Stunned at how slow I can be (re my .30 carbine)

[Bang]

I was at...wait. Strike that. By today's standards, I should say, So I was at the Harrisburg gun show a few years ago and there was a guy with an M1 carbine slung over his shoulder with a for sale tag near the muzzle.

So I was very interested in obtaining a carbine and very discouraged by the seemingly ridiculous prices asked. So I approached the man and inquired about the gun.

He was like, friendly and stuff, so we discussed the gun and terms. Seemed like a decent piece to me. Muzzle didn't appear wildly worn, wood was decent. Price was better than those on the tables. So I bought it.

Then, ass-backwards-like, I signed onto M1 Carbine Collectors and other sites, rapidly began learning the rights and wrongs with the gun, concluding that I had basically bought a "shooter".

I really was not that disappointed. The gun looked nice, shot well (after i gave it an old-school crown job. That's a round-head carriage bolt chucked in an electric drill and a smattering of fine valve grinding compound, applied cautiously and judiciously in self-centering fashion).

I purchased the piston nut wrench and bolt tool and have had this carbine apart and together many times. Each time I would find or notice something "new" about it.

Yesterday, with gun leaning, fully assembled, at my bench/desk, I noticed the mold line on the trigger guard. Very easily seen, quite pronounced.

5 trigger housing types were machined from billet, and a sixth (type 5) was welded stacked layers and then machined. No wartime trigger housings were cast. That came later with civilian productions.

There in plain sight when examined at time of purchase was the sign that the gun was not correct, had I known what I was doing. No problem. Like I said, it looks great and shoots accurately.

It just kind of blew my mind (what there is of it) that it took years to notice that mold line on the guard of the trigger housing.

So that's my story, and I'm sticking to wondering if I should be admitting such things.

Enjoy the laugh

[Gunsnwater]

I examine stuff for friends much more closely than for myself. Like that S&W 64 police trade that needed a new extractor star, that needed a gunsmith to cut. Pinnacle just past Dixon’s. Or the dropped and abused 640 that needed me to buy the tools to align the bent crane.

[rwt1405]

I'm right there with you!

I've learned that experience is a cruel teacher, as the exam comes first, the lessons are learned later.

On the bright side, it sure sounds like you found yourself a great carbine/shooter, and in that case I'd say you "passed"!