joe817 wrote:G26ster, I share your pain.
And I agree. Nothing will replace the 'real thing'.
But, it seems like these guys are taking great steps to accurately reproduce(as best they can...with some improvements) the same carbine, trench gun, etc. that was made for our troops back in WWII.
For example, the receivers of the trench gun are even marked with a flaming bomb. And they sort of reproduced the Army's inspectors initials to lend it more credence. EG: "RLB".I know RIA, but RIB is a new one one me.
Also, on the carbine stock, on the right side is 9what appears from a distance), a litigimate Crossed Cannons in Wreath cartouche. Interesting, eh?
And Jago668, many thanks for posting that link! Very interesting!
This is the major problem for the M1 carbine collector community. There are so many reproduction parts on the market today, the major discussions on the carbine forums are all about "fake" parts. It appears that the new Inland is making an attempt to mark stocks and barrels so there's no confusion, but it still lends itself to those out to make a buck selling repro parts as genuine original USGI (trigger housings, bolts, sears, stocks, sights, triggers, etc., you name it).
I have no issue with faithful reproductions, as long as they are marketed and sold as such, but with all of these "new" parts becoming available, you can bet there will be those that sell them as "original." Once those parts make it into "original" carbines, then the carbine later sold off, that's what makes it so hard these days to tell real from fake, that only a few in the carbine community can discern the repro parts. The average M1 carbine collector struggles with this.
Those dedicated collectors in the carbine community (and I'd like to think I was one of those) buy parts only from trusted well known sources, if one was transforming the original CMP "mixmaster" carbine back to the way it left the original manufacturer in WWII. Still there are many collectors who object to that. I don't. Matter of opinion I guess. The ONLY 100% certain way to ensure complete originality of genuine USGI parts, was to buy the carbine from the CMP, and get a typical mixmaster. Even then, the CMP replaced some parts as needed, but at least they were original USGI parts. Also, very, very few carbines that were sold by the CMP never went through an arsenal rebuild, where no attention to which of the 11 original manufactures parts went into the carbine being reconditioned. The arsenals simply tore them down, kept the good parts and threw them in bins, and when they were put back together there was no attempt to match specific manufacturer marked parts to the receiver being rebuilt. All 11 manufactures parts were interchangeable, as they all met the same gov't specs.
I wish Inland the best with this, but I'm sure original M1 Carbine collectors are not happy. I'll get off my soap box now
They must be worth a bundle. Hang on to thoses's.