Posted on 08/19/2010 7:01:44 PM PDT by NativeNewYorker
According to The Korea Times, the Obama administration has blocked efforts by the South Korean government to sell over a hundred thousand surplus M1 Garand and Carbine rifles into the United States market. These self-loading were rifles introduced in 1926 and 1941. As rifles, they are especially well-suited to community defense in an emergency, as in the cases of community defense following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Along with AR-15 type rifles, the M1 rifles are the quintessential firearms of responsible citizenship, precisely the type of firearms which civic responsibility organizations such as the Appleseed Project teach people how to use.
According to a South Korean official, “The U.S. insisted that imports of the aging rifles could cause problems such as firearm accidents. It was also worried the weapons could be smuggled to terrorists, gangs or other people with bad intentions.”
(Excerpt) Read more at volokh.com ...
Sweet!
That was before the boating accident....
You too?
I love FReepers but we are lousy at piloting boats and canoes!
Koreans should simply return them to Uncle Sam who can check and sell them thru’ CMP like they already do.
Personal story about the M1.
A local COB (Crusty Old Bastard) had an M-1 Garand that he’d had since the war but didn’t shoot much.
The COB also had some flatland along a creek with a bluff on the other side which made for a perfect shooting range. He had on that a lean-to with a huge grill for cooking for large parties.
One day the COB’s adult grandsons bought themselves some Mini-14’s and lined up some bricks to shoot. They were raving about how powerful they were to knock big chips off the bricks when they were shot.
COB sees this and goes and gets his M-1 then proceeds to explode the bricks to bits. The grandsons, in awe, blurt out ‘what kind of gun is that’?
COB answers - ‘This is a M1 Garand. It’s a real rifle that’s won real wars, and when you’re ready to use what a real man uses, go buy one of these and shoot it.’
I’d actually posted this a few days ago (different title).
I would love to have a Garand
Didn’t some of these get imported already. I saw a rack of M-1s at a dealer just outside of Philly. They were trashed and I’m not exaggerating.
This is my latest, however I STILL prefer my SOCOM.
They are both smile makers for me however. : - D
The AP4 is a generic picture, mine has an adjustable stock but it is a beaut....my second favorite "tall" baby.
I slipped up alright!
Should have a “gun porn” pinglist!
Now we need cheap ammo!
and America takes another one in the........
rlmorel
From what I’ve been able to gather from my contacts in the Importer / Wholesaler World (having a C&R FFL I have accounts with a few of them) one of the problems is that these rifles were “lend-lease” weapons, and since the Korean government does not technically own them, they cannot sell them back to us.
The Greeks apparently returned a bunch of their lend lease M-1s to the US Government, which in turn turned them over to the CMP for sale to qualified buyers.
But that was back in the GW BUSH Administration.
If these M1s ever do get back to the US, chances are under this Syndicate they would be scrapped, much as Clinton ordered the destruction of thousands of M-14s, which troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have been crying for when the inadequacy of “jammin jenny” and the 5.56mm mouse gun round once again was proven in combat, as it was in VietNam 40 years earlier.
The few surviving specimens of the last of the “REAL RIFLES” the military ever issued, other than a few used for ceremonial purposes, apparently have been modified into highly effective “Squad Designated Marksman” rifles for issue over in the sandbox.
A few of the ROK milsurp M-1s made it back here about 10 years ago, but they had obviously been “rode hard & put away wet” and most needed a lot of TLC in order to restore them to decent serviceable condition. Also the ROKS typically sawed a couple of inches off of the stock to accommodate the short, stocky Korean Infantryman... some of the toughest examples of the human species I have ever encountered, by the way.
CMP also got a lot of ROK M-2 Ball ammo, which our club has used in a number of CMP shoots, and it was decent stuff.
If you can get some of the Greek HXP though, it is prime.
Assuming that a lot of M-1s would fall into criminal use is just as you have pointed out, pretty absurd; about the first time a gang-banger got an “M-1 Thumb” that would be the end of that, and those 8-rd. enbloc clips would not be terribly popular among thugs more accustomed to 30rd. AK magazines. Any punk worth his ink would be laughed off the hood if he came toting one of those old relics and a bandoleer of enblocs.
The Garand was indeed a fine Infantry weapon in it’s day, but even by the end of the Korean “conflict” (which never really “ended”, by the way) it was woefully obsolete.
As some have opined, I agree that it would best serve today as a last ditch DEFENSIVE rifle, and probably serve reasonably well in the hands of an experienced Rifleman - but way out of it’s league for any effective offensive tactical application.
The carbine, as cute as it is, is notoriously underpowered and under-ranged, and even the SKS is a generally superior combat arm firing a superior tactical round (7.62X39mm) at about the same size and weight. The AKM series simply leaves it in the dust of historical curiosity. It’s primary usefulness now is in teaching riflery to young shooters stepping up from the .22, informal plinking, and perhaps small pest control.
The Russian PPSH submachine gun round (.30 Tokarev / 7.62 X 25mm) is nearly as powerful as the M-1 carbine round and the “Paypayshay” could spray them out of an 80 rd. drum mag at around 900RPM. Troops facing them in Korea called them the “Buzz Saw” for good reason, and even the select fire M-2 carbine was reportedly no match for them in battle.
I know that several international arms Importers, some of whom you are probably familiar with, have been monitoring the Korean M-1 situation for quite some time now, anxious to negotiate a buy - but they face a formidable opposition in the anti-gun / anti freedom Obama Regime and the red tape jungle imposed by it’s bureaucracy.
From what I’m hearing the ROK Military bureaucrats have not been terribly helpful, either.
There is a discussion regarding this situation over on the CMP discussion forum, if you’d like to peruse it.
Korea Garand Deal Problems - CMP Forums
www.thecmp.org
http://www.thecmp.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22783
Yeah, since everything else is anymore....."It's a right!"
Brother are you ever right about that. I remember watching some ROK's start their days by engaging in Tae Kwan Do practice at 0500 every day without pads.
Amazing.
Cute, yes. Accurate, no. And how can you call an M1 Carbine a weapon? It was specifically designed to wound opponents, not kill them.
And the only other "weapon" to rival the Carbine's notorious inaccuracy is the Ruger Mini-14. Two peas in a pod!
Actually, the price of ammo seems to have been coming down over the last couple of months, and the supply, if anything, going up.
I just got a deal from AIM Surplus (one of my favorite milsurp suppliers, by the way):
” Surplus Yugoslavian 7.62x39 FMJ -
... Surplus Yugoslavian 7.62x39 ammunition. Features a 123grn lead core copper jacketed bullet, brass case, and berdan primer. Packed 10rds on a steel charger (stripper clip), 40rds (4 chargers) in a box, and 1,120rds (28 boxes) sealed in metal tin inside of a hinged latched wooden case. At these prices... while supplies last!
(16 cents a round by the case!)
40rd box: $6.75ea
1,120rd case: $179.20ea”
Kinda hard to beat that, Amigos!
The Yugo milsurp ammo that I have bought in the past has been good, reliable ammo, albeit a little corrosive.
Flush well with Ballistol & water (”Moose milk”) Windex or whatever your favorite corrosive salt neutralizer after shooting with this stuff.
I don’t know if you can use the clips for charging your AKS but they work reasonably well on the SKS once you get the hang of it (which I have not, all that well, sad to say)
Yes, I saw that deal and plan to take advantage of it myself.
Thats good ammo too. Brass cased and on stripper clips.
To bad it’s berdan primed.
I am saving some of this fine ammo as collectable to go with an unfired yugo SKS
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