early gas trap period follower and slide

[RCS]

Unmarked gas trap era follower with bevels and early long nose 20 degree rear slide. Received from the late "Mac" as a gift years ago.

Purpose of the bevels is unknown

A few gas trap rifles have surfaced with this follower and slide (sn 4016 is one of them)

Anyone see one of these ?

[Jersey Devil]

I've never seen that before!!

Well, of course, I just ran to my stash and examined all of mine very closely....and of course I don't have one.....damn!!

[Gastrapsforme]

I'll have to look and see what I've got. But never noticed any bevels on mine

[Bubba1]

I have a few of them . They are loose so I cannot verify as to who or when they were used unfortunately.

[CCyooper]

I have a beveled follower, unfortunately it does not have a 20 degree slide (changed during refurb?) When did they stop using 20 slides?

[GBA]

I just checked my stash and I have only two old style followers that aren't in rifles. They both have bevels, and both are numbered; 1 and 2. They also have the high angle, long tail slide, but I think one of them was modified. Have to look again tomorrow.

[Bubba1]

I have a few with a round dismount hole and some with a D shaped hole , all have the early 20 deg. slide and have a prick mark on the body and all have the beveled rails .
Does anyone have any pictures of early original Winchesters and / or even 100,001 WRA ? Which follower and slides did they have in them ?
I've been told EO Winchester followers had blued bodies with 20 deg. slides in the white of course Springfield did too.
One source says all Springfield follower bodies were marked , yet some data sheets of original Gas Traps list the followers as unmarked . I have not been able to examine these rifles or know if this part was added to a substantially original rifles .
Is it possible there where used in early Winchesters ?
One of the followers has a beautiful blued body and the slide is in the white . This is pure speculation.

[CCyooper]

Do you know when WRA stopped using the long nose (20 degree or variation) slides? At the last gun show I was at a lady selling an estate had a mid 43 garand with a welded SA receiver for sale that had an unmarked early follower with the rounded end slide. I really wanted it but we could not come to a price on the rifle and I wasn't clever enough at the time to ask if she was willing to swap the part. I called her later but she had sold the gun (at about my price) to another buyer. If they were still being used by WRA in the 112800 range I would like to buy one.

[RCS]

Winchester started with the unmarked (SA revision 2) follower and long nose with 20 degree back. There are photos from Chicago newspaper from that period showing the parts, also on the data sheet for Winchester 100,001 the same follower and slide are listed. Sometime early in 1941, Winchester change the slide to have a 45 degree front and back, this slide is unique only to Winchester and never used by Springfield. Advanced Winchester collectors state that the 45 degree front and back slide was only used until mid to late 1941 when replaced by the short nose slide. There would be some overlap. Photo shows the three 1941 Winchester followers and variations in the slides

[CCyooper]

Robert, as always thank you for your insight and comments. I guess I should probably be looking harder for a 2x45 rather than a 20 degree slide for a 112xxx rifle. The slide characteristics were not mentioned in the recent GCA article concerning the two early WRA rifles. That makes sense. based upon your comments they would both have short nose slides and there would be no reason to identify that part.

[RCS]

Concerning Springfield followers from the April/May/June 1940 period: The revision 3 and revision 3 unmarked had the 85 degree front face (side profile view) while the revision 2 and Winchester both used the 90 degree front face. Some Springfield slides were rounded at the back as a sort of field modification.

photo show revision 2 with 90 degree front face and two revision 3 followers with 85 degree front face.

The long nose slide was changed in the revision 4 (not shown) and the tail of the follower was larger

original data sheets start to list the revision 4 around the late 40K SA serial range but expect overlap

[CCyooper]

The rounded one in the middle was like the one I saw on the welded receiver rifle.

[RCS]

Photos of my Winchester 111709, still with the original barrel (nice bore but TE 6.0) and without import marks. this came from Calif some years ago and I wanted it because of the color and having the original barrel. I did install the WRA RS no trap stock which is interesting and some correct parts

the other photos will not download

[GBA]

Relative to the modified SA slides, I believe that they were used in transition in early to mid 1940. Maybe Robert would like to comment on that. I have a couple of them in my 1940 rifles.

[RCS]

George, I need some help ? I know Hatcher modified 50 slides and followers for the 1940 National Matches and the revision 4 was in use by mid 1940 and into 1941

I have seen modified slides with the rounded back on revision 2 and 3 followers