Posted on 09/27/2009 4:55:32 AM PDT by ryan71
As South Korea upgraded its armed forces over the last two decades, it has had to dispose of a lot of old equipment. But then it discovered that it had put into storage 108,000 World War II era rifles it had received from the United States during the 1950s.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
Wow!
I want one!
How much you want to bet they never see the hands of gunowners. Obama will buy them and shred the heck out of them rather than see the people get them.
Wow, and it says some of them have only occasionally been used since the 50s, just stored and maintained — Not totally beat up and trashed as I thought when I first started reading the article. Yeah, I’d definitely like one.
Some say the import stamp takes away from it's collectability but I think it just adds to a battle rifles story.
I have the back half of a destroyed M1 receiver that I bought at a gun show for 25 cents. It was chopped in half during the Clinton administration to keep it out of the hands of "criminals". I get nearly sick to my stomach every time I see it.
I have four of them that I’ve rebuilt...two were beaters that I basically used the receiver and parts and put on barrels, refinished the stocks, etc. The other two are from receivers of WWIIs that I got from Numrich when they were selling them. These I built up from parts searching. It took me about 3 years to get the correct parts....now I have 4 very nice ones all with correct parts with respect to the receiver make and serial number......
AS a CMP member I have access to limited releases of the M1 Garands and I purchased a select grade this past year for 900 dollars. There are still quite a few rack and field grades in various condtions available through Camp Perry, but again one must be a CMP member to order. Most of those are in the 500 - 700 dollar range. Many may not have matching serials, or have been parkerized or show heavy pitting, but all are well within firing limits and have lots of life left in them
It took me 9 months to get my select grade ... it is spin the roulette wheel to see what you get ... all select models will fall into the physical descriptions for “select” grade. I was ecstatic .. when I first saw my M1, i realized it was at the very very top of that grade. In fact I have fired collector grades that are not even cloe to the one I got.
It is a thrill to shoot. The walnut stock shows a bit of wear, but is cosmetic finish issues more than anything. NO cracks, checks or spits. As in all original garands the forestoc fits perfectly, a lesson in precise work of the woodsmith matching wood to machined steel. I have friends that have spent 3 grand for new stocks for their M1’s .. The wood on mine is in such excellent shape I think I will choose to leave this in its original condition. After all, every gun I buy is a “user” No reason to have an “expensive” club laying around.
It lets my mind drift when out in the field with it. Whose hands was this weapon in. Where has it been. It’s use took incredible care of it .... makes me think user and gun parted as great friends. And .. that leads to wonder how they parted. A guess that I would hope was a happy parting and not a parting ddue to necessity.
When and where can I buy one?!
They destroy millions of dollars worth of these pieces of history. They could sell them and put the money towards helping wounded vets or something equally worth while.
But they are so short sighted about guns. There are not a lot of gang bangers who would use a M1 Garand, even if they could get thier crack addled brains to figure out how to use it.
More likely he will distribute them to the New Black Panthers and ACORN.
No problem. SInce they cant figure out how to load the block clips or handle the recoil, most of them will be used as clubs.
He also has a Japanese Arisaka rifle, complete with bayonet, that he found on Guam while he was stationed there towards the end of the Korean War. He was poking around in an area that had just been bulldozed (to extend a runway, I think), and spotted it sticking up from a pile of dirt and rubble. The stock has some burn marks on it, but otherwise it's in good shape (still has the chrysanthemum on it), and I think he even fired it a couple of times once he got back to the states.
Ho-hum . . . Blue Sky, round two . . .
It amazes me that so many people do not know about the Civilian Marksmanship Program.
http://www.thecmp.org/ (click on the “sales” link)
Then they’ll use them as clubs.
Then when they attack, use your Evil Black Rifle to aquire a few.
Club Vs EBR....Club loses every time.
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