M1A1 Carbine

[Ghost7.62x39]

Anyone know where I can find one of these rifles, do they make reproductions, preferably full wood stock.

[TJB63]

Ghost,

SARCO sells Reproduction Stocks for something like $175.00 minus Gun. They will fit any M1 Carbine. I have one I bought back in the 80's and quality is very good., If I remember right, they come out of Italy.

An Original M1A1 would cost a few thousand and even then you better know what you are looking at, as there are a lot of fakes out there, So if you are going that route I'd suggest You live, eat and Sleep M1A1's until you know everything there is to know about them.

They definitely add a unique style to the rifle and are fun to shoot even though .30 Carbine ammo is Big $$$

TJB

[Hawk]

Check them out here:

http://www.thecmp.org/m1carbine.htm

[Noah_Zark]

Anyone know where I can find one of these rifles, do they make reproductions, preferably full wood stock.

Ghost:

Just a clarification,

M1 Carbine = full wood stock

M1A1 Carbine = wood foreend with folding steel wireform butt


The original M1A1 Carbines were ONLY manufactured by Inland Div. of General Motors, and ONLY in a certain serial number range. These are quite spendy in terms of asking price, and you MUST exercise caution because fakes are plentiful. The fakes include:

a) Inland Carbines in the correct S/N range that were built as M1A1s and later restocked with a wood stock after WWII or Korea as many were. A repro M1A1 stock is stamped and aged to "correct" configuration and fitted to the reparkerized barreled action and priced as an original "in excellent as-issued condition."

b) Inland Carbines in a non-M1A1 S/N range with an S/N that is close or has been modified by stamping or die grinding to fit within the correct S/N range, and fitted with a repro stock as in 1) above. Again, price will be four digits, in the $2400-$4500 range depending on condition and degree of avarice on the part of the seller.

c) Carbines of other manufacture (Winchester, Standard Products, Saginaw Steering Gear, National Postal Meter, IBM, etc.) being falsely represented as an M1A1, usually with a doctored repro stock as above. These are not given a second glance by knowledgeable collectors, but uninformed firearms enthusiasts are the targeted customer base for these fakes.

d) Any of the above that has a REAL M1A1 stock that was bought from a surplus military equipment dealer in the late 50s through the mid 70s. Legit M1A1 stocks have turned up at surplus dealers over time, but those caches are long gone. Still, they do turn up on the secondary market, but you have to know what you are looking for to tell a legit M1A1 stock from a fake. Too many details to go into here.


All that said, if you are looking for a Carbine with a full wooden stock you are looking for an M1 Carbine, not an M1A1. And the CMP has them available if you qualify (mentioned in a thread above).

There are "commercial" M1 Carbines out there and I would caution you to stay away from them with a couple exceptions. These include: Universal, Plainfield Machine, National Ordnance, Federal Ordnance, Auto Ordnance, IAI, and Kahr. Kahr bought the Auto Ordnance assets from Numrich Arms and their Carbine is still in production. However, the Kahr has had some quality problems as had most of the others. The only two commercial carbines I would consider owning are the Plainfield and the Iver Johnson, or the very early Universals but you need to be educated in Universal variations to recognize an early one.

At one time I owned 33 M1 Carbines collected from the late 60s to the early 90s. I sold all but two because I got tired of the fakes and rebuilds of USGI Carbines into "originals" and the rebuilder/sellers marking them up accordingly. I kept my early Universal and an early Plainfield because believe it or not, those were the two most functionally reliable of any of the 33. Not one of the USGIs came close to being as reliable with FMJ ammo as the early Universal or the Plainfield. Why? Because of varying amounts of wear from at least one and likely two or more conflicts since made in 1943-44.

I hope this helps!

Noah

[clarion44]

Hawk and Noah_Zark already hit the main points. If you qualify (which doesn't take much), go with a carbine from CMP. I've made a few trips to the North Store in Port Clinton, OH and they have a lot of good rack grade carbines that the stocks just need a little TLC.

I need to get myself a carbine on my next trip up.

[nfafan]

This post has me wondering whatever became of the thousands of "BlueSky" M1 carbine (and Garands for that matter) imports that you could find at any Woolworths or Murphys Mart in the early 80's...

[gf45acp]

My "Blue Sky" carbine still sits in my safe, though it wears an aftermarket stock nowdays (still have the wood that came with it).

[Noah_Zark]

This post has me wondering whatever became of the thousands of "BlueSky" M1 carbine (and Garands for that matter) imports that you could find at any Woolworths or Murphys Mart in the early 80's...

A cottage industry grew up with Blue Sky guns as raw material. Many of them had their barrels removed (eliminating that pesky "Blue Sky" import rollmarking), and replaced with a NOS surplus GI barrel. Other parts were exchanged for "correct" parts, and the whole mess was given a nice new gray-green park job. Finally, What once was a $289 to $395 M1 Carbine was then placed in an ad or show table priced at $800-$1500 depending on the mfr on the receiver. One of the reasons I got out of collecting USGI Carbines. Carbines that are still "Blue Sky" marked are scarce and far between now, and tens of thousands were imported.

Noah

[TJB63]

My Blue-sky is doing just fine, although it's sport a repro M1A1 stock pretty much since I bought it. My brother has 3 of them and all seem fine except for one that the front hand guard seems to like to come off while it's being shoot, easy fix though.

Honestly I never understood all the negativity towards the Blue-sky, Their Import stamping looks better than some of the "Newer" MilSurp of late and at least on the 4 that I aware of, is hardly noticeable. I've seen a few Nagant 1895's that look like a billboard ad.

TJB

[nfafan]

No, I didn't mean for my post as a knock against the Blue Sky imports at all, just wondering where these affordable guns went to.

Yeah, they all had that back-'o-the-bunker look, but easily cleaned up and were affordable - as compared to today. I can't get over what folks are asking for the M1 carbines today.

Back then I think I paid about $200.00 for an Inland, enjoyed it for awhile until I grasped the reality that even at 80's prices - carbine ammo is expensive to plink with - and then sold it at the gunshow for what I paid for it.

Speaking of imports; wasn't there not a recent thread (post-Obama election) announcing that more imports of these ex-USGI/ex-MAP/ex-leandlease guns were on the way?