M1 Carbine from Standard Products.....kind of
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 12:19 pm
It's dangerous to have some mad money when you see the chance to add something you suddenly want to your collection. Happened to me recently. I saw a Standard Products M1 Carbine from WWII with good metal for a price that was about the average of the current over priced gun show offerings. And...a fool spending his money according to impulsive is written all over my history.... so I stepped right up and said it's mine.
The thing about M1 Carbines from WWII is that there were a lot of them..over six million. That's a lot. They are said to have been the most production of any US government arm ever. They should be priced like they were priced back in the late 50's and early 60's at somewhere around $20. But that was then and this is now. If anybody had bought a couple thousand back then they would be on easy street now....if they could sell them at current prices that average somewhere between six and seven hundred each.
In any case, I picked the Standard Products version because Standard Products only accounted for 4 percent of the total production, next to least...still a whoping 247160..... and made them from 5/43 to 4/44. They were only slightly ahead of Rockola in numbers produced. However, what you get isn't exactly a limited number by picking an assembly plant. The reason is that of the ten assembly plants each only made a few of their own parts and they all used sub contractors and most parts passed among the plants doing the assembly as supply and demand dictated. About the only thing Standard Products has going for it as a claim to source is the serial number.
What I got was ...well...a rifle that had had a long and well used life in some third world country. The stock is well bunged and scratched. The good news is that the metal is good and no rust. The parts are for the most part marked with WWII factory letters and all the parts seem to be there.
I'll get around to cleaning it up later and maybe shooting it tomorrow. By the way, there is a small CIA mark on the underside of the barrel. Remember way back when....before Century turned their legal notice into a glaring billboard?
The thing about M1 Carbines from WWII is that there were a lot of them..over six million. That's a lot. They are said to have been the most production of any US government arm ever. They should be priced like they were priced back in the late 50's and early 60's at somewhere around $20. But that was then and this is now. If anybody had bought a couple thousand back then they would be on easy street now....if they could sell them at current prices that average somewhere between six and seven hundred each.
In any case, I picked the Standard Products version because Standard Products only accounted for 4 percent of the total production, next to least...still a whoping 247160..... and made them from 5/43 to 4/44. They were only slightly ahead of Rockola in numbers produced. However, what you get isn't exactly a limited number by picking an assembly plant. The reason is that of the ten assembly plants each only made a few of their own parts and they all used sub contractors and most parts passed among the plants doing the assembly as supply and demand dictated. About the only thing Standard Products has going for it as a claim to source is the serial number.
What I got was ...well...a rifle that had had a long and well used life in some third world country. The stock is well bunged and scratched. The good news is that the metal is good and no rust. The parts are for the most part marked with WWII factory letters and all the parts seem to be there.
I'll get around to cleaning it up later and maybe shooting it tomorrow. By the way, there is a small CIA mark on the underside of the barrel. Remember way back when....before Century turned their legal notice into a glaring billboard?