Early Gas Port Barrel

[Johnny P]

Another early gas port barrel.

[bruce]

Gorgeous barrel! Loose or attached to a receiver? Sincerely. bruce.

[Major Tom]

Other than the date, what is the difference between early and newer barrels?

[RCS]

another S-A 8-40 barrel

This barrel which is also dated S-A 8-40 has London British proof stamps

receiver is in the 52K serial rangeP1010024_1_0020_020.jpg

[RCS]

gas trap barrels

The gas trap barrel is a few inches shorter than the gas port barrel and without a gas port. the gas trap barrel is made so
that the gas cylinder is screwed on to the barrel with a single spline cut into the top of the barrel. the front sight locks into
the barrel to keep the gas cylinder in place.

Gas trap barrels in good condition are worth around 10K and up if located, this also means that fakes are around. The gas
trap barrels have a different drawing number. In my photos, the middle barrel is originalP1010024_0023.jpgP1010022_0021.jpgp1010009_0010.jpgp1010014_0015.jpg

[Johnny P]

Other than the date, what is the difference between early and newer barrels?

None other than the date and markings, and being virtually impossible to find.

[Johnny P]

This barrel which is also dated S-A 8-40 has London British proof stamps

receiver is in the 52K serial range[ATTACH=CONFIG]51529[/ATTACH]

Too early for the Lend Lease rifles. Must have come back through England at some later date.

Canada received about 1500 Colt 1911A1 pistols through Lend-Lease in WW2. After the war they were sold by the Canadian government to an arms merchant and were shipped to England where they were British proofed, and some shipped back to the U.S. commercial market. They have the Canadian broadarrow C property mark on receiver and slide as well as the British commercial sales proofs.

- - - Updated - - -

Gorgeous barrel! Loose or attached to a receiver? Sincerely. bruce.

Loose. Bought it for a September 1940 rifle with a bad bore, but actually a month early for it and couldn't bring myself to change it.

[RCS]

more early rifles

The S-A 8-40 barrel with London proofs is not from the Lend Lease period, found two other
M1 rifles, both four digit and with the S-A 8-40 dated barrels, one was London proofed, data
from GCA records.

Two rifles that had some restoration but both have S-A 7-40 dated barrels, late SA SPG no
trap stocks with two equal sized holes. The 52112 rifle has original keystone and comp springdscn2771.jpgdscn2770.jpgdscn2767.jpgdscn1115.jpgdscn1118.jpg

[Johnny P]

Op-rod and springs on the 9-40 barrel rifle. Has original SA/SPG stock, but some goober had crudely modified the butt to take a trap butt plate, but thankfully none of the modification showed and I had the area restored.

[RCS]

early gas port sn 63282 with S-A 9-40 bbl

This rifle came from the west cost about 20 years ago. Could have been one of Bishop's rifles but
not certain. The bore is really nice with a T.E. 4.0. Missing the comp spring but still has the keystone
on the rare round body follower roddscn3398.jpgdscn3391.jpgdscn3372.jpgdscn3392.jpgdscn3395.jpg

[lyman]

This rifle came from the west cost about 20 years ago. Could have been one of Bishop's rifles but
not certain. The bore is really nice with a T.E. 4.0. Missing the comp spring but still has the keystone
on the rare round body follower rod[ATTACH=CONFIG]51559[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]51560[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]51561[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]51562[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]51563[/ATTACH]

nice find,

Mne, #176, was a school gun, with a 41 (IIRC, need to pull it out the back of the safe to be sure) dated barrel,

brother has 969,

dad found both in a school long long ago

[Major Tom]

Very interesting posts. I thank all who contributed.

[Johnny P]

Early follower rod with Keystone compensating and recoil springs. The early rifles did not have quite enough oomph to cycle reliably and the follower rod was modified and the compensating spring was added, 1935 I think. The early follower rod had the shoulder for the spring at the front of the rod.

[RCS]

keystone and comp spring

The first 5000 (approx) Winchester manufactured rifles also had the keystone and comp spring, This was during the
first part of 1941. Rifle in photo is a20d9ac2d-8ecb-4a25-912a-2982a5fd4805_0021.jpgd0dca638-3bfe-420e-aab1-7e2c7bfaea23_0023.jpg0aaeb6f0-d77d-4b6a-9384-fb9f4be42968_0026.jpgP1010062_0052.jpg three digit serial number (also pictured in Canfield's book) that was serial numbered
on Jan 15th 1941

stock is no trap WRA RS cartouche

[RCS]

Springfield Dec 1940 rifle

This rifle came from a company named Paragon and cost $450.00. Came with original S-A 12-40 barrel with a nice
bore. Bolt still had the round firing pin, but the real prize was the original keystone spring on a round body follower
rod. There were other early low numbers with keystone springs but the springs were broken and came out in three
or four inch sections from the op rod. Stock was replace with a barnwood SA GHS stock plus other parts were also
replaced. I did remove the keystone springdscn0536.jpgdscn0537.jpgdscn0539.jpgdscn0552.jpg