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M1A1 Buttstock trivia - arsenal rebuild


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This topic came up here are the shop this week. As we all know many Thompsons were

rebuilt and reworked by the Ordnance Department and many of them were given a parkerized

finish.

The parkerized finish has been very popular over the years with fakers because you can

parkerize a gun today, yet claim that it was an original "arsenal rebuild" from years ago. Unlike

bluing which always leaves evidence of changes to the finish, parkerizing does not,

The thing here is, I maintain that when a gun was reworked and parkerized, they did not

remove the crossbolt and washers from the stock, but left them. If they were rusted or damaged

the stock itself must have been rotted/damaged so

they just replaced the whole stock - not a big deal if you are the Ordnance Department. One

reason I think this is because I processed a large quantity of torched guns many years ago

which had been parkerized and some of the torched pieces of the trigger frames had remnants

of the stocks still attached and the cross bolts were blued even though the guns were parkerized.

I think that when you see a parkerized crossbolt you are seeing evidence of someone trying

too hard to make/fake the point that a gun was an "arsenal rebuild".Added to this is the fact that

any gun -Thompson or otherwise - that was rebuilt at an arsenal would have had the stock marked

with the initials of that arsenal and it is very rare to see these markings on stocks.

The counterpoint to this is that during rebuilds they did remove and parkerize the crossbolts

and that a parkerized crossbolt can be correct. Although this does not address the absence of

stock markings.

 

So what do you think?

 

Bob

 

 

 

M1A1stock (2).jpg

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Right. Buttstocks were simply replaced during arsenal rebuild. The stocks I've seen with parked cross bolts were on guns that had been parked, but later, not during arsenal rebuild. Little clues can add up. M1 TSMGs were rebuilt to M1A1 standard and parked as part of the process. Pin style pivots and safeties were installed, along with the later style "winged" rear sight. These were new parts, left blued. The new bolt was blued as well. So, an arsenal rebuild didn't necessarily have a completely matching parked finish on every part. That's a hallmark of later refinishing. Depots never buffed original surfaces, either. If evidence of final milling is gone and markings are faint, it's a later refinish.

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A question for the experts relative to arsenal rebuilds. Have you ever seen an arsenal rebuild that converted an M1A1 to M1? This gun is a Mt. Rainier rebuild that I bought in 1975. Did the government do it or was it done by a dealer/manufacturer? Thoughts and comments will be appreciated.

 

IMG_1873.JPG

 

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