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Bring Backs

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Lightning330 View Drop Down
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Joined: Aug 22 2018
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lightning330 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Bring Backs
    Posted: Feb 22 2020 at 9:36pm
I feel like I'm setting myself up for the kill zone. But I'm going in anyway.
I'll try to set the stage a little.
I'm trying to put my QHMC carbine with serial #1918xxx back as close as I can to it's time frame.
Which of course will always be and remain a wanna-be.
It gets frustrating at times in dealing with what I will call soft parts. Stock and hand guard for one.
Rear sights are next on my list because that is what I'm struggling for. They are indeed soft compared to say the receiver. They do get a lot of damage especially if they have traveled the battlefield.
Now the bring backs.
The proud and true parts and finish correct ones. I love them, I respect everything about them.
It is indeed true honest history. Mess hall, medical aid station, radio station issue etc. True and incredible issues and yes bring backs. The history of that rifle should and will carry truth and honor. It is a gem indeed and is not beat up.
Back to point:
I'm trying to build, and rear sights are so hard to come by. The fakes are so good nowadays and the real ones are damaged for the most part of course.
My delima: Does a person put a tired war worn proven original pitted and scarred rear sight on his semi-nice wanna be parts correct carbine that probably never saw battle?
To find a nice original is next too impossible as it gets.
My time correct stock and hand guard (purchased separate) does have some dings and scars. But over years of use and being sanded etc. The CC is barely visible. It remains a non-original. Simply because it is not the one it left the factory with. Yet it might could pass for possible field use.

The flip sight is the top of the carbine and the first of second notice. Adjustable sights get a boo! from the start. Followed of course with the bayonet lug. It's just the norm. So if flip sights, it's full on baby with the lookie loo.
Imagine: Looks real enough. But the rear sight is battle damage and your carbine is not.
Gonna tighten the noose on my neck for the lynch mob.
Bring backs.
Love em'.  I have yet to see one battle worn. No person to my knowledge has ever claimed that either which is good.  But it would be nice to see one other than in a museum.
My first impression of bring backs when I was new to this .. grandpops left Saipan wounded with his carbine that he also carried at Tarawa. That has been my mistaken belief. 
I assume those from battle would go to the rebuild? From those that died bravely or were wounded. If you still can fight. I would assume that in time a field replace of some parts from others would be necessary for your trusted carbine? Hence once again a true bring back?
Question:  Where do these battle scarred sights come from?
I assume they are reusable yet don't show for many years later? The rebuild bin? The true blue.
Next stupid question.
Why keep battle scarred parts unless you have a battle scarred carbine to build or improve on?
If so. That puts it in a wanna be situation.
I'm just asking guys is all. I tend to over think things. My badd on that and I admit.
They always say the only stupid question is the one that never gets ask.
Kinda thinking I set the Barr pretty high on that.  
Best to all.


Lightning 330
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tenOCEE View Drop Down
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Knows rear sights!

Joined: Jan 01 2016
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote tenOCEE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb 22 2020 at 11:00pm
On a correction you have to weigh the result beforehand and look at what you're going to end up having when done. So matching finish and condition makes a difference in the outcome----and as long as the price is something you can afford to take the hit on.

Now if you found an original Carbine with mismatched colored sight to receiver you wouldn't change it. The wear would match.

All sights come available given enough time.

Also: you end up with multiple sights trying to match one to the receiver finish and condition. People have knocked them off receivers all along, swapping on the improved adjustable back then but now they want the flip back on for originality. Some got beat up or rusted by neglect since it was a cheap milsurp you didn't care about leaving in the garage, basement or behind the truck seat. Sometimes the removed parts laid in a box in the humid basement for decades.


Edited by tenOCEE - Feb 23 2020 at 8:33am
My sig: Seen an IP or S'G'? Add it to my registry. We'll check consecutives.
https://grandrapids.wufoo.com/forms/zzlnt0519k86xs/
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Lightning330 View Drop Down
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Joined: Aug 22 2018
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lightning330 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb 23 2020 at 3:14pm
Thanks tenOCEE. Well put.
I was just in one of those frustrated pity party modes is all.
Your right on taking the hit per pocket if that is what your after for the want and need, and yet it will come eventually if you wait.
Love my small town and isolation. But it puts me in the mercy of internet look and purchases.
The big gun shows are 250 miles or more in any direction. To have and too hold in your hands before purchase is a world of difference.
I'll get there sooner or later. Thanks again to all.
Lightning 330
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floydthecat View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote floydthecat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb 23 2020 at 4:30pm
You gotta’ really want to do it sometimes. I have a restoration candidate which seems to be a transitional SN right near the crossover range were parts types may-or-may-not be correct. If you’re within a 3,000 to 4,000 SN range where hammers, safeties, mag-catches, sears and firing pins changed from T1’s to T2’s, or T2’s to T3’s....how can you be sure what’s correct?

It seems best to have one solidly in the middle of divisible SN blocks where evidence is abundant concerning what’s correct. Opinions often have to rule.  
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Lightning330 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lightning330 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb 23 2020 at 6:11pm
Again, well spoken.
Almost put in focus with a game of Chess in it's own way.
I agree with keeping in the middle of everything on production dates.
Then you could also play the game of integrated parts shipped at your time frame. 2,000 bases of square S which really is the needle in the hay stack. But can still hold ground per time frame as one small part in Larry Ruth's book mentions, it did happen.
It's all how you choose to play it honestly in my book.
Mine is as parts correct within said time frames. Give and take of course. So many changes were made over the years and did they just dump the next shipment on top of the remaining still in the bin of integrated parts? More than likely I would think. We will never know these things, but does add to frustration when trying to build a parts correct wanna-be.
Money spent for your own personal parts correct carbine is and seems to be the bottom line.
I think it is more of a personal feel good attitude.
Only to know for fact that it is still incorrect. Catch-a-22 maybe? But when done, I will like it.
Love your last statement. Opinions often have the rule. Smile
Again thanks to all.

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m1a1fan View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote m1a1fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb 23 2020 at 8:24pm
If fake parts could be had at close to cost, carbine restoration might be an easier endeavor, but the skills needed to tell real parts from fake are the same needed to evaluate a complete carbine and determine if original.

Whether restoring or trying to find an original carbine, it is a catch 22. To know what is original, one must have something original. To have something original, one must know what is original.

Everyone makes mistakes, even the experts. I'd venture a guess that many a collector passed on a carbine thinking something was wrong only to find out later that it was right and vice versa. Better to be wrong and spend nothing than be wrong and spend a lot. Both can serve as valuable learning experiences.

A collector of carbines or parts could throw darts at a board or bet on sure things. The difference between throwing darts and betting on sure things is the most valuable commodity I know of...information. JMO, but most battles are won before they are ever fought.

Never say never, but I never pass up an opportunity to weave a few movie quotes into a reply.
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Lightning330 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lightning330 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb 24 2020 at 6:17pm
Thanks again to all.
This quote from above is good.
Better to be wrong and spend nothing than be wrong and spend a lot. Both can serve as valuable learning experiences.
Well stated. Unfortunately the being wrong and spending a lot hurts of course, but a valuable learning experience indeed. The best way to learn is sometimes the hard way. Mama says it's hot!
kinda means just that, but you still touch.
I'm only a few years into the bumps and lumps. Thanks to all in the Carbine Collector's site.
The journey has been less painful in many ways. 
Again: Many thanks too all.
Lightning 330
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