M1 Carbine

[JA24]

Newbie here, I could use some help knowing what I have.

I know for the most part I have an Underwood.
Markings are as follows:

Barrel front below site says Underwood, below that there appears to be a few digits, only one I can clearly see is a 4

Below that is the exploding bomb, below that is P
Underside of barrel says Arlington Arms ( I think)

In the front site there is a U

Safety release has an M or W

front stock band on left side has J.M.O.

Bottom of bayonet mount has EM-Q

Below rear adjustable site is 578345 (these numbers don't match what I have been told are Underwood Block Serial numbers). Ther are some letters under the rear site but I can't tell what they are.

Flat side of bolt has B_l actually the undersore goes through the middle of the l and B. Inside the flat bolt is PI and that is underlined.

The round bolt has a U on one side and a W or M on the other side

On the right side of the hammer is an S and on the left side is a W or M

There is an OI in the hand stock and in the sling knotch ther is what appears to be 5l HB or SI HB. The wood is beautiful, the metal all seems great. All function checks are good and I am ready to go fire.

What do I really have?...any help is greatly appreciated.

[mapsjanhere]

If it's an underwood - it should say underwood (or any other manufacturer) next to the rear sight. If it only says underwood on the barrel that doesn't really tell you anything about the reciever (the part by which manufacturer is defined). Under the Underwood should be something like 8-43 or so, giving the date of manufacture for the barrel. The bomb and P are US acceptance/proof marks. The arlington arms is most likely an import mark, if the gun was officially given to a friendly nation after WWII and later brought back in other than via CMP you find those.

[JA24]

Thanks for the input. Went back and looked again with a magnifying glass and tracing paper. There are two words with second word ending in IV and the first letter of the first word appears to be I. There is clearly a line drawn through the entire words.

Any of that help?

I am trying to find someone who knows how to remove the rear site.

[mapsjanhere]

from the Wikipedia article "10 different manufacturers made the M1 Carbine including, Inland (General Motors), Winchester, Underwood (of typewriter fame), Rock-Ola (Jukebox Company), Quality Hardware, Grand Rapids (Irwin Penderson & Saginaw SG also a GM company), Saginaw Gear (another GM company), National Postal Meter (supplier of machines for the US Postal Service), Standard Products, and IBM."
So the mark should resolve to one of those. As WWII carbines typically didn't have the adjustable rear sight and bayonet lug (late war additions but widely adopted in post-war retrofits) your gun was probably redone after the war. So any blend of parts is possible.

[velocette]

JA24;
You can go here: http://forums.thecmp.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6
for answers about your M1 carbine. Good folks and very knowledgeable.

Roger

[jrothWA]

which means that after made in WWII, it was aarsenal overhaul and sent to stores then reissued for use at a later time.

With the exception of "Arlington Arms" [ which is an importers stamp], the others are sub-contractor that made the various part for the Carbine.

Look closely at the stamp on the barrel below the front sight, there should be three or four characters there: e.g.: mm - yy

These are the month and last two of year, a short hand was to single stamp for 1944.

Look carefully under the rear sight overhang, you should be able to read the initial stamping of the mfg.

The Magazine release is "M" with and underling, that indicates the third or fourth modification of that item, for use with the 30 rd magazine, it should have a small projection on left side which give support to large magazine.
This indicates an overhaul in the fifties.

Suggest that you give a light polishing to feed ramp, this will minimize
"stuttering" of soft-nose ammo, especially if you use for home defense.

Enjoy

[SHR970]

The rear sight would be staked in. Removal is a chore.

Your SN number is in the Inland Manufacturing range.