First M1 carbine purchased?

[jackthesmib]

What was the first M1 carbine you purchased? Where and how much?
Mine - a QHMC from a small gun shop in Waldorf Md. about 16 years
ago. $250.00. Came with a sling, oiler, and 1 15rd mag.

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.

[LeagleEagle]

I can't remember the make but it was a typical arsenal rebuild purchased at a Houston Gun show around 1972 for $125.

[Dave-In-Maine]

My dad actually bought it. 1976, $100. Unknown to us at the time, it is an un-restored, unmolested, all-original 1943 Underwood (barrel date) with B-code receiver and all early parts. I was bummed that it had the goofy flip sight on it, but he was able to have the gunshop he bought it from put on the "cool" bayonet lug barrel band. Somehow, we intuitively knew that it would be good to keep the original band, and it lived for 26 years first in the gun parts box, then attached to the carbine with a twist-tie. Had it professionally re-installed a few years ago..................Phew!!!!!!!

[Bill Hollinger]

My first M1 carbine buy was a Saginaw S.G. about 20 years ago. I paid $300.00 for it (huge amount by today's standards) from a guy who's brother used it to kill himself. Sad as it is, the seller was reluctant to tell me the story behind the carbine but when it came back with a police history I wanted to know what was up with it. I think he thought I might be unwilling to buy it if I knew the story but when I asked about the police history he told me they kept it in evidence for over a year. It was released to the family and put up for sale and that is where I came in.

[imarangemaster]

About 1982 or 1983, I was a cop in Bellevue Washington. An old guy had a gunshop just off of Bel-Red rd. He had a DCM Winchester there. I paid around $600 for it, a bunch of Lake City and Winchester military ammo, an original canvas bag, about 10 GI 15 round mags, and 3 or 4 USGI 30s... I bought it despite the fact it had a green-gray pakerized finish, ugly little flip sight, skinny little barrel band with no bayonet lug, and a stock with an odd I shaped sling cut. To make it worse, it had a dirty old sling with rusty tips that looked like a capital C. I had no idea then that these were desirable features, and later traded it straight across for one that had a bayonet lug and adjustable rear sight... I thought I got the better end of the deal. WAS I STUPID, OR WHAT!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, did I mention that it shot under three inches at 100 yards from a sandbag rest??????

Through the subsequent years, I have had too many carbines to count, since being an FFL and the influx of Blue skies in the late 80s. For most of the 20 years I was a LEO, I carried and qualified with a carbine as a trunk weapon. Now I have a CMP Inland racker (more like service grade tack driver) and a Saginaw barreled receiver (from a stripped CMP carbine) that I built into a mid-war with a repro flip and barrel band. The rest is correct mid-war, mostly Inland, parts and stock.

[vintage hunter]

My first .30 carb. was an Iver Johnson I purchased from Woody's Pawn Shop in Orangeburg,S.C. in 1988. Paid $110 for it and a box of W-W HP ammo. Jack, I worked in/around Waldorf, Md in the summer of 1993 and I'm pretty sure I've been to the shop where you bought your carbine. I worked for a co. out of Oklahoma that built the foundations for cell phone towers. There was a big race track about a mile up the road from the first one we built. Beautiful country up there.

[Dave-In-Maine]

Actually, to revise my earlier post---my FIRST "M1 Carbine" was actually one of the Crossman BB guns. I think I got it when I was around 10 or 11--it took my dad a little while to find a real M1. I would have been happy with (and actually wanted as my first choice) a Universal. His feeling was that it should be USGI, hence the wait. Glad he did!!!!

[Rob]

My first one was an AO that my wife bought me for my 40th birthday

[Harlan (Deceased)]

My first one was a Rockola I found at a small pawn shop about ten years ago. I hadn't seen one in years at that time and fell in love with it when I first saw it.

I just came across some photos of it recently when I was reiring my old desktop computer that was in my old office.

[imarangemaster]

I have mentioned the story before, but the first carbine I ever fired was my cousin's. Growing up in the 50s, I knew my dad and uncles carried M1 Carbines in the Pacific, and they intrigued me. The my cousin, a Postal Inspector stationed in Hazard KY, got one because he wanted some firepower. When visiting him when I was about 10 (give or take a year or two) we went to a rock quarry and went shooting. I fired his M1 carbine at about 60-75 yards and hit a Bubble Up pop can on the second or third shot. I WAS IN LOVE! I had that can for many years. It was the first center fire rifle I ever fired. Later watching "Combat" as a kid on TV, my interest continued. The other kids wanted Sgt. Saunder's Thompson or Kirby's BAR. I wanted the Lt. Hansen's carbine! It wasn't until I was a cop in Washington State in the early 80s where I could afford one! As Paul Harvey used to say, "Is the rest of the story!"