Background

Several different owners and companies have used the name "Texas Armament Co.". The Texas Armament Co. this page is interested in was owned by William "Bill" Blake and located in Brownwood, TX from at least 1971 through 1995.

Texas Armament advertisements for surplus military parts have been found in various gun magazines in the 1970's and 1980's. In the October 1971 issue of Guns Magazine Texas Armament offered M1A1 Carbine stock parts for sale. The advertisements indicated the company address as P.O. Box 135, Brownwood, TX 76801.

Parts dealer and M1 Carbine collector Bill Ricca indicated he had done business with the owner of Texas Armament, Bill Blake, until the time of Blake's death in 1995 after which the company was closed. Ricca was unaware of any M1 Carbines manufactured by or for Texas Armament.

The Receiver

In October 2009 the author was contacted by the owner of the receiver depicted below who indicated he had purchased had the item which had been built into a non-firing replica using a variety of parts including surplus GI parts, surplus commercial parts, and a number of parts that were non-functional. The receiver was cast and had not been machine finished, hardened, or blued. The owner indicated he was going to attempt to finish the receiver and use it as a firearm. The owner was kind enough to share several pictures of the receiver before starting his project. The rear sight dovetail had not been milled out, the front of the receiver had not been threaded for a barrel, the recoil spring housing had been cast open along the length of the bottom of the receiver.

The photographs below that show weld marks were taken after the owner had attempted to restore the receiver. There were no weld marks present when he acquired the receiver. The receiver has no serial number.

Given the totality of the receiver it appears to have been manufactured for use as a firearm as opposed to a replica of an M1 Carbine and simply not finished. It is not known if Texas Armament actually built and sold M1 Carbines or if they intended too and abandoned the idea. The M1 Carbine markings and name of the company were part of the original casting. Since the 1960's a number of parts dealers with a surplus of M1 Carbine parts paid to have a receiver designed for casting with the intent of selling complete M1 Carbines. This website exists for presenting and sharing the history of these carbines as part of an ongoing research effort to acquire and preserve the history before it's lost.

The mold used for the casting is unlike any other mold used by other companies. It is unique to Texas Armament of Brownwood, TX.