M1 Garand Blue Sky Imports....questions???

[Neal Myers]

I'm not a lawyer either, but I did sleep in the dumpster behind the county courthouse last night.

We have been given some good information above, but also a lot of not-so-good information.

First, the Gun Control Act of 1968 requires that all firearms imported into the US be stamped with the name, city, & state of the importer. (It takes an act of Congress to import without this mark, & that is exactly how CMP was able to bring in rifles from Greece, Italy, etc without it.)

Second, GCA 68 requires importers to stamp a new serial number on any gun that does not have a serial number containing only Arabic numbers. So, your Russian guns with a SN containing some Cyrillic characters have been stamped with a new SN; in this case, it is the importers SN that cannot be altered.

Third, an import marking can be removed by anyone, once the firearm is in the US. Scratch it off, change the barrel, do whatever you want, it is all good. The fellas with the bulges in the cheap suits have never had a problem with this.

Fourth, "Blue Sky" imports also have the importer's city & state (Arlington, VA) stamped on them. Most, maybe all, were used by the South Koreans. Most were heavily used & abused. The Koreans ran out of many spare parts at some point, & their armorers sometimes made repairs that we would not; e.g., if a carbine bolt lug broke off or cracked, they would weld it. Many barrels were literally shot out. When they did a complete rebuild, their version of parkerizing was poor; it looks like chalk, & you can permanently scratch it with your fingernail (at least, I did on one in a store).

Sure, you can buy an import marked barrel if you want. But, you have to ask yourself, would someone take a perfectly good barrel off a rifle for the heck of it?

You may find a good Blue Sky rifle, but you had better know how to evaluate it before you buy; the odds are against you.

[Dave Waits]

I bought a Blue-Sky Garand a couple years back, except for the shot-out barrel, Korean wonder-Wood and the T105 rear sight, it was a correct 2.25mill SA. A CMP stockset and a good barrel I had in stock solved all but the missing lockbars. It's now my JCG rifle. Shoots into 2" ave. from a bench at 100 yards.

[campperrykid]

In related news two very senior US officials have visted , or are about to vist , the ROK. The first was the SecDef. The second , later this week will be his boss.
The ROK's have agreed to send more troops and help to A-stan. Maybe that is a way to maintain close ties with the US and most favored nation status.....

[Peter Costas]

I have Blue sky carbine for many years now. I bought as a shooter and it does just that. It is a Standard products gun with an Underwood barrel. The barrel i straight. I had a dealer offer me 400. for it sight unseen several years ago. I came from Korea.
I have aKorean iport Garand that I had to rebarrel several years ago.I believe the importer was Excel in Mass. i had no idea that it might be illegal to rebarrel an imprt rifle. i t was rebarreled because the threads to hold the gas cylinder lock were worn out and the gas cylinder kept flying off the rifle.
Peter

[sigman2]

Back when the Blue Sky Garands first hit the market I ordered 12 for various friends. IIRC they were from S.O.G. Since I was doing this as a favor and was making no profit it was agreed that I would get the pick of the litter. All were present when the cartons were opened.

When we opened them my wife got upset and made us move them to the garage. Most had a fuzzy mold growing all over the wood and looked like they had been taken out of a landfill. All had worn out muzzles from improper cleaning. Needless to say, everyone was disappointed but decided to keep them to rebuild. All had the Bule Sky Productions heavily stamped on the barrels.

I ended up picking out a 6 digit SA that had grown one hell of a culture on the wood. After stripping and cleaning it the metal didn't look too bad. The bore looked pretty good except for the muzzle wear. I killed and removed the culture and soaked in oil from the wood with Easy Off oven cleaner and had to sand some soft wood off the stock. I rubbed in a couple of coats of Tru Oil and it didn't look bad. Of course the lock-up was now loose so I glass bedded the action.

When I test fired it at 100 yds. I got a nice tight 12" group. lol So I was prepared to re-barrel. The rifle ended up as a wall hanger for a couple of years.

I then got the idea of counter boring but didn't have the correct equipment. After some thought on this I decided to use a chamber reamer in the muzzle. I figured what the hell, it was toast anyway. I ran the reamer in as far as I could till the reamer shoulder started to cut the crown. It looked much better. I then lapped the cut shoulder with some fine grit lapping compound on a tight patch to remove any burrs. Success! When I have a good day she will now group just under 3" at 100 yds. with my handloads. Not a match rifle but acceptable accuracy.

I now have 9 Garands but due to its lower value this one has become my main shooter. She still has that ugly stamp though.

One plus was that it had an HRA bolt, op rod and trigger housing. Last year I swapped them with a CMP HRA field grade that had SA parts.

So my suggestion is... if you have a barrel that gauges bad try counter boring before rebarreling. Unless you're dead set on a new barrel.

[userids]

Great information, thanks alot!

[ma96782]

As I recall............

Back in the day when you could buy a Garand from the local Woolworth store............

Blue Sky imports were UGLY AS SIN.

Aloha. Mark

[Wardog61]

I purchased a Blue Sky M1 from a dealer at a gun show in K.C.M.O back in 1989. $350 in the box. It was an Anniston arsenal rebuild with the electro-pen markings of 3-66 on the receiver leg.
It was a total mixmaster. 5.4M SA receiver, but with a complete WWII trigger pack, uncut Op rod, Winchester bolt, Win.gas cylinder and Win.buttplate. The entire gun except for the bolt was redone in a light gray park. The bolt was parked black and appeared brand new. The barrels bore was a pitted up sewer pipe and shot minute of barn door at 100 meters.
While the metal work externally was in like new condition, the stock was complete crap. I had the barrel replaced in 1991 and a Boyds walnut stock replaced the beaver chewed birch stock set in 1994. After firing less than 200 rounds, it went in my safe where it remained until earlier this year. I have ordered a correct 65 series bolt and gas cylinder that will replace the Win. bolt and an unissued USGI birch stock set was just installed. I have another WWII era M1 that I use for blank-fire reenacting and I'm planning on using the 5.4M for range/competition shooting once it's 'restored' back to it's arsenal rebuild look of the 1960's.

[win308]

Woolworths in North Miami had racks of the Blue Sky Garands and the Carbines....back in the day. Every Garand barrel was belled out at the muzzle by excessive cleaning rod use. The wood was ugly as well. New stocks and barrels made the guns quite nice. I had 2 of them rebuilt and enjoyed them.

[limpetmine]

But to the point of the M-1's;
The Blue Sky M-1's and later, carbines, were bought commercially from the South Koreans, by a firm owned in large part by Wayne LaPierre (Blue Sky). This was the first batch of surplus rifles that were imported due to the change of law in the GOPA of 1986 (which also banned more MG's), and the first large batch of M-1's ever introduced into the market. At the time, these were the only game in town, as far as M-1's were concerned, and shooters and collectors swarmed on them. Many were in beater condition, but a very few were correct and in good shape. As stated, they had an obnoxious stamp on the left side of the barrel. It was only later when DCM became CMP, and the "one per lifetime" rule was lifted, that the Blue Sky's became the leper of the M-1 club. But back in the day......