Re: M1 Carbine Rockola vs Underwood
<span style="color: #000099"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">ETA: I inherited a Rock Ola last year, this is some information i had stored for research.</span></span></span>
Rock-Ola Manufacturing Company
-Main Manufacture & Identification Codes: "R" "Rock-Ola"
-Main Plant Location: Chicago, Illinois.
-Average Cost to Government per completed rifle, $58.00.
-Approximately 228,500 total Carbines were made by Rock-Ola: <span style="color: #FF0000">About 3.7% of M1 Carbines made.</span>--M1 Carbines 228,500 (Rock-Ola, did not make the M2, M3, T3, or M1A1 Carbines)
<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">they made the least amount of carbines which is why they are more desireable.</span></span>
-Serial number blocks assigned by the government:
--1st block, Serial number, 1,662,520 - 1,762,519| November, 1942 - November, 1943
--2nd block, Serial number, 4,532,100 - 4,632,099 | November, 1943 - March, 1943
--3rd block, Serial number, 6,071,189 - 6,099,688 | March, 1944 - April, 1944
--4th block, Serial number, 6,199,689 - 6,219,688 | April, 1944 - May, 1944
-Primary stock & hand guard supplier: Rock-Ola
-Barrel suppliers: Rock-Ola
-Parts made directly by Rock-Ola:
Bolts, receivers, barrels, stocks & hand guards, gas cylinders, extractors, firing pins, recoil plates, trigger housings, sears, triggers and slides
Side Notes:
--Rock-Ola only produced approximately 6,000 M1 Carbines in its first 6 months. Had a rejection rate of about 8%. Later Rock-Ola started meeting the Governments standards for quantity and quality.
--Rock-Ola was more known for there Jukeboxes.
-All matching vs how it left the factory:
****** There is a difference between an all matching carbine and how it left the factory, a lot of M1 Carbine contractors shipped parts to other Contractors. Just because its all matching doesn't necessary mean that is how it left the factory. So don't get super disappointing if your Carbine is not all matching, its possible its exactly how it was when it left the factory!!! An example say Underwood was low on sears, Inland would ship some Sears to them. Sometimes marked or unmarked. Here is some known shipments to Rock-Ola, how ever there could be more shipments that occurred that are unknown but this is a good reference. (most parts were shipped together in groups, magazine catches with sears, etc)
(Organized by year. 1942 - 1943)
-Inland shipped approximately 500 slides to Rock-Ola in 1942.
-Inland shipped approximately 1,500 bolts to Rock-Ola in 1943.
-Inland shipped approximately 2,000 receivers to Rock-Ola in 1943.
-Underwood shipped approximately 3,000 extractors to Rock-Ola in 1943.
-National Postal Meter shipped approximately 10,000 Front sights to Rock-Ola in 1943.
-National Postal Meter shipped approximately 1,000 bolts to Rock-Ola in 1943.
Example: You have an all matching Rock-Ola except slides that's marked Inland, there is a good chance it left the factory just like that!!!