South Korea’s defence ministry has announced plans to sell up to 86,000 M1 Garand rifles to gun enthusiasts and collectors in the United States. Along with a reported 22,000 M1 carbine rifles, the total value of firearms for sale exceeds $100 million.
The U.S. government has approved the plan for sales of the rifles, which were originally given to South Korea as part of a U.S. aid program in the 1950’s.
The M1 is reportedly the first semi-automatic rifle generally issued to the infantry of any nation and saw service in the U.S. military from 1936-1966, primarily during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Subsequently, the M1 became a highly sought after collectors item, particularly through the Civilian Marksmanship Program. The U.S. military also sells surplus M1 rifles through the program.
A well-maintained Garand is both accurate and reliable, and the rifle is popular for hunting, target shooting, competitive shooting, military parades and reenactments as well as being prized collector pieces.
South Korea expects this sale to raise tens of millions of dollars.
This is good news for those who peruse the CMP stores. Hopefully it will relieve prices that are insanely high for an M1 carbine–$695 currently.
On the other hand, why the hell don’t we just take back what is ours? Let the gov’t reacquire them by political force and then sell them to the public.
Here’s a little more info from various sources:
86,000 M1 Garands.
22,000 M1 Carbines.
This is the biggest batch since the Greek returns came in a few years ago.
The deal has been approved by the US government. That’s great news – the Clinton Administration almost always blocked the re-importing of Garands & M1 Carbines.
No CMP involvement in this deal , according to Mike Orest of CMP.
Looks like the ROK’s will hold on to 640,000 war reserve M1 Carbines for a few more years. They plan to phase out the reserve storage Carbines by 2020.
Except for during the Clinton era , Garands & M1 Carbines have been trickling back to the US from South Korea since the Reagan administration. Many needed some work , some were in decent mechanical shape out of the box , a few were like new from factory rebuild.
If a .30-caliber rifle is LENDED or LEASED to a foreign country it’s still United States Government property. When that nation is done with it they return it to Uncle Sam, he ships it to Anniston Army Depot, it’s refurbished or overhauled for sale, and by law the Civilian Marksmanship Program can offer it for sale to fund the National Matches and CMP mission operations.
If the US SOLD it to a foreign nation under Foreign Military Sales, or gave it as an outright grant then that weapon is property of that country – they can sell it back, burn it, or melt it – it’s THEIR stuff.
If they’re anything like the ones brought in from Korea in the late 80’s by Blue Sky or Arlington Imports, they’re going to be rode hard and been put away wet.
The last batch of CMP M1 Carbines came back from Greece. The 33K before that were returned by the Italians.
M1 Garands have been returned to CMP by Denmark , Greece and some other counties. A few thousand from Latin America were never sold as complete rifles , but were used as spare parts and the recievers salvaged whenever possible.
Quite a few Garands and Carbines were de-mil’ed and sold as parts kits by private companies when the Clinton administration blocked the importation of complete rifles.
I have two Italian Typo II 7.62 conversion Garand parts kits that were completed with CMP receivers.
There were at least some Blue Sky ones that weren’t bad. A friend of mine purchased one that was apparently rebarreled/rebuilt here in 1965(?) and I doubt it had been shot since then. It was the exceptiont to the rule though for sure.
Maybe they culled out the worst of them back then and are just dumping the remainder now- it will be neat to see in any case!
The M1 carbine was the weapon my grandfather carried in WWII and was the first surplus/military rifle I ever had any real contact with, I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for them ever since.
I hope they sell us a crapload of ammo to go with them though.
So it seems this is a couple of years off? For a newbie to the collectors world, where would I go about looking for these other then the typical locations (gun shops/shows). Are there particular locations collectors go to first in order to beat the gun store mark up?
This is excellent news. Seems like the most efficient thing for them to do is to send them all here and open up a website. I hope the process in getting these weapons to the public is sped up. I’d like to pick up one of each.
