Santa Fe "Jungle Carbine"

[MikeOxbig]

Hi everyone!
My buddy has had this gun for some time now and he asked me to do a little research to find out exactly what it is, how much it's worth, and basically get as much information as I can about it.
This older post lead me to your site and while it does give me some info about my friends gun, the gun in the post is a different year and appears to be in much better condition (My friends has some rust and needs to be fully cleaned because its covered in dust). Besides missing the Magazine and being a bit dirty the gun seems to be in "ok" condition and I'm pretty sure he even fired it not long ago.
The barrel is marked "Santa Fe Jungle Carbine Mk1 MD 12011 Golden State Arms Corp Pasadena California" and the Serial # appears to be 22578 and a J I think.
Here you can see some pictures of it and all the markings he sent me. I'm sorry about the condition of the gun, but it's not mine. (I love older/all guns and would never let mine get dirty like this has.)

If you guys could tell me anything about it I'd be very appreciative, I'm basically wondering if it's one of those chopped up civilian made models that aren't worth anything. Thank you so much.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Bindi2]

It is a Indian made No1 Mk3* made in 1945. Chopped up by Santa Fe to resemble a No5.

[P246]

Golden State Arms Corp was in business from 1952 to 1966. The Santa Fe name came to be circa 1960. Santa Fe was just a subdivision of Golden State Arms primarily tasked with selling surplus rifles. They bought a bunch of No 1 Mark IIIs (*) and No 4 Mark 1(*) rifles post 1960. They were in the business of sportering a lot of surplus rifles. They cut down full size LE rifles to look like No 5 Mark 1rifles (kind of) They did not invent the term Jungle Carbine but they used it as a marketing tool to sell full size LE made to resemble No 5 Mark 1 rifles.. Yours as mentioned above started life as a Ishaphore No 1mark III*. It would have been bought by GSAC/ Santa Fe and converted into a short rifle marketed as their Jungle Carbine. I’ve owned two over the years both bought cheap as shooters. Mine were converted No 4s. Both shot well but one did not feed well, never could tune the magazine to work right. Hope this helps.

[Daan Kemp]

It may be collectible in its own right for a collector of Santa Fe. Should be a good shooter.

[Sunray]

"...one of those chopped up civilian made..." Yep. Santa Fe cobbled stuff together, but at least not from parts bins like Century, et al did. Issue with that one is where the rear sight was tacked on. That's the charger guide they put it on. Check the headspace anyway.
Surface rust comes off with 0000 steel wool and light oil.

[82Trooper]

So as I try to educate myself to the proof markings....how do we know this is a Indian produced rifle?
Is it from the "I" in the G.R.I. marking? Or something else?

[Parashooter]

Could be wrong, but my feeble colonial understanding is that "G.R.I." is for Georgius Rex Imperator, meaning George King Emperor. At home, George was just a king (G.R.) and locally made rifles were so marked, but out in India he was also Emperor - until independence, anyway. So the "G.R.I." indicates Indian production.

[browningautorifle]

So the "G.R.I." indicates Indian production.

That's how I understand it also...for what it's worth. I also had one and was under that impression...