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

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[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.

[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.

[jimb16]

The purple color has been attributed to the different chemical mix that they used to repark/blue the trigger housings. It is actually fairly common of housings that were refinished in European counties. It is often seen in Bavarian carbines.

[browningautorifle]

The purple color has been attributed to the different chemical mix that they used to repark/blue the trigger housings.

Yes, we had some turn purple too. Point was they had been refinished and you could see from that color.