M1 Carbine Stock

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WelshShooter

WelshShooter

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So I took my M1 carbine out shooting this weekend, which was fun and all, but I cracked the stock behind the tang screw. To clear things up, it's an IAI M888 so not a genuine M1 carbine. I was going to ask for suggestions on how to fix this but I want to post some pictures first, which I won't be able to do until later tonight.

If it's not fixable, can anyone tell me if replacement M1 stocks will fit the IAI M888 rifles?
 
Nah, I'm based in the UK and Boyds won't export anything over $100. The main stock is $129.99 so won't be able to get one of those. I did spot a spare set on eBay but that will cost me around $200 by the time I pay UK import tax. I don't want to pay all that money and wait for importing if it won't even fit the rifle!

The IAI was made sometime in the 90s in Texas. The cast receiver and new woodwork (plus metal upper hand guard) was the only new manufactured parts, the rest were surplus GI parts if they were available. I'm not 100% sure if the cast receiver and furniture is to GI drawing spec, and therefore are interchangeable.
 
Here's the pictures as promised. Sorry for the bad lighting, but you can see that a small piece has chipped off along with a more pronounced crack proceeding from the tang screw.

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Is it worth relieving the wood around the recoil lug and bedding it with something like devcon resin? That should fill out any slop which might be causing the receiver to move.

Since my first post, I read a similar fix as suggested on a different rifle with a similar problem. See the link below and the second post with lots of pictures.

I guess for now I'll see if someone can confirm from experience that normal M1 carbine stocks will fit an IAI M888 rifle.

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=49000&page=2
 
Try Numrich Arms. I have a '43 Saginaw and accuracy stunk. Arsenal Rebuild with M2 stock someone sanded down. I bought a birch stock for about $60.00 including shipping. Helped accuracy.

You could repair that stock. I suggest using Brownells acraglas. The basic kit comes with die to match to wood color.
 
Sunray already posted a link to information about the rifle in post #5. In general, the receivers were either surplus Iver Johnson receivers or Spanish made receivers machined to the Iver Johnson pattern. These will fit in a GI pattern stock with no or only minimal modifications. Receivers used in later production were made by SMI and while they share some of the characteristic features of the Iver Johnson receivers were different and I don't know if they will fit into a GI stock without alternations to the stock.

You can attempt to repair it.

You can replace it with another wood stock. Try here: https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/931340B and hope it either fits on its own or with minimal alternations.

You can replace it with a polymer stock. In this case, if it doesn't fit right out of the box, altering the stock is a little more involved than using a rasp and some some sandpaper.
 
Sounds like it's time for an upgrade.
I put one of those M4 conversion synthetic stocks from midway on mine.
Unless you want to stay with a wood stock.
 
Go to the following sites - then search for info on Frank Derrico... He's a stock wizard that does quite a few repairs on carbine stocks (the pics I've seen were just outstanding...). If you can contact him I'd take any advice he has to heart.... I'm sure there are certainly competent woodworkers in the Uk that can sort you out with a solid repair with the right technique... Additionally, there are european sources for carbine parts and I'm betting more than a few old carbine stocks....

At any rate, here's three sites that Frank's stock repairs have shown up on....
http://m1carbineforum.forumco.com/
http://www.milsurps.com/
http://forums.thecmp.org/index.php
the last two, you'll want to go to their carbine boards - hope this helps... The repairs that I've seen by Frank really caught my eye. I know that import/export from the UK is pretty much prohibitively expensive - but you might find someone local who could use Frank's recommended repair for that problem....
 
Thanks for the recommendation lemaymiami, I'll check out his posts when I get time. I won't have time to fix this stock for a while due to other projects and I have many other guns on hand to shoot. I will definitely update this thread should I attempt to repair the stock myself.
 
By the way that crack just behind the recoil plate is fairly common - I've seen many pics of stocks with a crack right at that point. I'll hazard a guess that you'd have to shoot a bunch of ammo to make it worse than it is.... but you'd want a gunsmith's opinion first since I'm just a guy who has a carbine (and mine's not a GI version either...).
 
Is it worth relieving the wood around the recoil lug and bedding it with something like devcon resin? That should fill out any slop which might be causing the receiver to move.
Click to expand...

It looks to me from the pictures more like a chip that hasn't completely chipped out yet then a crack. When you take the recoil lug out is there a crack deeper in the wood?

Your fortunate that if you choose to repair it your stock is pretty dark which should make the repair easier to hide. Use an epoxy and mix some dark brown epoxy pigment or powder in it and refinish the area with some dark wood stain over the repair and when you're finished you will never see a thing. Depending on how deep the crack is you can either remove the rest of the chip, epoxy the chip in place (probably the weakest choice) and/or glass bed the area behind the recoil lug. It's a common place for carbines to crack but as other have said carbines don't have that much recoil and it probably won't grow or be a problem in the future.
 
I'd just epoxy bed(Acraglas kit, ~$30 on Amazon, and follow the directions on the box) the recoil lug are forget about it.
Boyds (nor anybody else) can't export anything over $100 without the U.S. Dept. of State's export permit. For who knows why the Carbine is on the ITAR list and parts for 'em cannot be exported. Never seen any terrs using Carbines myself. Some States think they're "assault" weapons.
 
So are all M1 Carbine parts on some sort of evil to export list? I note a guy on GunBroker that has ten boyds maple M1 Carbine stocks available at $50 each starting bid with no bids and a lot of GIs around that price for about the same. Last carbine stock I bought had been "ruined" by someone trying to learn checkering and was in a $10 barrel at a local shop. Sanded it down and stained it and put it on a parts junker and called it macaroni.

-kBob
 
Update to this thread. I didn't fancy trying to repair the stock as I don't want to ruin the original wood, so I decided to buy a replacement stock. Finding one was a bit of a nightmare here in the UK, the only way I was going to get one was to import from the USA using an import agent. Due to the costs involved etc., and concerned over the quality of a used GI stock as I would not be able to return it (cheaply!) I bought a hand-picked stock from Fulton Armory along with a replacement sling, oiler and metal work for the stock.

The walnut stock arrived unfinished. The stock wasn't a 100% fit, more like 98%, so needed some minor wood work. I stained the stock and sanded using varying grades of sandpaper (120 grit to 220 grit). The stock was wetted and steam dried to raise the whiskers which were removed.

For the finish, I opted for raw linseed oil. The first coat was slathered on and allowed to dry for 30 minutes. It was then wiped off and allowed to dry for 24 hours. A total of three coats of raw linseed oil was applied using the same method.

I'm really happy with the results; the grain of the wood is just gorgeous! The rifle cycles and functions fine with no wearing on the wood, looking forward to my next range trip with it now.

Original Stock

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Original Stock (top) and New Stock (bottom)

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New Stock, after inletting, sanding and oiling

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Yeah, that looks pretty nice. That's probably a Boyds select grade stock. They do a pretty good job of getting them close to a perfect fit. I have one on a 1943 Inland. I didn't have to do any mods to mine, slipped right in. Mine came out lighter than I wanted even after 9 coats of linseed oil, but I can live with it. It wasn't a select grade, should have paid the extra $35.
 
Nice M1 Carbine...

Mine came out lighter than I wanted even after 9 coats of linseed oil, but I can live with it.
Click to expand...

Linseed oil darkens over time. Give it some time and you'll probably notice a difference. I've heard that it darkens more in the absence of UV light. This is the opposite of most wood finishes. I know a walnut Garand stock I refinished with linseed oil has darkened...
 
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You are not done with the linseed oil. And, you never will be. The old timey process by which I was always told is to apply then wipe off:
  • Once a day for a week
  • Once a week for a month
  • Once a month for a year
  • Once a year for the rest of your life
Perhaps more often for gun stocks, if it gets wet, or you overspray with machine oil onto the stock, so need to displace with the linseed oil.

It is a living finish, like a blued steel part, so needs to be maintained. It will change, and get generally prettier (as well as darker) over time. But not much next week or next year. 3-10 years and you'll see the difference.
 
AlexanderA said:
If I may ask, what is the legal status of those in the UK? Are civilians allowed to own them?
Click to expand...
Semi-automatic centrefire rifles are illegal to own undor Section 1 firearms, whereas semi-automatic 22lr are legal Section 1 firearms. You need a Section 5 Firearms Certificate to own semi-automatic centrefire rifles, which is not easy to own, usually firearms dealers who import firearms for whatever reason (eg Maritime security), but civilians are generally not able to get this. Everything is always based on providing a "good reason" to own said firearm.

What it means, is that a semi-automatic rifle can be made legal if the rifle was manufactured without a gas system, and there is a manual action to extract the case and load the next one. My M1 carbine was made such that there is no gas system, after firing a round the shooter must pull the charging handle backwards and release to load the next round There are many AR-15's made this same way in the UK, but a lot of these conversions are expensive (a standard AR-15 here is around $1,500... I got my M1 carbine for around $500).

However, a semi-automatic rifle (Section 5) cannot be converted and sold as a legal Section 1 firearm, as there is also a rule along the lines of "once a Section 5, always a Section 5".
 
CoalTrain49 said:
Yeah, that looks pretty nice. That's probably a Boyds select grade stock. They do a pretty good job of getting them close to a perfect fit. I have one on a 1943 Inland. I didn't have to do any mods to mine, slipped right in. Mine came out lighter than I wanted even after 9 coats of linseed oil, but I can live with it. It wasn't a select grade, should have paid the extra $35.
Click to expand...
Absolutely correct, as there was sharpie marking inside the stock saying it was a Boyds stock.
 
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