QHMC "X" Carbine

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   I'd like to introduce you to my latest pride and joy.  Many thanks to fellow club member OAMAAM68 for selling me a piece of history.
This rifle was owned by OAMAAM68 for about the past five years and before that another collector who was transitioning to collecting Civil War weapons.

For those of you unfamiliar with this rifle, the “X” marked QHMC rifles are estimated to only total about 1,200. (Ref. War Baby III, pp 1677 and Carbine Club Newsletter 379).  Also, according to Carbine Club Newsletter
324 dated July 2004, The Carbine Club, only had a record four carbines with an
“X” below the serial number at that time.  I am unsure if any additional rifles have been discovered since and would certainly welcome any additional information that anyone can share.  The rifles that were known to exist in 2004 included serial #'s:
4800804, 4801017, 4801074 and 4801277.  This rifle is the earliest now documented, unless, of course, more have been located since the time of that publication.

According to CCNL 324, no one knows for sure why QHMC placed an X on these rifles.  It’s been suggested that it could indicate a
duplicated serial number since that is how other manufacturers identified such rifles.  An anomaly, however, is that of the "X" marked rifles located thus far (again suspecting that
the X was used to identify those rifles bearing a duplicate serial number) none
of the corresponding serially numbered rifles have been located without the X
marking (Ref. CCNL 357-9).

This rifle possesses all of the correct parts.  The previous owner wrote to OAMAAM68 and told him that "...the carbine is all original and correct
as near as I can tell. Original Parkerizing, stock has been cleaned and
re-oiled." 

Based on my disassembly and examination of the rifle, the parts on this rifle are correct and appear to be authentic. 
The wear on each part appears to be consistent with other parts on the
rifle lending good indication that no parts have been swapped or replaced over
time.  The carbine's components are also in complete sync
with Carbine Club Newsletter 334 which provides a complete parts description
for QHMC Carbines of various serial numbers.  Of particular note is that the rifle has a Firing Pin marked "HS" which is a Standard Products part.  Ref. CCNL-334 –
Standard Products shipped 7,000 firing pins to QHMC in 5 shipments from
11/26/1943 to 12/9/1943.  Also, War Baby,
pp. 391 reflects that Standard Products shipped 9,000 firing pins to QHMC
during that same period. In my view, this part is considered correct.

This is definitely a rare carbine and one that I will proudly display.  Thanks again, OAMAAM68!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ht5EAG3knktjieXJ9