The important questions I have about those "imports" are 1) when will they be here? 2) who is going to carry them? 3) what kind of shape are they going to be in? and 4) how much?
I still stand by CMP for the best bang for the buck, but if I can pick up one or two cheap to salvage parts, etc, I will. Cheaper than buy extractors, bolts, sears and slides, etc all separately. Having a good barrel would be a plus as a spare part....
Last edited by Tired Retired; 09-27-2009 at 06:45 PM.
In the article it says that Korea will keep around 650,000 carbines for some of it's forces. That requires ALOT of ammunition. I bought one of the last cans of Korean carbine ammo available on our US ammo web sites about four years ago (I think it was manufactured by PMC). Since then the Korean ammo seems to be dried up - or is it? Anyone have any idea how the Koreans are feeding their hundreds of thousands of carbines?
My guess is that they already have a stockpile in storage since the article says that they are in reserve. I doubt that there is actually a big amount of active shooting which would require a continous re-supply of that stockpile. That is just a half-educated guess on my part.
(I call it "half educated" because I am half as smart as I should be and half guessing which I shouldn't be)
I bought 3 CAI inland Carbines from Dunham sporting goods a couple years ago- very happy with them- the stamping was very light and if reparked could almost cover completly, two had it GI stock other had a potbelly. all at lest the same as a CMP serves grade, that said i have 10 Dunham stores to shop from, some of the carbines were junk and had to go from store to store. they usally got five per store, so odds of getting a half decent one was good. since i didn't know about CMP i was happy, Now only CMP trips-Roger
I had bought one,a blue sky my first purchased gun.I bought it in 1996 from a guy my Dad worked with it was still in the box from blue sky. I was 19 at the time I paid him the $275 he asked.( he was extremely ill) It had two mags,a sling and oiler in the box. It had a beautiful I cut Inland stock with matching handguard.It had a laquer of some type over it but the CC was readable. I bought a couple bandleers of ammo (LC72) at the next gun show and ran out to my friends house.It would only feed off one side of the magazine.Long story short there was such severe rust and pitting in the trigger housing the mag was flopping around.Thats my first lesson in refinished guns. Later I had found the muzzle swallowed a gauge, I sold the stock to a collector and the carbine to another guy.(working properly) and use the money towards my CMP Winnie.
Could be that the condition of the Garands and Carbines coming back from the ROK will depend on when they got there. Kim the First was prone to get delusions of adequacy every 10 years or so. For example , there were major spikes in the amount of US weapons & gear supplied to the ROK forces in both the mid to late 1960's and again during the Carter administration. Some of those weapons might ( maybe ) have never left their US packing as they were transfered from warehouses in the US to US-built warehouses way down south in the Republic.
Here's a segment from a movie that was released in several langauges
a few years ago. It's sort of like "Saving Pvt Ryan " , "The Band of Brothers ' , "Getttysburg " , and " The Patriot " all rolled into one story. I don't want to completely spoil the story line -- so this is only some action/guns/shooting segments.
Warning: Not for kids' eyes.
The guns that reached Korea in the very early '50's were used hard and most of them got wet.
Last edited by Badger; 10-12-2009 at 08:49 AM.
Reason: Edited post to show YouTube Video in-line within post...
Had no use for the m1 carbine or the m16 during my tour. Had a few during my play years, including a T3 with M73B1. All I have left is an IBM. Just to have one. The T3 was a possible M2..so it went. Gary