Handguards

All of the handguards depicted below were made from walnut. The variations in color were/are inherent
with walnut, as with other types of wood. Birch was generally a lighter color than walnut.

Deep Sighting Groove		Shallow Sighting Groove		4 rivet
The first handguards had a deep wide cut down the center called the sighting groove. 2 rivets held the plate that engaged the front of the receiver to hold the handguard in place.		The deep cut thinned the wood enough that it would sometimes crack. The design was changed to thicken the wood yet retain enough of a clearance for the sighting groove.		To strengthen the plate that engages the receiver to hold the handguard in place, the plate was lengthened and held in place by 4 rivets instead of 2. The sight channel remained the same as the previous design.

Deep Sighting Groove	Shallow Sighting Groove	4 rivet

The width of the cuts at the front and/or back of the sighting groove sometimes varied by manufacturer.

Use of the 4 rivet handguards began during the Winter of 1944. The plate mounted to the underside
of the handguard was lengthened to accommodate the 4 rivets. Since all manufacturers but Inland
and Winchester had ceased production during mid 1944, these were only manufactured by or for
Inland and Winchester or for use as replacements.

The majority of handguards have an angle along the top of the handguard that tapered slightly downwards as it approached the 90 degree cut at the front of the handguard (below top).

The taper downwards was slight on some of the handguards used by Winchester in 1943, creating a "bull nose" effect (above bottom).

Handguard Markings

Some handguard manufacturer markings are obvious.

Some are not. In this case the letters TN (top, towards left).
Winchester used an easy to miss small W, though some of their early handguards had no marking.