Blue Sky Productions, Inc. (Arlington, VA) Winchester M1 Garand

[SPAD 124]

I agree with US019255. Your M1 was meant to deliver 150 gr bullets downrange. Seems like it does what it was intended to do. I have a post Korean War HRA M1 that is a great shooter. It didn't land at Normandy or fight in Korea, but it is still a M1. Because I shoot my M1 I can experience--somewhat-- what my uncles experienced in France and Germany in 1944-45. albeit without the return fire.

I bought a Blue Sky M1 Carbine a few months ago from the LGS. It also shoots straight alike yours nd has tight groups. Like any 60+ year old rifle, you have to look for condition. I look at milsurps as shooters, not safe queens. Maybe if I could trace a particular rifle to a specific historic person in a specific battle, that might be different. But, I don't own a true historic rifle.

[Rick Cummelin]

As I recall, Blue Sky M1s ran the spectrum from a few pretty decent rifles to mostly total junk. LOTS of totally worn-out barrels & other parts. Many Blue Skys sold for around $200 in the Denver area. At that price, they were a reasonable source for spare parts. Wood was frequently the very soft Korean replacement stuff--not good. One local Denver gun shop had a box full of shot-out Blue Sky barrels--good tomato stakes.

By now, I would assume that most Blue Skys would have had their shot-out barrels replaced. As other posters mentioned, if you can hit what you are aiming at, you have a good shooter.

Collectors avoided the Blue Skys & other imports, and AFAIK, they still do. But, with a decent barrel and parts that aren't worn out, they can be good shooters. Personally I would rather have a CMP rifle.

[Jim From Oklahoma]

I'd heard that it was the practice of Blue Sky to disassemble a batch of M1s and re-parkerize the components, one component being the barrelerd receiver. Two of us bought Blue Sky M1s at a gun show in Wichita Falls, Texas. The bores were parkerized. Aside from the bores the other metal was like new. My M1 came with a NM op rod. I had an M1 barrel and re-barreled my M1. My buddy shot his before re-barreling. For several hundered rounds it shot like a house afire. When the parkerizing in the bore was worn away the rifle was no longer very accurate. That rifle, with a new .308 Win. barrel, was used by my buddy to earn his Distinguished Rifleman badge.

Jim From Oklahoma

[MontaukTrl]

I bought a Springfield at the time these came into the country and while it had been rebuilt at sometime in its life, it did look like a recent reconditioning. Do you mean recondition and rebuild at the time of import or some time before that?

[limpetmine]

at the time they were released it was the only way some people had to get these rifles so most were happy to get them.

AMEN.
WHen these came in, late 80's, (Thanks, Mr. Reagan), it was a feeding frenzy at the gun shows. Some knock them now, but back then, they were the only game in town, except for the one per lifetime from DCM.

[jerrbear]

Has there been any issues with other importers? I have a M1 Garand stamped by EXEL/GARDNER, MA. Sounds similar as it has been refinished and came with an NM op rod. Gun seems to be alright but it does make me wonder. Stock was nothing to brag about so I replaced it. Some strange wood. My gunsmith checked headspace and went over it and he had nothing negative to say. Maybe I got a good one.

[Dave Waits]

I bought a Blue Sky SA Garand, had it for about a week. Then, with a good, used SA barrel, correct for production-date, it became a USGI SA Garand. If your only concern is the import stamp, change out the barrel.

[Joe W]

I bought a Blue Sky SA Garand, had it for about a week. Then, with a good, used SA barrel, correct for production-date, it became a USGI SA Garand. If your only concern is the import stamp, change out the barrel.

It was always a "USGI SA Garand", the import mark does not change that fact. Except the USG issued it to the Koreans. But true, a change of barrel makes it alot more desirable to most collectors.

[mack]

Lots of folks wouldn't touch the Korean Garands because they were "tainted" by having been held in foreign hands (literally, not figuratively!). This same psychology was carried over into the "Greek" as it had been on with the appearance of the Danish rifles with all those funny markings and parts actually manufactured in Europe by hands that were not American!

Dealers perpetuated this fiction in gunshows and shops in order to protect their inflated prices and welded scrap receiver rifles.

I have two Arlington and two Blue Sky rifles and all seem to function pretty well. My Greek rifles are like new and the DCMI got from DCM many years ago works OK as well.

I wonder if perception doesn't change one's end results. DCM sent out some of the finest of the Garands because there was a need (they felt) to supply firearms for training riflemen instead of collectors. Like the writer above said, change a barrel and forget about it. It's all perception unless you are trying to sell a $600 rifle for $1500.

[Milsurf]

Individual condition issues aside, the only difference between the "okay" returns through the CMP and the "tainted" Blue Sky and similar returns is that the former were lend items that were required to be returned to the US Government when no longer useful to the recipient country, whereas the latter were sold to the recipient countries (or at least the country later so claimed!), and so the holding countries were free to sell the rifles on to the highest bidder. Personally, I fail to see a big difference to an American collector. Of course, the Blue Sky and like returns have in general been in significantly poorer condition than the CMP items, but this varies on an individual basis. I looked at three Blue Sky M1s at a local gun shop some twenty years ago or so, two had sewer pipe barrels, the one I bought for $300 had a nice bore and was in generally decent condition, a 1.6M SA with a number of correct parts, but a post war barrel and stock. I don't feel all that bad about the barrel stamping. My guess is that in another ten or twenty years, the "unclean" connotation attached to the (re-)imports will fade quite a bit from where it seems to be currently. JMHO.