NPM Is it worth it?

[Mike D]

Was in a local shop yesterday and they had a NPM in the 4.14 mil range. Barrel was a buffalo arms late '43. Original barrel? It had all the later features- bayo lug, round bolt, adj. sight. The stock was nice, but refinished w/ no markings. If the internals were "correct", would it be worth anything close to the $850 they were asking? This place usually has high prices.

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[BHP]

In my newb opinon, no. Sounds like a shooter. I really don't think a collector type carbine would have a re-finished stock (to the point of eliminating the cartouches). The later features would most likely indicate a re-build at some point in it's life. So that begs the question, what are the chances the rest of the parts are correct? Rack grade NPM's can still be had from CMP for $479.

[imarangemaster]

Not even close, unless there is something special about it. I recently sold a non-CMP Underwood with correct barrel for $500.

[303Nut]

I picked up a nice NPM for $380 OTD two years ago with correct barrel at my local pawn shop.

[DaveHH]

I ordered it on the strength of Ruth's opinion that NPM made the best quality carbines. It is nicely finished and what is NPM (receiver, Trigger housing, FP, mag catch) is very high quality, but in the end, it's just another carbine. My 5.6 Win which I think is an original, looks new by comparison, even though the parts finish isn't as good as the NPM. Put another way; I never saw a carbine I didn't like. $800 seems very high unless it has a lot of NPM parts. The Buffalo Arms barrels were used by NPM but are not favored. Mine has an undated IBM Corp barrel like Ruth mentions in WAR Baby as being on several late production NPM submitted for tests in 4/44 when mine was built. I assume it is the original.

[Dave Waits]

While you Carbine guys are here I got a question concerning my NPM. Mine is a SG, essentially correct except it has the late mods and wrong stock. I was planning on returning it to correct form except for the stock(What High-Wood NPMs are running is out of my reach right now). It's a 4,0902xx with an 11-43 Underwood barrel/Flaming bomb.

Dupage trading has High-Wood replacement stocks so, at least I'd have the right look. What do you guys think?

[DaveHH]

NPM received a lot of parts from other companies prior to their last 4 months of production (mine is a 4.2 Late). I wonder if ALL of these parts were in fact restamped by NPM before going into the carbines. Mine has a Quality recoil plate of which they receive a large quantity, a Rock-Ola hammer of which they received a large quantity, and various Inland parts, slide,extractor. Your task could be a tough one just to determine what it had at build date. War Baby doesn't even mention IBM barrels (in the free barrel program) going to NPM, but he does show that 5 carbines were sent in very late for tests and all had IBM barrels (as does mine).

[Bruce McAskill]

Dave NPM received a minimum of 17,500 barrels from IBM in February and March 1944 alone.

[DaveHH]

Maybe you can answer my question about integrated parts. Did NPM remark everything before going into their carbine? I suspect that it may be part of the inspection process. As I mentioned, I have a KR Rockola hammer and RO-Q recoil plate + numerous Inland parts. All of these were listed on the integrated parts list in War Baby and prior to mine being built.

[Dave Waits]

Thanks for the reply Dave. Right now it's got a HI stamped Birch stock on it made by Louisevelle sluuger( Hillerich&Bradsbury). Not a big fan of Birch although the stock is in excellent condition, it's a low-wall M2 Pot-belly.