Possible Underwood Carbine Purchase

[oldfoneguy]

Gentlemen the endless search continues. This is an Underwood carbine receiver 140k serial, Underwood barrel 3-43 dated, M2 stock, Korean War sights & trigger guard, 1 surplus magazine, no bayonet lug oiler sling or accessories. I haven't seen it yet so no comment on barrel condition but am looking at it tomorrow afternoon. Seller is firm on a $1000 usd sale price. Is this mixmaster worth that kind of money? Comments welcome. Thanks

[W5USMC]

Seller is firm on a $1000 usd sale price. Is this mixmaster worth that kind of money?

Yes! And if not import marked could be a bargain! Barrel looks dark, trigger housing looks plum colored, refinished somewhere.

[USGI]

Yep! What Wayne said. - Bob

[floydthecat]

Nice looking clean carbine. I third the motion.

[Singer B]

For a $1000? Take it and run.....

[oldfoneguy]

So the Underwood will be mine tomorrow. I saw it today but couldn't bring it home as the seller is working tonight and was in a rush. There is some ridiculously light import stamp on the bottom of the barrel that I just plain can not read. The plum color trigger group is Inland, the bolt is round, the op rod is the later cupped type. All the bolt parts are Underwood as strange as that sounds so they might have been directly changed over? Serial is 1.4 mil not 140k like I was told. Barrel is 3-43 Underwood and the bore and muzzle crown are excellent. The magazine is Underwood marked. There are no markings on the stock, however there is no evidence of sanding on it at all. I'll post more pictures once I get it home tomorrow.

[USGI]

All the bolt parts are Underwood as strange as that sounds so they might have been directly changed over?

The later round bolts (yours) had a hole about midway along on the bottom and came with the late type extractor, ejector, and firing pin. If the parts in your bolt are the earlier designs, then they may have been changed over. I have a new .U. round bolt that I bought as a bare bolt in green colored wrap 17 years ago at a gun show. I think it was originally complete and someone removed the parts and wrapped it back up. I've never seen any evidence that Underwood packed bare post war bolts in boxes for shipping, but they may have. I do have some pics I found in 2011 of their boxed complete bolts.



I've never changed a barrel band, but have heard R&R on some front sights can be a real challenge. Original (Bayonet) Type 3 bands can be reasonably priced, but original Type 1 and Type 2 bands can run hundreds of dollars.

Now, I'm curious if you already had a bolt tool on hand or did you "pull it off" without one? - Bob

[oldfoneguy]

The later round bolts (yours) had a hole about midway along on the bottom and came with the late type extractor, ejector, and firing pin. If the parts in your bolt are the earlier designs, then they may have been changed over. I have a new .U. round bolt that I bought as a bare bolt in green colored wrap 17 years ago at a gun show. I think it was originally complete and someone removed the parts and wrapped it back up. I've never seen any evidence that Underwood packed the post war bolts in boxes for shipping, but they may have. I do have some pics I found in 2011 of their boxed complete bolts.

Attachment 132828Attachment 132827Attachment 132826Attachment 132825

I've never changed a barrel band, but have heard R&R on some front sights can be a real challenge. Original (Bayonet) Type 3 bands can be reasonably priced, but original Type 1 and Type 2 bands can run hundreds of dollars.

Now, I'm curious if you already had a bolt tool on hand or did you "pull it off" without one? - Bob

No sir no bolt tool yet. The seller is a professional gunsmith and had pics in his phone of when he had it completely apart. It's kind of hard to fudge the color of this thing if taking pictures of any other bolt. He's a retired Marine and a long time friend of my friend so he had no reason to lie to me especially not for a $1000 carbine.

[jimb16]

These days, any good condition carbine that is fully functional is worth that amount. A small import mark does bring down the value, but not that much any more. Even if the barrel band is a cut off type 3, it won't hurt the value very much as they are easy to replace and the bands are cheap. It probably isn't a prime candidate for restoration, but for that kind of money, you can't go wrong. The stock is an M2 stock. There is a good chance that it is a Springfield stock. Until you take the action out of the stock or at least remove the handguard, you won't be able to see the marking. It would be on the top of the stock on the left side almost up at the nose of the stock. Very often that is the only marking on a Springfield replacement M2 stock.

[oldfoneguy]

These days, any good condition carbine that is fully functional is worth that amount. A small import mark does bring down the value, but not that much any more. Even if the barrel band is a cut off type 3, it won't hurt the value very much as they are easy to replace and the bands are cheap. It probably isn't a prime candidate for restoration, but for that kind of money, you can't go wrong. The stock is an M2 stock. There is a good chance that it is a Springfield stock. Until you take the action out of the stock or at least remove the handguard, you won't be able to see the marking. It would be on the top of the stock on the left side almost up at the nose of the stock. Very often that is the only marking on a Springfield replacement M2 stock.

This will be my first carbine. I'm not looking for a higrade collector piece just more of a shooter which this should fill the role of perfectly and without guilt. Prehaps in time the collector grades will appeal to me but this will do as a first.
Thanks for the heads up on the stock I can't wait to find what's hiding under there. The seller was told this was part of a lot given to an Eastern European country whose name begins with a B but that's all he remembers. That is where it got the strange coloring it now wears. It almost reminds me of a Russian capture Mauser.