M14/m1a "plastic" stock

[jsaviano]

Anyone know who sells plastic stocks for the M1A/M14 at a decent price?

[RCS]

There is an early "plastic" M14 stock and a later "plastic" M14 stock, the later has the checkering. Very early will take the M1 buttplate. The later checkered stock is around just have to look, alot of people paint them too.Attachment 15804Attachment 15805Attachment 15806Attachment 15807

[Hecklerusp45]

I have the checkered stock on my M1A and it does take paint fairly well. These are GI issue I think and not aftermarket.

[Bill Ricca]

Very early will take the M1 buttplate

Are you referring to M1 or M14. I have early M1 Fiberglass (Experimental) and they are set up for the Garand Butt Plate. All my early M14 Fiberglass take the M14 Butt Plate. That is due to the butt plate change was earlier than the fiberglass change.

Here is the page:

http://www.billricca.com/m14exp_stocks.htm

[da gimp]

Bill Ricca is one of the truly good guy dealers, his word is his bond & he shares his knowledge with all..........& he is daam knowledgeable...

[Gus Fisher]

Are you referring to M1 or M14. I have early M1 Fiberglass (Experimental) and they are set up for the Garand Butt Plate. All my early M14 Fiberglass take the M14 Butt Plate. That is due to the butt plate change was earlier than the fiberglass change.

Here is the page:

http://www.billricca.com/m14exp_stocks.htm

GREAT Page, Bill. Not sure how I missed that before, but I really enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures. You surprised me with the early M1 fiberglass stock with one piece handguard. I never knew those existed.

BTW, do you have any info on the M1 fiberglass stocks and two fiberglass handguards that were normally used on M1 drill rifles? I have read or heard "stories" where those were not supposed to have been used for live firing and always wondered if that was because the fiberglass was not that well put together. I always thought if the stocks would handle the normal amount of dropping them that drill rifles are prone to suffer, why weren't they strong enough for live fire? I've also heard you can't glass bed them, but with the bedding compounds we have today, I don't think that is true.

[RCS]

I almost bought a four digit M14 receiver that had been bandsawed into four sections, the barrel was dated in the mid 50's and still complete, but the synthetic stock had the M1 buttplate. The auction price was just over $1000 and as rare as this M14 stock was - I just could not pay that price to get that stock ! This was before General Tire & Rubber began production.

[Bill Ricca]

I wish I saw it. I have a wooden stock from 1954 with an aluminum buttplate. The aluminum butt plate was designed for the T44E6, but never adopted. Like the aluminum magazines, they were put into service. There is another difference between the 1954-55 stock version and the early 1959 production, which I have also.

Gus: A friend of mine went into the Naval Academy in Maryland and had the chance to check out all the drill rifles, both 03A3 and Garand. None of the Garands had fiberglass stocks nor hand guards.

The two piece on this market were made in South Korea by a dealer about 8 years ago. He did not know that the Garands were all one piece. I have one of the sets. Many now believe it is US GI, but as far as I know they never existed for the Garand.

One guy claimed (on the CMP forum) that they existed on rifles in storage. I asked him to post a picture and never heard another word. My guess is he was a dealer in those stocks and hand guards.

As far as Fiberglass hand guards for the Garand, I have a few different versions. One is from WWII and two others are from the late 50's-early 60's. They vary, but all are one piece.

I also have a few varieties of the 03A3 fiberglass stocks and handguards.

[Gus Fisher]

Thanks a lot Bill. I really appreciate it.

[louis]

Maybe I'm missing something here which is highly possible. But during my USMC time in service we had both plastic and wooden stocks. The plastic stocks where the same as the wooden stocks in size and one piece the fiberglass handguard was one piece as was the wooden stock hand guard. The butt plate to me where both the same as I had both types of stocks, I never saw anything made of aluminum though, there was no problem shooting the plastic stocks, they to me where just plain U-G-L-Y