M1 Carbine: Dating by serial number?

[Remander]

I saw a Winchester M1 Carbine with nice wood at a gunshow for $650 today.

The serial no. is 1076761.

Do you know of any sites that date the rifle based on the serial no.?

Any thoughts on price? It has "glossy" wood, which made me think it was a more modern post-war rifle, but I know very little about these rifles except they seem cool.

Thanks for any help

 

[Balddragn]

the best way to date it is "Carbine-14" dating

I'll go slap myself now

 

[hso]

All the Winchester M1 Carbines were made during WWII. Matter of fact, there were no military M1 Carbines that weren't made during WWII.

 

[Remander]

Thanks for the info. Know of any sites that show date of manufacture by serial number?

 

[Remander]

Matter of fact, there were no military M1 Carbines that weren't made during WWII.

Garry James in Guns and Ammo says: "After World War II, M1 Carbines continued to be produced and remained in the inventory. When the Korean conflict broke out, they accompanied troops to Asia where they received some of their severest criticism, when the .30 Carbine bullets allegedly had a hard time penetrating the quilted Chinese uniforms."

http://www.gunsandammomag.com/long_guns/m1_carbine/#cont

 

[Lone_Gunman]

If the stock is real shiny, it is probably an aftermarket stock.

$650 is a real good price for a Winchester Carbine. You should have gotten it, and just replace stock if need be.

As far as dating by serial number, I don't think that would be very easy to do. Different manufacturers were assigned different ranges of serial numbers. So the guns were really not built in consecutive order. You can look up the date your specific gun was manufactured, but this may actually be before one with a lower serial number was made.

As a simplified example though, lets say Winchester was assigned serial numbers 1 to 100, and Inland was assigned 101-200. Inland might well have built serial number 101 before Winchester built number 100.

 

[Diomed]

According to Ruth & Duff, your carbine was manufactured in April, 1943.

 

[Tom C.]

Serial numbers were issued to the manufacturers in blocks. Winchester's first block was 1,000,000 to 1,349,999. It appears to be early in Winchester's manufacture of 818,059 M-1 carbines.
Their blocks were 1,000,000 to 1,349,999, 4,075,000 to 4,075,009, 5,549,922 to 5,834,618, 6,449,868 to 6,629,883, and 7,234,884 to 7,369,660.