Surplus Garands on the Way!!

SKorea to sell 100,000 old rifles back to US

(AFP) – 11 hours ago

SEOUL — South Korea's defence ministry said Wednesday it plans to raise tens of millions of dollars by selling more than 100,000 ageing US-supplied rifles to gun enthusiasts in the United States.

Washington has approved South Korea's plan to sell about 86,000 M1 and 22,000 carbines together valued at 130 billion won (108 million dollars), the ministry said.

The rifles used during the Korean and Vietnam wars have been kept at military warehouses, it said.

"The US government recently approved our plan to sell old M1 and carbine rifles, which were given to our soldiers as part of a US aid programme," a ministry spokesman told AFP.

The rifles are occasionally used by reserve forces for drills, he said without giving details.

The military will dispose of all its M1s but will keep about 640,000 carbines for reserve forces, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.

"Importers are very interested in them as many Americans want to buy them as curios for their collections," an unidentified military official was quoted as saying.

M1s were made first in 1926 and used in World War II and the Vietnam War. The carbines were first produced in 1941 and used during the 1950-1953 Korean War.

South Korea provided the second-largest contingent of foreign troops in South Vietnam after its close ally, the United States.

About 320,000 South Korean soldiers served there and more than 5,000 were killed and 11,000 wounded.



I think this will put pressure on current prices-even if the rifles are rack grade and import marked.

Charlie

If you do the math, it works out to $1,000.00 USD per rifle or carbine.
Pressure, yes, but upward price pressure!!! NOT GOOD!!!:bitch:.
.
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(and that 1K is COST!)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by limpetmine

If you do the math, it works out to $1,000.00 USD per rifle or carbine.
Pressure, yes, but upward price pressure!!! NOT GOOD!!!:bitch:.

(and that 1K is COST!)

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Plus shipping @ about $2,500 per container to the US West Coast plus shipping to a warehouse plus labor. They ain't very pretty either. Do you remember Exel, Blue Sky and AOI Korean imports? Similar quality.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions. It might be 10 years before the CMP gets them, if at all...

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Originally Posted by M1 Rifleman

I wouldn't jump to conclusions. It might be 10 years before the CMP gets them, if at all...

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CMP is not getting them, they are open market.

FWIW:

Korea's Defence Ministry, quoted in Chosun IIbo, estimated a sale price of $AUD 253 per M1 and US$160 per carbine, meaning the defence force could earn $23 million from the first shipment of weapons.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/worl...0924-g3cg.html

I think they are being bought at around $230.00 each. The importer will double the price up to around $450.00 wholesale. Retailers will want around $999.99 each. Somebody is headed for Bankruptcy Court!!! It was a real hard fight to find a "Blue Sky" Garand with a good barrel. Hard to sell a Garand at $999.99 with a bad barrel. This is gonna be fun!

The Koreans have asked a fortune for these rifles for a number of years and never been able to get their price. Apparently, someone has agreed to their price, although there is no guarantee that these rifles will come to the U.S. Some may wind up in Europe, as the collector's market is still pretty strong there.

I wouldn't want 100,000 ex-Korean rifles in my warehouse. The likelihood of being able to sell them at a profit is pretty slim. Most will need barrels and many will have to provide donor parts to make the usable ones running firearms.

To me, that translates as new contracts for Chinese-made barrels and spare parts will be coming along. Maybe the surplus of these parts runs will provide some shooter parts for stateside Garands, but more than likely a parts nightmare as new spares are mixed with older parts. Difficulty of operation may be the result.


Then again, an overabundance of Garands is never a bad thing, even if they are rough and need new parts. Just one more variant to have to watch out for though.
:dancingbanana:

It is also my understanding that CMP will not be getting any of these rifles. But, only time will tell, I suppose.
:cool:

I am not sure, but I dont think the CMP bids on rifles on the open, worldwide market. Ammuntion? perhaps, but probably not rifles.

More likely these rifles will end up on the auction block for those that are searching for that double squiggle marked bolt and hammer, so they can complete their "original" rifle, or sell the parts for a fortune. Headspace gauge is way, far down on list. (whats that for anyway? when was it issued? does it have a mfg. stamp on it?)

Look for them at Big 5, or gunbroke.com. = hey we dont know nuttin.

People need to recall the Blue Sky import of 10(?) years ago. Almost of the Garands had bad barrels. Many rifles had chu wood stocks. This will be a boon for Midway USA and Boyd's Wood. New barrels and wood will set you back around $350.00. Guys have to factor that into the purchase price. Again, "Let the Buyer Beware".

I've been following this on the CMP forum.
The CMP COO Orest stated that the CMP is not involved in this. And added, CMP isn't an importer and couldn't bring them back into the USA.

Seems one of the commercial importers is getting them, and will resell them.

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Originally Posted by ramit

...Seems one of the commercial importers is getting them, and will resell them.

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Wanna bet it won't be for the price CMP would charge!

While it is easy to knock Blue Sky rifles now, remember the times then if you could. DCM/CMP still had the one rifle per lifetime rule. There were few, very few, M-1's in the market. When the Blue Sky rifles came in, they were the FIRST batch of rifles in quantity that the US had seen. Around the same time Arlington Ord. brought in some M-1's of higher quality, (Israeli?) but they were expensive and snapped up quickly. So remember the days-Blue Sky's were good stuff, at the time.

I wouldn't bet against ya!

Look at the crap Big5 is selling for $800 - $1K.
Rumors were that some of these are from lots / deals CMP wouldn't touch cause they were garbage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mack

...
To me, that translates as new contracts for Chinese-made barrels and spare parts will be coming along. Maybe the surplus of these parts runs will provide some shooter parts for stateside Garands, but more than likely a parts nightmare as new spares are mixed with older parts. Difficulty of operation may be the result.

:cool:

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I do believe that the M1 is on the ATF list of rifles for which barrel importation is a no-no. Even re-importation of spare USGI barrels is verboten. So this would be a boon for the domestic barrel mfgrs. You could be right about crappy cast replacements for small parts coming in, though.

I did not realize that ATF had banned import of barrels for the M1. Thanks for the info.

I suppose that would explain the disappearance of spare original barrels for the M1 in recent years. It will be a boon for local makers for sure.

I don't shoot original barrels any more since they are essentially a rare item. I stick to the very fine quality Wilson barrels and am saving any USGI-made barrels from the mid-50's back to the start of manufacture.

I have thought this through some more since writing the other day. I could see the guys in Genesco buying this lot and selling them off in grades and making a handsome profit. More power to 'em as long as the laws are met and the rifles get to customers who want them. Maybe some will get rebuilt and there will be some competition with CMP for nicely done rebuilts. They would have to go some ways to beat the CMP rifles and prices, as far as I am concerned.

I do hope there are some "canned" rifles and that these will come to the general public for sale. No doubt they will fetch a high price, but, remember, the CMP always has fine rifles too, so don't overpay if they come our way.
:beerchug:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Calif-Steve

People need to recall the Blue Sky import of 10(?) years ago. Almost of the Garands had bad barrels. Many rifles had chu wood stocks. This will be a boon for Midway USA and Boyd's Wood. New barrels and wood will set you back around $350.00. Guys have to factor that into the purchase price. Again, "Let the Buyer Beware".

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Well, say the rifles sell for $350., with $350. in wood/barrel, and repark yourself, you have a CMP Special for $300 less than CMP charges for one. One could then add some extras like match sights, glass bedding, etc, and end up with a match grade Garand for around 1K or so.

I've heard rumors for years of canned rifles in Korea.
I guess we'll now find out.

CMP is not for profit, so they will always be cheaper than the commercial sales.

But the commercial sales have their place, due to the down side of the CMP program; the wait and the luck of the draw (if you don't have the luxury of being able to visit one of the CMP stores).

It drove me to buy commercial, but I was real careful about it, just didn't buy something from a gun store cause it looked nice.
It would have cost me a whole lot more to drive to one of the CMP stores to pick one out. But I'm also lucky enough to live near Orion 7.

I just saw one guy get screwed from a commercial sale from a gun store.
Great looking Garand. $1,000 for a welded receiver and shot out barrel Garand with a WWII s/n receiver.

Another gent bought a nearly finished Garand, most of the work done by another smith, and he had it finished by the smith he knew and trusted, and said knew Garands... after 90 rnds, it basically blew up in his face slam/out of battery fire.

So, the CMP and the battle rifle specialty shops (like Orion7) have their place (the only places I'll trust). And unfortunately the basic gun shops that are looking to just move rifles do to, but we know they are .

"I do believe that the M1 is on the ATF list of rifles for which barrel importation is a no-no. Even re-importation of spare USGI barrels is verboten. So this would be a boon for the domestic barrel mfgrs. You could be right about crappy cast replacements for small parts coming in, though."

If that is the case then, how is the CMP able to procure and bring into the US all of the Greek returns?

Mike

The Greek returns were brought back by the US Army. They, in tun, provide them to the CMP. These Korean Garands were sold on the open market. I'll bet the deal is the Koreans MUST purchase American made equipment with the money. That was the Blue Sky deal. But understand, the wholesale cost is around $230.00, so do not expect $350.00 Garands. "Big 5" has beater Garands for $1000.00 right now. So, help yourself to those beaters.

There is no way to know the exact condition of the M1's until they have been procured by some large scale purchaser who brings them ashore, unpacks and grades these rifles.

The Big 5 stuff was Central American and had been in a tropical climate for decades with minimal maintenance, repair or concern. ROK is a cooler, drier climate much like the Midwest or Northeast (didn't say it was dry) and, in fact, much of the ROK is actually more like Japan. While it is impossible to say how much wear will be evident, it is safe to say it might be less extreme wear than a tropical climate like Central America where daily rainfall would punish metal to the extreme and rot wood stocks pretty quickly.

If there are sealed cans, these may well be excellent rifles that have survived in much the same condition as they left the U.S. in the early 1950's, depending on how lubricants used to store them have done over the decades.

So, let's not call them junk just yet.
:dancingbanana:

I purchased 6-8 Blue Sky Garands for my club many years back. Each one had to be re-barreled and we tossed the Chu wood stocks. Most were nicely re-parked in Korea and all ran very well after some work. We did the 'smith work ourselves. They will be customs fees, shipping costs and middle men involved in this deal. So do not expect mint Garands for $230.00. These things are still in Korea, so it is entirely possible our President could get involved yet. Just wait and see.

Orest has stated that the CMP will not end up with any of these rifles. All rifles that the CMP sells come from the U.S Army. The CMP does not have an importers license.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I wonder if any will make it up north?

I thought there was a law passed during clintons era or before that says NO new importation of military rifles/pistols etc. Am i correct in that or incorrect?. I know garand receivers which were imported dried up because of this and i would think the rifles etc would still be non-importable?

I dunno , seems like a lot of SKS's , some Argentine FN-49's ( 20rd mag) and lots of different 9x18 pistols have been coming since the Clinton era. IIRC , the Clintons blocked imports by screwing with importers rather than passing laws or issuing exec orders.

I would not be surprised if many of the stored Garands and M1 Carbines arrived in South Korea during the late 1960's. There was another major wave of US weapons and gear that went over during the Carter administration in the 1970's.
Kim the 1st seemed to get delusions of adequacy about every 10 years or so.

640,000 Carbines by the year 2020 is a lot. Metric tons of little brown guns.
:super: