Hello. I am a new board member and I'm posting here to see if the knowledgeable folks here can shed some light on this rifle.

A bit of history, because I think things like that are interesting.  My uncle handed this rifle over to me 3 weeks ago.  He is getting up there in age (80) and wanted to be sure the rifle stayed in the family with someone who cares about firearms.  I'm not a military arms collector, but i see how someone could get bit by the bug.

Anyway, he never shot the rifle more than a couple of times.  He was more into old-west competitions and black powder up until about 15 years ago. This was his father's rifle.  He told me that grandpa bought it before he could remember (so before '44), and that he paid "5 dollars" for it. That's the story anyway.  My mother said that she knew nothing of it, except it sat behind the door of their farmhouse in Oregon where she grew up, and she didn't touch it.

The side-cover was drilled for some kind of sight. The sight is gone.  I'll prefer to just replace the cover and get a correct rear-sight (if it won't break the bank). There is also no top wood, but I don't know if it should have it.  Also, my uncle put the Higgens pad on the buttstock before grandpa died.  He did a good job in that he filled the stock so it would fit instead of just cutting away, but it is not period correct.  I've done some careful cleaning, staying away from the abrasives.

In the basic (1 to 2  hours) of "research" I've done on this board, I have no idea if this was born as a carbine or born as a rifle and then cut down.  I guess I can figure it was born in '98 based on the 75754 serial number.

I've taken lots of pictures (link below), including stock and receiver and barrel markings for those of you that are knowledgeable.

Any information would be appreciated. I'd also like to hear people's experienced thoughts on what they would do to this rifle.

Cheers - Thomas