M1 yardsale find continued, Stock refresh

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mac1911

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So I have been trying like hell to clean up and clear out my little crevis I have been banished too in my house. FINALLY came across a stock I found a yard sale. Sadly it was the only thing the Ret. USMC vet had left of anything gun related. I just happened to see the butt end of the stock sticking out from the rafters.

Any how as he was getting it down out of the rafters he said " you know I forgot all about this stock. I put this up here in the 60s when I decided to have my M1 sent out to be built into a NM rifle"
I did not have a camera at the time I wish I did. Any how I used a torn black T shirt to wipe off 50 years worth of dust.... Now he claimed the rifle had really good lock up and the garage has always been weather tight.

no metal and the stock with a quick wipe cleaned up good. Now I plan to try and get some of the grain to pop through. Im going to give it a basic good old dish soap scrub down and then maybe a tung oil and cheese cloth cleaning....if the grain looks like it will be nice looking I might try to clean it a bit more. I don't want to remove to much of the nice even patina just get it nice and clean. I wont really try to lift any dings or dents and will fit this stock as best as possible to one of my rifles that has a loose fitting stock.... I think this is a post war HRA stock ? probably from the late end of production. has the 1/2" acceptance stamp and a no sheriff P and a large perch behind the receiver heal.
I forgot who he said built his NM rifle but he said he was always a few Xs out of the winning circle. Just love to shoot. He was telling me how slowly sold off all his guns as he became just to physically ill to enjoy shooting them. I missed some of the guns by a few years. I will post as I clean and prep the stock for install and shooting.





 
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Nope. I think I found it in Framingham. Was driving home and passed a guy who has had a big garage sale going on. Asked if he had any WW2 things and he mentioned this. Brought me behind his garage to gis little gun shop and offered it for $400. Bought it on the spot


Here is a qoute from this forum from 2005 ish When I was here as "anythingww2"

Your M1 was made by Springfield Armory in Sept 1943 and has a 1952 dated barrel. Not surprising to see a replaced barrel since the ammo was corrosive. The knobs for the rear sight are also post war replacements so I assume your rifle was one of those that went through a post WW2 overhaul. Looks like a decent example

The barrel marking indicate Springfield Armory mfg in April 1952



Got an Inland M1 Carbine a few years ago from a craigslist ad I was running in RI. Paid $275 for it.
 
Maxspeed said:
Nope. I think I found it in Framingham. Was driving home and passed a guy who has had a big garage sale going on. Asked if he had any WW2 things and he mentioned this. Brought me behind his garage to gis little gun shop and offered it for $400. Bought it on the spot


Here is a qoute from this forum from 2005 ish When I was here as "anythingww2"

Your M1 was made by Springfield Armory in Sept 1943 and has a 1952 dated barrel. Not surprising to see a replaced barrel since the ammo was corrosive. The knobs for the rear sight are also post war replacements so I assume your rifle was one of those that went through a post WW2 overhaul. Looks like a decent example

The barrel marking indicate Springfield Armory mfg in April 1952



Got an Inland M1 Carbine a few years ago from a craigslist ad I was running in RI. Paid $275 for it.
Click to expand...

That's awesome 400 in 2005 was a good deal I think my CMP M1 in 2006 was 539$ IIRC.
 
Believe that is a "Defense Acceptance Stamp" which was applied to stocks used for late manufacture or as replacements. If it is 1/2" it was for IH 1953-on. If it is a 3/8" it was used for very late IH production, which would probably make it worth more. If the "P" had serifs it was used by SA.

http://myplace.frontier.com/~aleccorapinski/id5.html
 
IH would have a julian date in the channel. My guess an SA stock or a very late HRA.
 
dw617 said:
IH would have a julian date in the channel. My guess an SA stock or a very late HRA.
Click to expand...

the large horse shoe perch rear of the heal and the pistol grip profile is HRA end of production leaning.
Value is not a huge consideration. Im cleaning it up and putting it on a 1955 HRA anyway.
 
Ok had a little time and decided to finish cleaning up my stock.
I scored some decent stock metal from a friend of a friend.
Looks gi and it's not brand new looking so it will work.
Also I will take this time to remind some that you really need to get all the grease and oil off the inletted area of the stock to help minimize the action from slippering about under recoil. These old stocks are loose enough they don't need any help.
Well my camera skills suck so bare with me.
[video]https://youtu.be/98GuAvwsjEY[/video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijxcuEY1EJs
 
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Looks good already. Will be interesting to see how it looks in the sun after a few coats of oil.
 
Mountain said:
Looks good already. Will be interesting to see how it looks in the sun after a few coats of oil.
Click to expand...
other than some heavy dust this one was not that bad. I had some that would bleed nasty goo after several wipes!
sun might be out tomorrow... oil on later in the day.
Again I just want to get the crud off the surface im not looking to leach out years of use.
 
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was going to post some pictures but for the life of me I cant delete and of my stored pictures here on nes and I reached my limit and photobucket wont let me log on?
 
Moving forward on the stock.

So after my failed attempt to post my last pictures I have since lost those.
Well moving on I decided to go a step further on my stock clean up and freshen up.
Decided to give it a very good cleaning of lacquer thinner and a tooth brush.
I have clean several stocks like this but usually I don't go this far with the M1s. I just use a tooth brush and scrub the entire rifle down. Then wipe and scrub. Once I'm happy with the amount of finish/dirt/grime coming off onto the paper towel I stop. Again this stock was not to bad. So it cleaned up nice.
I am in no way trying to "restore" or "refinish" this stock.
Just nice clean prep for 100% tung oil.
The grain on this stock looks better the more I clean it. I have reached a level I'm happy with. Anything more I really think I will loose some of the nice color.
Stock will go near the furnace to warm up and the tung oil will be applied as I find time.




 
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At the risk of stoking the expected comments, that's really nice figure on the butt...
 
This is as "clean " as I'm going to try and get it.
I'm not that good at pictures. My digital camera is 10 years old and works when it wants and my phone is a cheapo.
Any how here is the final clean stage. Applying tung oil at some point soon.
 
garandman said:
Are you planning to use pure Tung oil? Why not a Tung oil mix?
Click to expand...

100% tung oil. I like how it comes out. easy to work with.
I use minwax tung oil finish for my match Rifle. I don't bother thinning the PTO I found no real reason to. I don't find it "sinks" in more. I found just warming the stock up with a hair dryer seems to get the oil flowing better.
I have used most types of oil finished from Danish oil to linspeed , tru oil and the likes.
All do pretty well and easy to use. Most give a non glossy finish that does not look like it sits on top of the wood.
I like tung oil as you can keep applying it with ease and does not seem to be affected by solvents.
 
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few more pictures before the tung oil

i took advantage of the over cast light to take some pictures. My 10 year old digi cam decided to come on so i snapped these. She wont win any mint or unissued awards but its going to look nice on my 1955 HRA

mDHMZb9.jpg


CeIqEt7.jpg


9R3JpQ0.jpg


qhy1rYu.jpg


about ready to warm up the hands and apply the tung oil.
 
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enjoying a nice oil soak at the spa.... crappy cell phone pic camera said no to more pictures today....

VzGJBSg.jpg
 
1st coat of tung oil..... still a little "wet"

the full bright sun makes it look glossier in the pictures. After a week of drying it will look better ad after 2 more coats it will be ready for another 50 years of use.

the stamp looks better once you carefully clean out some of the gunk
JdkJ1n5.jpg


eJ1mibi.jpg


Om3BHDn.jpg


mS2pf61.jpg


bJufxSn.jpg

tmgRZEb.jpg
 
Snowy day good for a oil rub

Will be getting back to the stock today. 2nd coat of tung oil. I dont know what the techincal way is to tell if your tung oil is dry but I go by smell. It looses it "wet" smell after 3-7 days.
 
Looking good! Nice color with the tung oil. I've decided to go old school and use raw linseed oil for my 1903 stock, figured I have all winter for it to dry :)
 
dw617 said:
Looking good! Nice color with the tung oil. I've decided to go old school and use raw linseed oil for my 1903 stock, figured I have all winter for it to dry :)
Click to expand...

just rub it in a little at a time. I take aprox a 1/2 tea spoon and just keep rubbing until it covers over and starts to Almost dry then another ....i kep going until its almost wet or stops sucking up the finish. then i will just give it a final rub in. let stand for a hour or so and wipe off excess. let dry for a week or so and repeat
 

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