South Korea M1's are coming

[N8Gunner]

Great To See CSP Back ! Here is a tidbit I ran across this morning:

SEOUL : South Korea's defence ministry said Wednesday it plans to raise tens of millions of dollars by selling more than 100,000 ageing US-supplied rifles to gun enthusiasts in the United States.

Washington has approved South Korea's plan to sell about 86,000 M1 and 22,000 carbines together valued at 130 billion won (108 million US dollars), the ministry said.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1006708/1/.html

[dave]

Who is "Washington"? I would think bambam would block this!

[bruce]

I would not hold my breath waiting. Personally, whatever might come in from S. Korea would have to be pretty good to compete with what is available from the CMP.

[edpm3]

So they're going to get $1000 per rifle? They must have made their estimate using gun show prices.

[Maury Krupp]

There are two categories of rifles and carbines in Korea:

-Those *loaned* to the ROK government as part of the Military Assistance Program. These are still US Property as were the Danes and Greeks. They're CMP's for the taking and S&H to get them back

-Those *purchased* by the ROK Government as part of the Foreign Military Sales Program. They're ROK Property to dispose of as they wish

IIRC when Mr Michaels of CMP went to Korea to take a look he was shown one group of rifles and carbines in fair to good condition "These are ours" and a pile of scrap metal on the hoof not worth the S&H even for parts "These are yours."

Before the Koreans see any money they have to find a US importer willing to buy their stuff at their price in the hope he can get it back to the US to sell at a profit. That might be harder to do than whoever wrote that news story might think.

Maury

[musculus]

I can assure you that what they are going to send will for SURE be no better than and probably WORSE than the "Blue Sky" imports of the 1991-92 time period. Even those had to "arsenal refurbished" to get into some kind of shootable state. I remember looking over a few of these at the ROSES Deparment Stores (now long gone) for about 230.00 each at the time. As badly as I wanted an M1 at the time (I was waiting patiently for my "once per lifetime DCM rifle at the time), even to my totally untrained eyes, they were JUNK. Later on, through the years, I BOUGHT a few on occasion to strip for parts and virtually never were barrels not in sad state (bores shot and muzzles worn). Remember, they were shot hard with KA corrosive ammo and cleaned up little or nada after. After the ROKA switched over from M1s to M16s and Daewoo K1s, they turned these rifles over to civilan gate guards who shot them ONCE (maybe a clip or two) upon getting hired. They they would go to work and hand over the same rifle for each shift change. Believe me, NKPLA Speznatz would have made short work of these folks and killing everybody in Camp Casey/Howze etc. would have been a cake-walk (*I actually tried to raise this issue with the G2 and G3 of 2ID in 1988, THUD).

Bottom line, if CMP passed on these puppies, that should tell you all you need to know. Unfortunatley, SOG Inc. ("sorry old guns inc.") will talk about "VG to EXC" rifles to the sucker and get 799.0 for em. Yikes.

[PhrogPilot]

Didnt the Arlington Ord guns of the early 90's also come from S Korea? I seem to remember some really nice guns (and even some very rare ones...) coming from there...

[musculus]

yes, but they were ALL refurbished (I know a guy who was involved in cleaning those up). If you check, some of them have virtually brand new Citadel or nice USGI barrels. Some got new wood also. Back then, wood was no problem.

[PhrogPilot]

Sorry, but you must be refering to the Blue Sky guns. The Arlington Ord guns that came through navy Arms in WV were NOT all refurbished. There were some really nice (and rare) guns in there. I just am not sure if they came from Korea, but am pretty sure they did...

[ltcboy]

Kimchi Garands. All I can say to that is.., "Get off my lawn!!!!"

[m1903rifle]

When I was there in 1971 , I saw some very nice Winchester M1 carbines in Dong-Yang Warner's arms room( at that time most of the Defence Industries that I visited had their own defence force/militia that were supposed to defend the factory in the case of invasion). If these are amongst the 22,000 , someone will get some nice ones.

[Finestkind]

I wonder if they torch the receiver and drill the 3 necessary holes in the barrels?


Chuck

[LavaTech]

So they're going to get $1000 per rifle? They must have made their estimate using gun show prices.

I suspect that the reporter wasn't wearing sandals, thus the given amount is obviously reported with inaccuracy.;)

[ltcboy]

This will take years of red tape and they will all be in mediochre condition. Dont hold your breath....

MIke