Quoted: Winchester has strong tradition of producing substandard military rifles.
Winchester produced a 1940-spec M1 Rifle right into 1945 when the War Department threatened to not only stop paying for obsolete spec rifles, but to sue them for money already paid. The result was the very limited production "dash 13" version.
Winchester stopped producing proper speced rifles circa 1940 and didn't start again until 1945. There were many enhancements made to the M1 Rifle after 1940 and Winchester didn't apply any. Only the requirements to get lots of rifles in the hands of the troops allowed this to continue.
Same thing happened with the early M1917 Rifles produced by Winchester. The M1917 was, as we all know, the principal rifle of the Army during WW1. The first Winchester-produced M1917 rifle were so bad they were rejected by and forbidden to be in the war zone by the AEF. The reason was non-interchangeable parts. This was later corrected, just like the M1 Rifle was corrected.
I've no clue about their M1 Carbine production, but since this was never intended to be a serious infantry weapon it really doesn't matter. Winchester carbines will shed extractors with the best of 'em.
My M1 Rifle is Sprinfield (1942), my M1917 is Eddystone (1918), and my M1 Carbine is Inland (1943 I think). No Winchesters for me! OK, OK, my M1897 riot gun is a circa 1910 Winchester.
-- Chuck
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Chuck Winchester didn't even start M1 production until 1941, even those were the education order series. Not until mid 1942 did actual WRA production really kick off.
The Win-13s are also the most non-spec of all the WRAs, all sorts of revisions of parts were used as WRA was trying to use up all the remaining inventory.
So what are the "substandard" problems with the WRA M1s? Let's hear some facts. The only thing is the rough finish compared to SA.
SA and WRA both had minor revisions along the way. Were these serious problems? No. They were improvements.
So you are concerned that WRA didn't immediately incorporate the revisions like SA did. SA is a goverment armory, WRA is a private arms maker. SA could change immediately with a memo, WRA needed new contracts, price increases etc. WRA did include most of the revisions that SA ordered, they took longer with WRA. Unless you feel the milled WRA trigger guard that never got upgraded to the SA stamped version to be that big of deal.
WRA rough finish and not as polished compared to SA? You bet. But substandard? Ok, maybe in YOUR opinion.