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Posted: 5/19/2025 2:16:15 PM EDT
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Picked this up at a recent gun show. It is in exceptionally good condition and is a good shooter. The original barrel is in good shape but it does have an import stamp. Collectors poo poo on import marked carbines but there are good ones out there. It has an IBM op rod, Saginaw Gear trigger housing, and Underwood round bolt. Stock and handguard have Inland markings. I've owned a lot of carbines over the years and this is definitely one of the nicer ones.    
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NorCal_LEO call sign: Armour
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Originally Posted By osprey21: Many of the Blue Sky imports had the logo so deeply stamped the bore was damaged. I have a Blue Sky Garand and it looks and functions fine. I've owned several Blue Sky carbines and garands over the years, as well as handled quite a few more. I have never seen any damage caused by the stamping. Not saying it doesn't exist, just haven't seen any personally. I got this one because I was shopping for a carbine and didn't want to pay 1600 for a non-import Inland in worse condition than 1000 for one with a stamp. For now this one is a shooter. I can always find a replacement barrel in the future to make it not-an-import. 
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NorCal_LEO call sign: Armour
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Originally Posted By osprey21: Many of the Blue Sky imports had the logo so deeply stamped the bore was damaged. I have a Blue Sky Garand and it looks and functions fine. I’ve heard that too but I wonder if it’s really true and the story just gets repeated over and over. I remember stories of M16 barrels getting rejected by armorers when using straightness gages and the story was that GI’s were using them to pry on ammo crate bands. Turns out it was just carbon or copper buildup at the gas port which was preventing the rods from going in further. Other examples are carbine bullets bouncing off frozen enemy parkas, Garand clip “ping” noise telling the enemy that a soldier was out o ammo, AK’s being the most reliable military guns, etc, etc. |
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My Inland Blue Sky CAL .30 Carbine M1 shoots great. It is full of vintage Inland parts and the barrel has very little wear. Originally Posted By osprey21: Many of the Blue Sky imports had the logo so deeply stamped the bore was damaged. Mostly B.S. from gun store Ninjas. |
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Originally Posted By Trucker69: I’ve heard that too but I wonder if it’s really true and the story just gets repeated over and over. I remember stories of M16 barrels getting rejected by armorers when using straightness gages and the story was that GI’s were using them to pry on ammo crate bands. Turns out it was just carbon or copper buildup at the gas port which was preventing the rods from going in further. Other examples are carbine bullets bouncing off frozen enemy parkas, Garand clip “ping” noise telling the enemy that a soldier was out o ammo, AK’s being the most reliable military guns, etc, etc. I was issued an M16A1 in officer basic training and on our first trip to the range it failed to reliably eject due to an extractor problem. I was issued another one on the spot and immediately discovered that with the sight all the way to the stop, it still shot left, like 3" left at 25m. The group was fine, with 3 rounds in a clover leaf. But as a two time loser I was of course blamed and sent to stand in line to be assessed on the "weaponeer". It was about an hour of watching other candidates take a foxhole prone position with the M16 with its laser and its broomstick recoil simulator and dance the little red dot all over the instructor's screen before randomly jerking the trigger, with predictable results and coaching efforts. When it was finally my turn, I assumed the fox hole prone position and fired three slots slow fire as instructed. The NCO running the machine wondered why the dot wasn't moving on the screen, and applied some percussive maintenance. Someone behind me laughed, told the NCO the machine was working just fine and asked me about my shooting background. I told him I had been hunting rabbits and prairies dogs since age 6 and had shot small bore and high power service rifle competition in college. He said "it shows" and told the armorer to issue me "one of the good ones". It was indeed a good M16A1, and would shoot clean qualification scores on both paper and train fire targets out to 350m. But bent M16A1 barrels? Absolutely a thing. |
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I recall when the Blue Sky M1 Garands and Carbines came in (around 1990 IIRC). They were re-imports from Korea and they varied a lot in condition. Some were in excellent condition. Many however had the muzzles counterbored to get back to good rifling. The stocks were often heavily used, frequently, with bullet point marks on the left side of the stock adjacent the receiver where troops would smack the points to ensure they were all still fully seated in the en block clip. Some had stains that I suspect were at that time 40 year old blood stains that soaked in when they were picked up and store. Some of them were probably the only authentic never arsenal reworked since combat rifles and carbines I ever saw. Initially Blue Sky put the import mark on the bottom of the barrel, under the hand guard on the M1 Carbines, but the ATF made them stamp them more visibly after the first few batches. In the 30 years since, I suspect many, if not most of them have been restocked and many have been re-barreled. |
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Originally Posted By DakotaFAL: I recall when the Blue Sky M1 Garands and Carbines came in (around 1990 IIRC). They were re-imports from Korea and they varied a lot in condition. Some were in excellent condition. Many however had the muzzles counterbored to get back to good rifling. The stocks were often heavily used, frequently, with bullet point marks on the left side of the stock adjacent the receiver where troops would smack the points to ensure they were all still fully seated in the en block clip. Some had stains that I suspect were at that time 40 year old blood stains that soaked in when they were picked up and store. Some of them were probably the only authentic never arsenal reworked since combat rifles and carbines I ever saw. Initially Blue Sky put the import mark on the bottom of the barrel, under the hand guard on the M1 Carbines, but the ATF made them stamp them more visibly after the first few batches. In the 30 years since, I suspect many, if not most of them have been restocked and many have been re-barreled. I'm glad that I bought one back in '90, sub -$200 OTD:  |
“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
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Originally Posted By DakotaFAL: I recall when the Blue Sky M1 Garands and Carbines came in (around 1990 IIRC). They were re-imports from Korea and they varied a lot in condition. Some were in excellent condition. Many however had the muzzles counterbored to get back to good rifling. The stocks were often heavily used, frequently, with bullet point marks on the left side of the stock adjacent the receiver where troops would smack the points to ensure they were all still fully seated in the en block clip. Some had stains that I suspect were at that time 40 year old blood stains that soaked in when they were picked up and store. Some of them were probably the only authentic never arsenal reworked since combat rifles and carbines I ever saw. Initially Blue Sky put the import mark on the bottom of the barrel, under the hand guard on the M1 Carbines, but the ATF made them stamp them more visibly after the first few batches. In the 30 years since, I suspect many, if not most of them have been restocked and many have been re-barreled. I was stationed at Fort Jackson at the time. There was an ad in the sports section of The State newspaper advertising garands and carbines for $250 being sold at a local gun store. I went down there on my lunch break. I was ushered into a back room where two large tables were pushed together piled high with garands and carbines. I went through as many as I could on my short lunch break and picked out a couple of good ones, an IHC and a Springfield. I went back the next day and got a carbine. It would have been around 1989 or 1990. As the years passed and I got more into collecting milsurps I traded or sold my "undesirable" imported guns. Wish I would have kept them. The store is still there to this day... Palmetto Distributors on Broad River Road. |
NorCal_LEO call sign: Armour
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Originally Posted By GunnyG: I'm glad that I bought one back in '90, sub -$200 OTD: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/12179/798DD6BE-944E-430A-9A21-FB6F8F355DE3-691040.jpg Beautiful carbine, Gunny.
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NorCal_LEO call sign: Armour
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Originally Posted By CA_TX-Cop: Very pretty! Still need to get one of those stock mag pouches for mine. I got mine here. Pretty decent quality for a repro. |
NorCal_LEO call sign: Armour
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Originally Posted By panzersergeant: Originally Posted By CA_TX-Cop: Very pretty! Still need to get one of those stock mag pouches for mine. I got mine here. Pretty decent quality for a repro. FWIW, apparently, I started this collection when I was but a young scrub Boy Scout: I had bought several M1 carbine mag pouches to use for belt carrying a SAK, matches and fire starter (packed into USGI green plastic match carrier tubes). A decade plus later, I got the Carbine to match. Almost immediately afterwards, I went down to Federal Army & Navy Surplus, to get the carry bag (back when they weren't expensive or reproductions) Pre- Y2K, when I was stationed down in Ft Worth, and I traded a bunch of old woodland cammies and black combat boots to a local surplus store for a broken carbine bayonet and a case of NIW M1 carbine mags  Piccatiny rails replaced the grip panels, and the Surefire M951 was added later on |
“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
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My Garand is a Blue Sky. It has a Sept ‘42 receiver. I had the barrel replaced, the stock replaced the broken-in-two-places recoil rod spring replaced, and the clip retaining mechanism rebuilt. Damn, it’s fun to shoot. I also had a Blue Sky Inland that I gave to my best friend. I replaced it with a well-worn, non updated, all Underwood parts and receiver carbine. Looks well-used. It is equally fun. |
"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result." - Winston Churchill
| I still have my Blue Sky Garand I got back in 1987 after mowing a ton of yards. It's a Mar 1945 with a 1965 barrel. Used it for re-enactments back then. I was so broke I could not afford 30.06 blanks even at .10 cents a round. So, I put a 7.62 sleeve into the chamber and fired 7.62 blanks through it since I could get those for free with just some scrounging. It's been through 2-3 stocks since then. |
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Originally Posted By ZW17: Damn, that is beautiful. What’s the price tag on one of those? Import marked? Around here they are hard to find for less than a thousand. The seller's asking price was 1200 but I got it for a grand. Not a screaming deal but I was okay with what I paid for it. It's a great shooter and very accurate. Non-imports usually start at around 1400 and go up from there depending on manufacturer, condition, and correctness. |
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