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M1A1 Value? NOW With Pictures

Zoo Guy
I bought a M1 Carbine paratrooper in a lot of guns that I purchased. After taking it to a couple gun shops I got a variety of answers on price... I was hoping that someone here could give me a difinitive answer. I have taken it apart to try to get stamps off of the parts and have gotten a few.
The serial # is 5219945, and the barrel is stamped Inland with the date 5-44. The inside of the Handguard has L-J, the trigger assembly has inland, Hammer has H.I., front site has an N, Operating rod has a .U., Bolt has an I or an H on the raised part and a possible AOB on another part?, I could find no marking son the stock... The bottom of the grip has a marking on it, but appears to have been rubbed by the bottom of the folding stock and is not readable, possible B or 3? Butt plate has B257614 a wheel and number 9. Safety has a circle with something in it and an I.. Mag release has an M or W and an MA. ring around front of stock has AMCO. Stock seems to be very used and has quite a few dings and scrapes on it. Back site LR CO. 7160060. I may be able to find more stamps if given direction on where to look, I have taken it apart twice and am comfortable with doing it again. Leather on stock looks to be original, no oiler.
[img][/img]m1a1003.jpg

[img][/img]m1a1004.jpg
[img][/img]m1a1002.jpg

[img][/img]m1a1001.jpg
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Comments

8 comments

Date Votes
  • nmyers
    Instructions for posting photos can be found near the top of the first page of the forum

    Neal

    EDIT: What's the expression, "It's better to teach someone to fish ..." Oh well, you can learn next time. Click on my name, go to my profile, & send me a short email WITHOUT the photos first.
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  • Zoo Guy
    Thanks for making me learn to fish Neal, I hope some of these pics will help. If anyone can tell me anything about this gun it would be appreciated.
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  • partisan
    I sold one of these for a friends widow. There are some REAL experts on this site regarding these carbines. The one I sold had a lot of the similarities of yours. The wood on mine was in better shape, it had the oiler, and a flash suppressor. Mine sold for $1500.00.
    There were only about 165,000 of these made, and all folding stock models were made by Inland (General Motors.)Hope one of the guys that helped me will do the same for you.
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  • nmyers
    Well, you've got the hang of posting. A couple of your photos are really good, but we really need to see focused close-up of the wood, especially the pistol grip.

    Without any visible markings on the stock, I suspect you may have a counterfeit stock. Or, at the least, one with replaced & "stressed" wood. Bubba cut off the front 2" of wood, so, even if the stock is legit, it's butchered.

    Unless it's your flash, there appears to be a lot of surface rust on the metal. And, the beat up wood shows abuse that the metal didn't get, so it's likely the entire carbine was recently assembled from parts.

    It's difficult to estimate the value of these guns, as there are a lot of unknowledgable folks out there who just have to have one, but don't know what they are looking at. I believe that you would get $1,000-1,200 if you listed it here, maybe a little more.

    Neal
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  • Zoo Guy
    After reading some other postings about these guns I believe that I have found an IO, or OI inside the stock that seems to mean something. I have posted that picture, and a couple of the rest of the stock and barrel. The barrel does not seem to be very rusty maybe just the flash. The bottom of the pistol grip has a number or letter on it that can barely be seen at the top right of that picture. This is a link to the gallery of the photos I have. Please give me any input you may have.
    http://img293.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=m1a1.jpg
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  • p3skyking
    If the rivets through the leather are brass, it's a fake. Real stocks have steel rivets only. I can't really tell from the photo, but the rivets look like they have verdigris. If so, fake.
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  • Zoo Guy
    It looks like most if not all of the M1A1s that are for sale on the CMP web site have brass rivets... this is the first that I have heard of this theory.
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  • nmyers
    Everyone's right.

    Early rivets were blackened brass. By mid-production this was changed to parkerized solid steel. Since Zoo Guy's stock is early production, but the carbine serial number is late production, we can see that this is not an original gun.

    Not that this is terrible; all of the CMP M1A1's are similar mismatched arsenal rebuilds. But, the poor condition of Zoo Guy's stock really hurts the value.

    Neal
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