Universal M1 Carbine, an interesting story!

[VolksJager]

Well today was a military swap meet here in Western Australia. I always set up a table or 2 and its always a good day. Anyways I have had a Denix M1 Garand I have had for awhile now, did abit of weathering to it to try to make it look better but at the end of the day its always gonna be a denix

So with my interest in Soviet WW2 militaria rising I decided to sell of my US WW2 stuff, so the Garand went up for sale today. Loads of interest from people and one of the other dealers came over and said he was keen and was looking to trade.

I wander over to his table and low and behold he has 2 deactivated M1 Carbine's there. Now in Australia the closest thing I would get to an carbine is the denix repo, but here they were. I do like the vented hand guard on the Universals and seeing one here was enough for me to go with the trade.

Its fully welded as per law here but I was very happy to trade a repo weapon with a deac weapon. Looks to be a 2nd gen with a 97XXX serial number and looks to be fitted with some USGI parts. I will most likely fit it out with a nice sling and other bits and pieces.

Still pretty excited about this one, at least now the lineup on the wall are all deac weapons now!

Cheers
Jason

[Nitram]

Lovely gun! Thanks for sharing. A fair trade I'd say.

Is that an M3/M5 lid I spy in the background of one of the photos?

Nitram

[sandgroper]

Looks great on the wall Jase, another fine addition mate, well done.

[VolksJager]

Thanks Nitram, the Garand was a denix reproductin weapon so it didn't do much. I prefer deacs, easier to deal with here and with our laws, but nice to find a weapon like this that doesn't appear hear.

Cheers
Jason

[VolksJager]

Oh and that is an M3 in the background, always wanted one and was lucky to get one last year

[MarkV]

I have a Universal - bought it while I was in college back in '75. A nice little shooter with a few USGI parts. I'm now lucky to own 3 fully functional USGI M1 carbines - an Inland, a National Postal Meter and a Rockola.

Great find - looks just like mine!

[GIZMO8Z]

Nice one, Jason! The adjustable rear sight and bayonet lug means that it was most likely rearsenaled after WWII. I am not sure if the vented handguard was ever used during WWII...

Do you plan to bring it back to WWII spec, or keep it as-is?

I love my IBM M1 Carbine!

[Doggert Dog]

Very nice gun, VolksJager.

[MarkV]

Nice one, Jason! The adjustable rear sight and bayonet lug means that it was most likely rearsenaled after WWII. I am not sure if the vented handguard was ever used during WWII...

Do you plan to bring it back to WWII spec, or keep it as-is?

I love my IBM M1 Carbine!

Joe,

Universals are commercial carbines, not USGI. Several manufacturers bought up many of the surplus WWII parts and earlier versions of the commercial rifles had many USGI parts on them until they exhausted their supplies of parts. Fram that point, they were/are all ommercially made.

Mark

[GIZMO8Z]

Ah! I remember reading that somewhere, but it slipped my mind! Thanks, Mark! Glad to see you back on the forum.