine with the Thai crest looks like something done in the field. I'm just hoping mine shoots decent, I wanted another one (I have 3 already, CMP Inland, Blue Sky marked Inland I'm planning on having Fulton Armory rebarrel and a Fulton Armory one).

Looks like a Winchester receiver. The rear sight would be correct for winchester.
Can you show other side of receiver, back and bottom?

Here we go

Edited by W5USMC - Nov 05 2022 at 8:16pm

New2brass wrote: Yup, that's a Winchester receiver! Seems they got their hands on some USGI carbines and remarked them. I see the import markings on the sight base. On the breach of the barrel under the green stuff, you probably can make out a number or letter Was there any markings on the bolt, hammer or other small parts?

Well, this sucks. I finally got a chance to shoot this thing. 1st 50 rounds only problem was 1 stovepipe around the 40th round. I was using the USGI mag that came with the rifle so I wrote that off as the mag (I started out with 5 rounds, then 10 then 15 so I figured needs a new spring). 

W5USMC wrote: DonFlynn wrote: Thoughts?  Clean the receiver dove tail, clean the rear sight base. Try using blue loc-tite to glue it back in place.

The adjustable rear sights were designed with half circle inlets for the purpose of staking the sight in place. Shown in the first 3 pics are the milled adjustable rear sight on the left with the stamped adjustable rear sight on the right. Note the position of the half circle inlets allows for staking the sight to the front and rear of the dovetail opening.

The receiver in the area of the dovetail was hardened slightly less than the rest of the receiver for this purpose.

A word of CAUTION. Some have made the mistake of staking the rear sight in place by bending the upper 4 corners of the dovetail downward to hold the sight in place: front and back on the right side of the sight and front and back on the left side of the sight. The receiver metal was not designed for bending those 4 corners downward. Inevitably someone eventually tries to bend them back upwards and finds they can snap off. I'll try to come up with a pic that shows the bent dovetail corners.

Below the first pics are some examples of adjustable rear sights that have been staked in place. With two having been staked more than once and not necessarily in the half circles.

All that's required to do this is a punch the size of the half circle, a hammer, and a means of holding the receiver as the stake marks are placed.

Sometimes over time with repeated rear sight removal and replacement the dovetail can become enlarged. Or a newer rear sight may be too large to fit into the dovetail.

If the sight is too large the remedy is cautious filing of the front and rear edge of the bottom of the sight where it fits into the dovetail.

If the dovetail is too large sometimes the staking will still hold the sight securely. If necessary the top edges of the dovetail can be bent ever so slightly downwards to tighten the fit of the rear sight. This is something that should be done with the rear sight in place within the dovetail to provide a means of support so the dovetail edges aren't bent too much. Go cautious and easy on the metal of the dovetail.

Use of a threadlocker adhesive to hold the rear sight in place has two shortcomings. First, the adhesive will hold the rear sight in place for a time but the recoil of the rifle can overcome the strength of the threadlocker. Second, the amount of force necessary to remove a rear sight that has been secured with threadlocker puts extra stress on the edges of the dovetail.


(To view a larger version click on the image)