value of Underwood M1

Hello, I am new to the forum and joined because I just picked up an underwood M1. If anyone would help me to get a value and identify how original it is? To my untrained eye it looks to be GI rifle that was rearsonaled at some point. Thanks for any help. I paid 730 shipped with two 15 and two 30 round mags sling and oiler. From what I have seen this is at the bottom of the scale for a working M1.
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well you have an Underwood M1 carbine that has mixmaster parts, most do due to the rebuild they went through after the war. Serial number puts manufacture date range of July 1943-March 1944 but closer to early 1944 I would imagine. Barrel date of 11-42 indicates barrel was probably replaced at one time. It s always possible that the 11-42 barrel sat in a bin at the bottom and was pulled out for your later 1943-early 1944 build. It is possible that someone changed the barrel recently as they as well, quite a few try to re barrel a BLUE SKY import marked carbine to increase value and perhaps put the old barrel on the other one they swapped it from. As it is import marked BLUE SKY it is the least desirable of the imports due to it's large printing and sometimes heavy stamping that caused damage to a few barrels but we will never know when this barrel was placed on the receiver, we can just speculate. Inland slide, Inland bolt, Inland hammer. We would need more pictures of other parts for ID. $730 with 4 mags is not too bad, probably high on the BLUE SKY import totem pole but still ok if it shoots well, that, after all, is why you bought it.

http://m1family.com/topic14.html

U.S. Carbine Imports & Exports

well you have an Underwood M1 carbine that has mixmaster parts, most do due to the rebuild they went through after the war. Serial number puts manufactre date in the summer of 1943. Barrel date of 11-42 indicates barrel was probably replaced at one time. It s always possible that the 11-42 barrel sat in a bin at the bottom and was pulled out for your later 1943-early 1944 build. It is possible that someone changed the barrel recently as they as well, quite a few try to re barrel a BLUE SKY import marked carbine to increase value and perhaps put the old barrel on the other one they swapped it from. As it is import marked BLUE SKY it is the least desirable of the imports due to it's large printing and sometimes heavy stamping that caused damage to a few barrels but we will never know when this barrel was placed on the receiver, we can just speculate. Inland slide, Inland bolt, Inland hammer. We would need more pictures of other parts for ID. $730 with 4 mags is not too bad, probably high on the BLUE SKY import totem pole but still ok if it shoots well, that, after all, is why you bought it.

http://m1family.com/topic14.html

U.S. Carbine Imports & Exports

Summed up very well. It will never be a sought-after collectible. So, as long as it performs as you desire, then the investment is worth it. Hard to find a large selection of decent shooting carbines for under $700 these days, import marked or not.

Enjoy!

Well I knew it was not a top end M1 and never will be. I know it wont be the collectible that is sought after. I was more interested in getting a good deal on a shooter grade that will go up in value. I don't expect to sell it tomorrow for 900 but like the inland I bought back in 93 for 199 I would hope it goes up to 900 in a couple of years. Not that I want to sell but I am buying some guns back I sold in the great recession and don't want to pay more than I had to sell for. I had a Quality hardware in about the same condition I sold for 850. So I am ahead I think, unless QH is of more value than Underwood. My QH was a mixmaster also. About the same over all condition. Thanks for the input.

That appears to be a pretty nice Inland (?) Type II highwood sock which has seen some use but does not appear to have been sanded or abused. This is a valuable stock and a LOT better than most stocks found on $700 mixmaster carbines. You might want to replace it with a good (and cheap) Type III (low-wood) or Type IV or V (M2) replacement stock if you plan to shoot it, and save or sell the valuable early highwood stock. JMHO

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Originally Posted by ChipS

That appears to be a pretty nice Inland (?) Type II highwood sock which has seen some use but does not appear to have been sanded or abused. This is a valuable stock and a LOT better than most stocks found on $700 mixmaster carbines. You might want to replace it with a good (and cheap) Type III (low-wood) or Type IV or V (M2) replacement stock if you plan to shoot it, and save or sell the valuable early highwood stock. JMHO

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Thanks. Can you explain or link to a site that shows what your talking about? I have no idea, not that educated on these. When I say shoot I mean shoot it once in a great while. I collect WW2 guns just not the high end ones.

Here is a good site to browse.

http://www.uscarbinecal30.com/

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Originally Posted by edteach

Thanks. Can you explain or link to a site that shows what your talking about? I have no idea, not that educated on these. When I say shoot I mean shoot it once in a great while. I collect WW2 guns just not the high end ones.

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You have a $200-$250 collectable stock, maybe $300 cleaned up on a good auction day. If you shoot your carbine ONE time and the stock cracks you would have about a $75-$125 stock, maybe less, depending on the crack. You can buy a solid, non-collectable USGI replacement stock anywhere (Fleabay, GunBroker, WTS forums, gunshows, etc.) for about $30-$50 and blast away all you want without risking serious loss of value. Others here may adjust the market values I estimated above as they see fit, but your stock has real value. For the benefit of some reading this, I do not sell stocks.

Your stock is not museum quality but it is clean, honest and original and I would not use it to shoot if it were mine. ChipS

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Originally Posted by ChipS

You have a $200-$250 collectable stock, maybe $300 cleaned up on a good auction day. If you shoot your carbine ONE time and the stock cracks you would have about a $75-$125 stock, maybe less, depending on the crack. You can buy a solid, non-collectable USGI replacement stock anywhere (Fleabay, GunBroker, WTS forums, gunshows, etc.) for about $30-$50 and blast away all you want without risking serious loss of value. Others here may adjust the market values I estimated above as they see fit, but your stock has real value. For the benefit of some reading this, I do not sell stocks.

Your stock is not museum quality but it is clean, honest and original and I would not use it to shoot if it were mine. ChipS

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Thanks. Do the thin part that makes it a high wood have a tendency to crack there? Or were you saying that if it cracks anywhere?