More on the Korean Garands and carbines...

[MoJo]

If those prices are real the guns will go as fast as a bag of M&Ms in a kindergarten class. I want a $140 M1 carbine or two or three. And an M1 rifle for $220!!!!

[Bart]

A total of 86,000 M1 rifles and another 22,000 carbines will be sold, according to the ministry, which estimates their expected sale price at $220 and more than $140, respectively.

South Korea earned more than $20 million from the first shipment.

22,000 carbines + 86,000 rifles = 108,000 firearms in the new shipment.

How many firearms were in the first shipment? Do they mean the Blue Sky imports from Korea?

[joe817]

That $220 & $140 sounds a LOT better than the first price that I threw out a few days ago. And much more realistic.

With that said, I suspect those prices reflect what the S.Korean wholesaler will be getting, when they sell them to the U.S. importer. And I'm sure that's not the price you will see when they go onto the U.S. market. But it'll be really interesting to see what the retail price will be.

Thanks for updating us Andy.

[joe817]

Yeah, I doubt that will be retail price either, but I'm really keen to keep an eye on this. I've always wanted a Garand (long before Saving Private Bryan or whatever came out) - I'm a big WW2 nut, probably because one of my grandfathers was lost while on minesweeper-duty in the English Channel.

I'm keen on military history myself. I turned it into a hobby of sorts by collecting all the USAAF cloth escape & evasion maps during that time period.

I had for a long time a .30 cal. carbine I got from DCM from the NRA back in the 60's. Paid $17.00 for it. That's when a bandoleer of milsurp ball ammo cost 5.00 for 120 rnds. Marched with an M1 for 9 years until I did summer camp at Fort Sill, and was issued an M-14.

I'd like to have both the carbine(again) & the M1, just for old times sake.

[snorri]

I'd like to have both the carbine(again) & the M1, just for old times sake.

http://www.thecmp.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[joe817]

I turned it into a hobby of sorts by collecting all the USAAF cloth escape & evasion maps during that time period.

You might appreciate this one, then - I still have my escape map of Iraq:

Yes I do, very much so. It looks like a Brit E&E. That's beautiful, suitable for framing in fact. I have many Brit maps from WWII from the CBI campaign that look like that. Well the coloring, contour lines, lines of demarcation, etc, etc. at least. You know what I mean. It's amazing how such a large map can fold up into a tiny package like that.

Thanks for sharing!

[Oldgringo]

joe817 wrote:

I had for a long time a .30 cal. carbine I got from DCM from the NRA back in the 60's. Paid $17.00 for it.

I bought a Springfield 03-A4 (never issued) for about that same amount from the DCM back in the early 60's. It was delivered via Railway Express. BOY HOWDY, etc! I sure wish I'd been smart enough to keep it.

IIRC, one could get a 1911 for about $11.00 from the DCM back then?

[joe817]

IIRC, one could get a 1911 for about $11.00 from the DCM back then?

Yes! When I learned the NRA had the DCM program that offered an $11.00 1911, that's when I joined up, and tried to order one, but by that time they had sold out of them(or had discontinued offering it). So I settled on the carbine.

[dolomiti]

$220?!?! I'll take 10 please.

[Dudley]

$220?!?! I'll take 10 please.

You have to buy 10s of 1000s to get that price. And win the contract.

[HankB]

Let's not get TOO excited . . . a couple of years ago I read that the CMP had checked out the Korean rifles as possible returns (like the Greek Garands and the Italian and Bavarian carbines) but decided their condition was too poor for the CMP to get involved.

I imagine whoever gets these will cherry-pick them and grab the low-numbered and IH rifles to sell at a premium.