Junkyardslug

It's a Colt Commercial setup. They moved the op spring from the piston to inside the buffer tube. The idea was to keep the spring away from heat. There should be a steel rod that connects the back of the side to the divot in the center of the buffer. The rod just floats in the two divots, it's not attached. Functionally it's the same setup as an FN-D. It could also be from the first batch of Swedish BARs (Colt build the first ~10,000) or other overseas contract BARs When Group Industries made their "Manual Operated Rifle" they didn't mill the hole in the front of the receiver for the op rod to pass through. They shaved the front of the slide back to fit and used this style buffer/op spring setup to operate the slide/bolt

I would ask History Hoarder to provide the source he is siting from those manuals. I've never run across this idea (and I have a lot of manuals and a LOT of interwar BAR photos). I'd also add I have a single pouch that looks identical to the one posted in my collection (minus the small tab). It was made circa 2005 by a friend of mine who does Airborne re-enacting and would make them out of damaged belt halves. He never represented them as anything other than what they were, but you know how the story grows as an item gets passed from hand to hand. Caveat emptor, and a wise man once told me 'Buy the item, not the story' George PS; excellent find on the Monitor belt

It's a Colt Commercial Charging handle. All US Military BAR's had the same size handle (but some winchesters were checkered instead of serrated) It also could be a Swedish charging handle (Colts have a C Arrow, Sweedish made will have a crown stamp)

I'll 2nd the wz.28 ID. The heal of the Polish grip was rounded (like a 1911 bobtail) while the Colt grips were square. Actually, the rounded grip goes back to FN, that supplied Poland with the first 10,000 rifles. These grip panels are identical to the FN Mod 30 and FN D George

Auto Ordnance was one of the smaller barrel subcontractor for New England Small Arms Corp. About 1/10th of the 'Original equipment' NESA barrels were made by Auto Ordnance. Tthere is no way of telling which of the three subcontractors made NESA marked barrels, and NESA also supplied spare barrels as part of their contract. But yes, as Roscoe stated, a AOC marked barrel indicates this was a replacement barrel as Auto Ordnance had a separate contract to supply the gov with replacement barrels. JYS

Almost all of them were. If I had to make an educated guess from studying production numbers I'd say before SN 503,000. But perhaps not even that many. You'd have to inspect and decide for that particular demil I tried to make a display gun 20 years ago by welding the mild steel plates in between the front and rear 2 inches of an Armasteel demill. I was using a MIG welder and was actually in a welding class at the time so I had some skill. The Armasteel crumbled like sand beneath the arc. I can't comment on TIG welding but I wouldn't hold out much hope Brazing will work on Armasteel however. I have seen several examples of 'Remilled' registered receivers. They function as intended but the brazing is fairly obvious, as brass won't take parkerizing. JYS

It is for an FN-D Note the third cutout (on the top at midpoint). This is a sear trip for the rate reducing mechanism. Commercial BARs (R75 and Monitors) and Polish BARs would have the 2 cutouts you point to but not the third

All I have ever seen with my own eyes are: Receivers Barrels Extractor Gas Tube pin (marked IBM on package) Putting together an IBM parts set was always one of my collecting goals, and by far the hardest. Most of the parts were subcontracted, but should have been stamped 'IBM'; never the less they seem to be as rare as hens teeth. I would be interested in pics of any IBM marked parts that are know

Armor Plate Press has put a large amount of effort into the book prior to Jims passing. Work stopped because they also concluded that there wasn't enough material with what Jim was presenting to them to go forward. I only hold the research material. As I see it all intellectual property of the book belonged to Jim Ballou and Armor Plate Press and since Jim is no longer with us whatever becomes of the book, it is not my call ALSO; keep in mind that Jim was not silent between the publication of 'Rock in a Hard Place' and his passing He continued to publish articles and a large part of what he covers in his new book is just a revamping of those articles. There is really nothing that I have found to date going through the papers that is groundbreaking or will alter to any extent the history or our understanding of the BAR as laid out in Rock in a Hard Place.

Jim, Ballou had been working with Armor Plate Press to get this book ready. They also have the manuscript, probably a more advanced copy than I have. Jim Ballou was a normal everyday guy, and when he spoke or wrote about the BAR like he was talking to a group of buddies around the campfire; not like he was writing a reference book. I also have the manuscript from his first book (purchased from Ballou in 2003) and it is a completely different work from the the published book 'Rock in a Hard Place' His publisher for the first book (Collector Grade Publications) had to re-write that book using his manuscript as a template and his research to plug in facts after they struck his waxing poetic from the page. It was such an undertaking they declined to take on his 2nd volume The main problem with the 2nd book is that Jim wrote in his normal style but the accompanying research is scant at best. He wrote a lot of first person accounts he collected (not transcribed; but re-told in his way). He would go on about the genius of John Browning in odd places. He had lists of BAR rumors he had heard over his lifetime but zero evidence beyond that. He put things back into the manuscript for his 2nd book that Col. Grd. Pub. struck from his manuscript from his first book. The whole work is very rambly and without much direction. I feel if one were to go through and clean everything Jim did, do proper citations, and get ready for publication, one would have about a 40 page book. Just as an example, in the piece Jim wrote about the Monitor that I posted above; he said "From the number of rifles turning up, one could speculate possibly 1,000 were actually produced" Well, we don't have to speculate, because we know how many monitors were produced because we have the Colt records. It was 125. 90 went to the FBI, 35 went to prisons, banks, mine companies, dealers, ect. In fact, to whom each Monitor was sold is know because that's in the Colt records also. Was it because he heard a rumor that there were 1000? Was it because it made a better story? We shall never know; but if I were his editor it would be negligence for me to allow that to be printed. To answer your question; I will probably not do anything with the manuscript. It's a Gidion's knot of a piece and it would have to be torn down to the studs and rebuilt from the ground up. The research material of his is more interesting but almost all of it came from his first book effort. At some point when I have the time I may try laying everything out and seeing if there really is enough to make a stab at it. But it probably won't be anytime soon George

I have all of Jim Ballous Papers from his last book project, among them this unpublished article he wrote on this Faux Monitor. One reason I like this board is the Thompson people have a collectors mindset, and I want to thank all you guys and David for constantly hammering the importance of 1) Marking reproductions and 2) educating yourself on what you buy. If you went by the Julia auction listing you'd think this was a legitimate Monitor. I thought about Xing out the names and dollar amounts but this is what Jim wanted published in the book he was working on when he died. My Dream BAR! Colt R80 Monitor by Lt. James L Ballou Fifty years ago there resided on the wall of the legendary '1010 Commonwealth Ave" in Boston, Massachusetts, the Ballistics Lab of the Massachusetts State Police, headed by Lt Carl Majeskey; my "Dream BAR" the legendary Colt Monitor, Factory Designation the R-80. It was love at first sight, slim lines, excellent balance, and it was a Colt. Research proved it to be the first R80 produced and sent to Charlestown Prison in March 25, 1931. I dreamed of actually shooting this very special BAR. It was unavailable because of lack of paperwork. Carl later became a friend and a staunch supporter. There has been much speculation on haw many were produced, it became the FBI's first Combat Rifle and they obtained about 90 of them. Kent Lomont got close to 80 Parts Kits, but was dismayed to learn they were Torch Cut with the internals in place so they were worthless as Kits. He had specifically requested they be disassembled so the small internals could be used to build a post dealer sample. There were about 100 Argentinean Monitors that became parts kits in 7mm Argentine. There were rumors of other countries that bought the R80, which was the factory designation for the Monitor. From the number of rifles turning up, one could speculate possibly 1,000 were actually produced. The only reason the state police had theirs was that C 102792, the very first Monitor put together, was turned in by the Prison Guard that had taken it home when the prison closed in the early 1960's; since they it has undergone some indignities, it has lost the characteristic bulbous compensator and someone carefully crafted a plastic A1 butt stock to replace the original and someone else has put an A2 carrying handle on it, obviously an anachronism. Through the years the value of the weapon has climbed to well over $50,000 dollars, well beyond the salary of a school teacher or police officer. The Second Colt Monitor belonged to John Scott, a gentleman of the First Degree. He generously allowed this author to handle it without reservation. At last my first dream was accomplished, my love was consummated. Firing this rifle was Heaven on Earth. The balance was perfect, controllability was excellent. Alas, this perfect BAR was far beyond my reach monetarily. After about 200 rounds I was lusting after this Jewel of a MG. Further, the Bulbous Cutts Compensator actually worked perfectly. Held loosely in the hands you can actually see the muzzle of the rifle dip downward. This was a Man’s perfect BAR, mine. It all began one night in a Nocturnal discussion with eh BAR’s number One Fan, Kent Lomont. He told me it would be possible to build a Modern Monitor, and even some special changes in the design. First and foremost increase longevity of the Barrel. I was surprised to learn the American BAR the M1918A2s barrel life was rated at 7,000 Rds. Personally I was used to putting 10,000 Rds of 30/06 ammo on a weekend shoot. Having done this more than ten times I had exceeded more than 100 times I had beaten the odds 10 times over by the Time I was in ”Tales of the Gun” when she begun to key hole badly. Dominic Spediacci had turned down M1919a4 Barrels to BAR specs and could be made from Stellite lined M1919 Barrels. Dom also solved another nagging problem for me, the issue of firing a BAR and letting the Op Rod forward over night and the carbon would freeze the Bolt shut. He put in an FND Gas rod reversing the system so that the rod went into a cup. This was Marriner’s Paten an made the FND 100% reliable in battle where guns sometimes have to work for days without Cleaning. I remember the first M249 SAW I ever fired was another ‘Consummate Southern Gentleman” Lamar Cheatham’s. I fired all 200 linked rounds without a problem it was a “Blast”. His only comment was “Do you know how long it took me to link 200rds of 5.56x4 and put them in that box?” Back to our Conversation, I explained my dream and Kent said “Dominic Spediaccie! He is the only one that can do this with precision” He went to explain what a wonderful machinist he was and could even do the Markings I had in mind”. A few weeks later I heard from Dominic, he had just had purchased a Polish Parts kit, an early one made by Colt. If I could find a Colt receiver he could build it into my dream. Kent bailed me out again, he had a transferable M1919 BAR that had been refinished. A few months later my beloved wife, Pat passed away with severe Kidney and Liver Problems; and left me with $25,000 life insurance policy. This was just enough for the kit and the M1919 Commercial BAR. We all spoke together until August of last year when my partner and dear friend in OO, inc, Burke Fountain, decided to fixit Kent Lomont in Salmon, Idaho. Some special request actually made Dominic’s job easier. I was not interested in the tinny ejection port cover it rattled and jammed. Weeks ran into months, and our Planned visit was imminent, August 18, 2011 was almost upon us when Dominic called and said he was almost done and he would meet us at Kent’s. I was like a kid waiting for Santa Clause, and so was Kent. I had not even seen the Transferable Colt Model 1919, I knew it had been reblued and also the polish Kit had to be reblued to match. I had requested a couple of changes; first I did not need an ejection port cover and I wanted USMC markings to match the Monitor on the second floor of the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico. In this case are the complete works of John Browning, sample of The Monitor, the Colt 1911, the models 1908 .380 ACP and 1909 .25 ACP. At the beginning of WWII when they were thinking of an elite force within the Corps, called the Paramarines. One of the suggested weapons for the Marine Corps Par Outfit was the Colt Monitor; the Monitor in the case had the Marine Corp on the Top Cover. Bob Landies sent me the special top cover that they put on the M1918 A3 they the fancy up for the USMC Model. Dominic said, “No, he would rather do it himself”, What a Fantastic Job he did. With the Marine Corps Markings on top, Where do we Put the Words “, Colt Monitor?” I have seen those words printed on the left side of the Receiver in the Monitor Brochure and in advertising, but never on a real Rifle. This is my dream BAR so; I put the words on the side of the receiver. I am never going to put it out as the real deal but as a Reproduction. As the Pictures show we all were in love with this Rifle. I could hardly wait to fire it the Next day, the brand new reproduction Monitor. Dominic chose to give me one of his reproduction Cutts Compensator, the most prominent Feature of the Monitor. Dom clearly marked as a Reproduction. All the Colt parts are marked with the C and arrow. Also not the Pistol grip trigger housing is from a real Monitor and like all commercials of the ear are set up to take the curved .303 Brit magazine. Finally Morning arrived we took 5,000 Rds of 30/06 1000 Rds of .50 BMG and buckets of .45 ACP. Plenty of Food and Water and headed up to the Great Divide. At about 5,000 ft we found a little valley, complete with Angus Bulls a small Pond fed from a Mountain Spring. We first mounted two of Kent’s BARs on his Land rover and stared to bust rocks and cut down Pine Trees. I set up a Table with sand bags to test my Monitor. All I can say is she lived up to my Expectation handling like a dream. My dream came true. After Lunch we hauled out some Garands and I carried a Matching Pair of M1911 Colts. ON the next Mountain Kent hand place a Steel Plate at about 300 YDS above us. Dominic started hitting 9 out of 10 shots, I was able to Top him with the M1 Garand and then the Sprit of the BAR kicked in, I tried the Colt Monitor and it shot better than the Garand. Kent called out. “See if you can sweep the water and get an even Pattern in the Pond” (See photo) We ended the Day happily with five .45s. I stared to make Kent laugh , when I showed off my skills with two matching .45s, I fired both simultaneously, making the hills reverberate with the dual muzzle blast and letting the bullets converge at about 75 yds in the water. “You Old SOB, you are full of surprises.” What a beautiful day, full of Joy and camaraderie! Thanks you Lord for letting me live past my allotment of Three Score and Ten PS; I would be willing to bet if enough of you war to order a Monitor in Semi M1918 A3 I am reasonable Sure that Bob Landies of OOW would be willing to make a few for you. I am sure Dominic Spediacci could make the special compensator for you

Dan, nice BAR! I would recommend Jim Ballou's book 'Rock in a Hard Place'. IBM BARs had the lowest production figures of the military BAR Contracts so correct IBM marked parts are extremely hard to find. It's great you have the original barrel on it. I see that it has been rebuild (the RA stamp) but if you wanted to put it back in original configuration as it left the IBM plant you'd need the following parts: Trigger housing: the production rifles had the Mag guides machined as one piece, the trigger group on yours is a M1918 that has been updated to A2 specs Bipod body: Your early IBM would have come with a cast one piece bipod head, not the 2 piece. Gas regulator: This has a post WWII gas regulator on it, the correct one would not have the knurling. As to the parts you mentioned, the washer has become extremely difficult to find as of late. The gas tube pin should be easy to find (Sarco, Numrich, I have a few). If you want to get really fancy I have these: https://www.wwiibarman.com/products/nos-ibm-gas-tube-retaining-pin But it's way overkill unless your doing a full restoration. These are expensive because they are NOS and IBM and IBM parts are impossible to find. In my 20 years or so collecting I have only found 2 barrels, these gas tube pins, and one extractor marked IBM. IBM and New England Small Arms (the other WWII Manufacture) both relied heavily on subcontractors to provide smaller assemblies. Chances are these NOS pins are from the same sub contractor that NESA got theirs from, the only difference is in the packaging. As to spares, nothing really wears out on these. Maybe Firing pins, extractors (with spring) and the gas regulator. But even those parts are stout, but that's what I'd keep on hand if I were shooting one George

11/16 - 28 N.S. 2 major dia. .67", +.0000, -.0062 pitch dia. .6468", +.0000, -.0041 minor dia. .626 max JYS

All Military BARs (M1918 and M1918a2) have the same size small charging handle. Some early WWI Winchesters had cross checking, all others had straight serrations running up and down. All Commercial Colts had the larger charging handle. These were all checkered. If it has a C and an Arrow stamped it was made by Colt, if it has a crown stamped it was made by Carl Gustaf in Sweden (but otherwise identical to a Colt Commercial charging handle) George

Man, that's hot!

Nice case! I've never seen one in the real world before. This was for the M1922 BAR (a variation built for cavalry troops, only 500 were converted from M1918s). The rifle would have been in this case when being transported on the pack mule. I don't have any numbers on how many cases were made but I know of several of the 'packs' that strapped to the back of the mule that are floating around.

Yes, it's where the bipod would attach. It was an odd mechanism with a locking ring, kind of hard to figure out how it attached even when it was right in front of you. The Commercial BARs started at serial # C100251 and went up to C 105299. All the Commercial BARs seemed to be mixed together, the 1919 (Bar with the recoil spring relocated in the stock), 1924, 1925/R75, R75A and R80 all shared the same serial number block, they were numbered as they were ordered/produced. My Theory on why the 1925 was later changed to R75 is the 1919, the 1924, and 1925 had it's own roll marking die. When the Monitor (factory designation R80) came out instead of making a new rolling die they ground off the '1925' and hand stamped the model in the new blank space. So the '1925' die became the new die for the Monitor (stamped with the factory designation R80), any new production 1925 (now stamped with the factory designation R75) and R75A with the removable barrel. George PS; your monitor build looks great, I've been enjoying watching it come together

Nice pics. Interesting that it has a Military style barrel on it, I wonder if it is a transitional model. There was a Model 1924 that had the slim chamber profile military style barrel, no bipod, mag cover or ejection port cover. The 1925 and R75 were the same model; Receivers were marked 1925 until aprox 1931 and then swiched over to being marked R75, somewhere between 102,XXX and 104,XXX from my records And nice catch on the fore grip, on my R75 parts kit the mag cover was definitely inletted in George

Don't worry Dan, it's out of my budget too!

Lookin good Dan!

Here's what I have: http://www.wwiibarman.com/collections/colt

You forgot to mention this is a Lend Lease Gun, that's an important part of the story here. There were a lot of hard to track down markings that showed up on parts that did service under overseas flags. I haven't run into these specific markings, but the font on the W isn't consistent with Winchester W on parts that I have owned. Also, serial numbers (or parts there of) weren't stamped on to new parts (except for the receiver). Colt was very good about marking their parts. My theory (for what it's worth) is that if there isn't a C followed by an Arrow on the gas tube then the gas tube and piston were replaced at some point, it was shipped to England, then there was an overseas arsenal rebuild (at WMA, probably an English arsenal but I'm not sure) during which time the '84' stamps were added to keep all the parts together.

the number could be late late WWII but more likely 1950-1953 produced

Yes, this is a BAR sight; produced sometime between the spring of 1943 and 1953. What is the number on the inside of bottom of the site ladder? That might help narrow down the production date. It is a not a repro, there has never been a need to repro them that exceeded the available surplus supply This is the stamped model. On the A2 rear sites the 'Stamped' refers to the housing; this one is stamped. Compair to this one (note the lower corners): http://www.wwiibarman.com/collections/rear-sights-and-parts/products/milled-early-m1918a2-rear-sight The Milled ones are more desirable as they were 1938~1943 'early' production George

Sounds like insufficient gas. At the range you can adjust the gas regulator to the next size up. Make sure you clean all the ports in the gas system (one from the barrel to the gas tube bracket, the one from the gas tube bracket to the gas tube, the 3 holes in the gas regulator, and not as critical, the 6 vent holes in the top of the gas tube behind the regulator)