Photos of my Win M1 Carbine SN. 1102913

It was around 2008 when my sportsmans club held its first annual sportsmens rummage.  This is where club members could sell just about anything from soup to nuts - fishing gear, tackle, anything outdoor sporting related, including firearms.   As I was setting up my table to get rid of some odds and ends, a friend of mine came up to me and told me that a gentleman on the other side of the room had just set two M1 carbines on his table.  As I started to walk over, at some distance I could clearly see the Winchester cartouche on the side of the stock.  I immediately picked up that carbine, noticing that the other carbine was an Inland with a round bolt, in about the 4,000,000 serial number range.  I began to strike up a conversation with the gentleman behind the table, who told me they didn't belong to him, they belonged to a friend of his who would be arriving shortly.  As I was observing further and making small talk with the gentleman, not wanting to put this carbine back down,  luckily the owner showed up and he said the carbines belonged to his father in law.  This was a club member who I had never seen before.  He went on to explain that his father in law was suffering from severe Alzheimer's, and that his mother in law wanted all the guns out of the house.  

It turns out his father in law was a surgeon during WWII in the ETO.  He was a captain.   As he was packing up the guns at his father in law's home, his wife came up to him with a carbine in each hand.  She said "look at what I found in one of the upstairs closets".  She asked her father where the guns came from.  Despite his Alzheimer's having gotten to the stage where he couldn't reliably remember his children's names, or his wife's, he said "oh, those are the carbines I brought back from Europe". 

Now we've all heard stories like this, and without really knowing, you basically want to buy the gun, not so much the story, unless it is truly documented.  The one thing I can say when I saw this carbine for the first time was that both of the carbines had literally decades worth of dust on them.  When I was inspecting the gun, I looked down the barrel with a bore light and it was dirty, full of dust and cobwebs, and even a dead spider.   

At that time we negotiated what I considered to be a fair price and we were both happy.  Hope you enjoy the pictures and I am always looking forward to comments.  

I'll find my notes later that has the serial# window with the overlap of I cuts and Ovals.

We lost my Father for his last 11 years due to Alzheimer's. Even though when younger he rarely spoke of the actions he was involved in during his 2 tour stay in the Philippines, he could remember and still tell the tales about different characters he remembered from back then. But couldn't remember any of us.

Point being.... That story hits home as my Fathers carbine became mine. I have about 6 near and below your range down to WRA 30,621. I'm often lucky enough to have another collectors picture albums shared with me of his early WRA's.. we use to compare.

I'm glad you've become the current caretaker of a beautiful piece of history. It shows everything we search for. I sure Appreciate you sharing it and would ask just 1 question:

Can you tell if the Bolts Extractor Plunger is the early full cone shape with a long stem or does it have the flat notch?

I ask because we've seen a number of the first style full cone that still have a long stem but have been modified by having the notch ground in to it.

The next carbine i might post is my Inland MIAI. Its in the 200,000 range with i belive a 11-42 barrel date.