Is my Rockola M1 Carbine original? If so what is it worth?

[handloader357]

I recently came across a too good to be true deal on a Rockola M1 Carbine. It looked clean enough, so I took a chance and bought it before I really knew what it was. I'm no expert, but have been reading up for the past few weeks. Here's what I know so far:

-All parts seem to have proper Rockola markings. Some parts were made by a sub contractor for Rockola but are marked as such so I think it's original.
-No bayonet lug
-Rear sight is the older style non adjustable flip-up sight
-All the metal appears parkerized except for the bolt which appears to be blued.
-There are no arsenal rebuild marks or re-import marks anywhere on the carbine. RMC with crossed cannons is stamped on one side of the stock and a small RMC stamp is present in the beveled area of the stock where the sling attaches.
-There is no date code under "Rock-ola" on the barrel.
-The magazine I got with it is not Rock-Ola, it's Inland.
-There is no oiler and it has a leather sling with foreign markings. Austrian or German or something?
-I removed the barreled action from the stock and found a small flaming bomb on the left side of the barrel just in front of the chamber area.
-I couldn't figure out how to remove the op rod/bolt assembly so I couldn't find any markings on the bolt itself. I lined up the notches in the receiver with the op rod, but just couldn't get it to come out. I didn't want to force anything either being that I've never played with one of these little guys before. Being that everything else is Rock-ola I assume the bolt is as well.

And it's one hell of a shooter! More than happy to post pics of specific parts, just tell me what you want to see. The metal is in great shape except for some surface rust on the butt plate. The finish on the wood is pretty good too, but it's got some dents and dings as you would expect from a WWII gun. Serial number is in the 4.6 million range. My dad has a ton of old M1 carbine stuff he's going to send me (15 and 30 round mags, original magazine pouch, tons of original surplus ammo still sealed and in cans )

Any guess on how original/rare it is and what it's worth once I get all of the extras for it?

 

[Lee Roder]

What kind of stock does it have? A picture or three is worth 10000 words.

Removing the slide presents a tricky puzzle. You are right in not forcing anything. In comes apart REALLY easily. Lots of jiggling helps. In my experience, freeing the slide requires getting the handle loose first, and THEN slipping the box away.

 

[handloader357]

Heres some pics, more to come...

 

[handloader357]

Pics part 2...

 

[handloader357]

Last two...

What do you mean by what kind of stock? I've read about high wood or something but I really don't know what that means.

 

[Lee Roder]

I appears that you indeed have a high wood stock. It's named "high wood" because the short strip of wood directly below the handguard cutout in your picture #9 was removed in later stocks as it tended to break (those are named "low wood"). That much at least is correct for your gun.

Not one of my carbines are Rockies so I have no meaningful experience researching these. I am no carbine expert either, especially re markings, exp your picture #6, and there are a lot of forgeries around (you can buy incorrect stamps to diy on ebay). One thing that puzzles me is that your barrel should have a date stamped on it below the "ROCK-OLA". This is about as far as I can take you.

You might want to try the carbine forum over at milsurps.com which has many resident experts, true experts, who can advise you further on your possible original Rock-Ola. Good luck

HTH

PS - your sling is defnitely not USGI

PSS - looking at #9 as close as I can blow it up, it appears that your barrel band was replaced. you have a type 1 band on there now which is "correct" if legit. but there's a "shadow" on the barrel which the type 3 band (the one with bayonet lug) would cover but it's hard to see clearly. get a "macro" shot of the barrel band area and ask over at milsurps, they will tell you for sure.

 

[Sunray]

99.99% of all carbines went through a factory rebuild after W.W. II. None of the original manufacturers made all the parts. Means that a carbine with all original maker's parts was most likely made that way by somebody with lots of time and money.