M1 Carbine - Would You Buy This??

[Anton67]

This rifle has some sort of varnish coating on it.
Otherwise it is a nice Winchester with correct parts.
Question is would you buy it and remove the varnish?
Or is the rifle ruined?
If so, what do you think it is worth in this condition?

Information

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[Anton67]

more photos

[AFJon]

That almost looks like really dried grease on the heal of the receiver. My grandfather left me a shot gun that looked similar and some acetone took it right off. The sights look rusted to me. How's the rifling look? And are you looking for a collector or shooter?

[RASelkirk]

Looks like it was pulled from a Louisiana swamp. It'll cost more to "shine up" than it's worth...

Russ

[browningautorifle]

I'd say that's dried motor oil but it could be varnish. I'd definitely use some acetone and remove all that crap. Then if it need a re-finish do a bead blast and park. There's little original finish to that...I don't think it's particularly collectible. Not good enough shape...

[cipherk98]

Probably the least of your worries but in the first group of pictures I see a tiny crack in stock, behind the recoil plate. Small issue though compared to what you could be facing to clean up the metal.

[DaveHH]

You can bet the farm that its not a "restoration". I'd buy it and clean it up. Spring tube is cool.

[Seaspriter]

Not sure what the cost is to procure this carbine. In this condition it might be worth $600-800 USD.

Not sure what the gunk is -- others may be correct, but as BAR says, all the metal should be gently bead blasted and reParkerized after any parts are replaced. (It looks like someone took the metal down to white then applied a sealer to make it look shiny. Someone apparently filed the mag release button too. )

Rear sight is far out of alignment -- you may have a barrel problem or a misaligned front sight -- check it out. Be sure the barrel isn't warped or too rusted and needs replacing. Perhaps someone just knocked the rear sight far to the left.

Stock looks re-arsenaled post Korean in reasonable condition.

In the end you might have a good shooter, but not a high value collectable.
The M1 Winchester carbine is always worth preserving and restoring -- just don't pay too much for it.

[Bill Hollinger]

Buy it if the price is within your budget. That is a nice carbine and correct from what I see.

Like others have said I believe it to be dried oil. IIRC that should be an "I" cut stock.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Question is would you buy it and remove the varnish? Or is the rifle ruined? If so, what do you think it is worth in this condition?

Varnish? Dried oil? Crud? - All no problem.
BUT at the end of it, the experts here say that it is not very desirable from the collector's viewpoint. I cannot evaluate that, especially as you are living in a market where it is apparently worth twice as much as I paid for my match-winning January '44 carbine.

However, as a serious carbine shooter, I see one possible killer criterion:
The foresight-muzzle area looks as if it is rusted. If the muzzle end of the barrel is rusted on the inside, then it is ruined as a shooter, and all the prettying-up on the outside will not help.

I realize that I am not on the same wavelength as the collector fraternity on this forum, but IMHO all-matching original scrap is still scrap.