Hello I am new to M1 Garand's I just got my first rifle today at a Fun show. And so far i know this much about about it. It was made in July of 1943 by Springfield and from what i can see the barrel date is 1-43
It has marked on the barrel  " LUE SKY / ARLINGTON. VA. " was this the importer?
The bore looks great little to no pitting just a little dark.
As for the metal under the wood it looks great only one place i see looks to have been pitted with rust and it is about the size of a pencile earser.
is this a normal condition for a rifle like this or is it a little better or worst than normal?
Any info would be great on other thing to look at and look for parts wise.
Thanks E3

The picture isn't really all that crisp to be able to tell the condition, but it looks better than either of the ones I picked up last week for $400 complete and $300 (without stock) from the CMP.  But then again, if it looks shitty, call it "battle hardened."  

Blue Sky was the importer.
IIRC, the BS imports came from Korea?

Quoted: Hello I am new to M1 Garand's I just got my first rifle today at a Fun show. And so far i know this much about about it. It was made in July of 1943 by Springfield and from what i can see the barrel date is 1-43 It has marked on the barrel  " LUE SKY / ARLINGTON. VA. " was this the importer? The bore looks great little to no pitting just a little dark. As for the metal under the wood it looks great only one place i see looks to have been pitted with rust and it is about the size of a pencile earser. is this a normal condition for a rifle like this or is it a little better or worst than normal? Any info would be great on other thing to look at and look for parts wise. Thanks E3 i7.photobucket.com/albums/y292/EARRNHARDT3/m1garand001.jpg

How much did you pay?

WELL I DON'T KNOW IF I WANT TO SAY SEEMED KIND OF HIGH AFTER LOOKING AROUND HERE A BIT. BUT ALL THE OTHER GARAND'S AT THE SHOW WAS A LOT MORE AND THEY WHERE IN THE SAME SHAPE OR WORST
I PAY $600

I'm getting a service grade for $500. If yours is in better shape I would say you did okay on the price.
From CMP
Service Grade Rifles are Genuine U.S. Government rifles manufactured 45 to 60 years ago that meet the Army criteria for issue to a soldier for overseas service. Most have been rebuilt/refinished one or more times and many have seen use by military personnel. That use is exhibited by worn and mixed colors of the metal finish, some minor pitting on the metal parts, and wood that is basically sound but may have minor hairline cracks and nicks and bruises or gouges that do not affect function.

The three wood components may vary in type of wood and condition. Metal parts and components may be a combination of different manufacturers. Barrels have a gauged throat erosion of less than 5 (well within U.S. Army standards) with considerable useful life remaining. Some of these are not pretty rifles, but each is authentic. Condition varies from good to very good.

Quoted: WELL I DON'T KNOW IF I WANT TO SAY SEEMED KIND OF HIGH AFTER LOOKING AROUND HERE A BIT. BUT ALL THE OTHER GARAND'S AT THE SHOW WAS A LOT MORE AND THEY WHERE IN THE SAME SHAPE OR WORST I PAY $600

For $600, even without close, detailed pictures I can say you were likely not hosed.  Most Garands at private shows go for more than that, even really, really shitty ones.  The prices at shows are always high when compared to the CMP, but if you're comparing strictly to gunshow or private sale prices, you weren't screwed, and unless it's in piss-poor condition, you likely got a pretty good deal.

Though, 99% of the time, you would be better served getting one from the CMP for the same price.

ETA: I'm not a collector, I have two and I'm a complete newbie when it comes to Garands... all I know is the basic prices.  One of the major deciding factors is the shape of the barrel.  Since yours is date 1943, it is very likely correctly dated to your receiver, as I don't think they really ever replaced barrels with other WWII barrels (unless it was done by the dude who sold it to you), but since the barrels can't be matched exactly to the receivers, there's no way to tell AFAIK.  Your stock looks like it's in very good shape, but who knows about the barrel's crown.  You can tell by looking at it, but a gauge is the best method.  Obviously, if there's no rifling to be seen at the crown (tip) of the barrel, that's not a good thing, but keep in mind... if you decide "I've been screwed!" you can always get at least $600 for it at the next gunshow and go buy a CMP Garand for less!

I'd be very leary of spending $600 on Blue Sky imported rifles.  They were all made from receivers purchased from Korea (none were complete rifles).  Also sometimes they were stamped so hard with the import stamp that the barrels are oval shaped.  However, if it looks ok, and shoots fine, its not too bad of a deal.

You probably won't get a good deal at the gunshows, because these guys would rather carry the same 22 guns to the same gunshows year after year, than sell for a reasonable price.  I would not hesitate to buy one from the CMP though, because I received the deal of the century when I got my 2 USGI Field grade Springfield Armorys.  Just be sure to check out the barrel for out of round, and possibly have headspace checked on your Blue Sky, the shoot the crap out of it.





I don't mean to scare you, just making sure you know that "GOOD" blue skys are rarer than "crappy" blue skys.  Also look for a parkerized chamber/barrel, they forgot to plug some barrels when they reparked the mixmasters they were putting together.


Just my .02,
Steve L.

Quoted:  They were all made from receivers purchased from Korea (none were complete rifles).

You sure of that?

Quoted: Quoted:  They were all made from receivers purchased from Korea (none were complete rifles).   You sure of that?

Complete rifles.  Some of these were thr "canned" Garands.  Cosmoed and sealed in large cans about the size of a 55 gal drum.

CMP rifles are a real crap shoot.  Even on the service grades now, most find they have to replace the stock. On 3 CMP rifles I inspected i have a full page of bad, broken, defective parts I found.

It is worth $ to inspect any rifle before money changes hands, even moreso on milsurp rifles.

You did good, now go shoot!

Quoted: Quoted:  They were all made from receivers purchased from Korea (none were complete rifles).   You sure of that?

The above statement don't make sence on my rifle the barrel is marked S-A-1-43 and all the parts that i have looked at on my rifle have S A in the part #'s and seeing how my rifle has a July 1943 serial # I can't belive that Blue Sky went to the trouble to build a rifle from all matching parts. And so far every thing every one said bad or need to look for on Blue Sky rifles my rifle looks great and looks almost new in most cases. I may have the one out of a thousand rifles thats a exception to the Blue Sky junk that so many people think they are and/or might be.
E3

I remember that being the general concensus regarding parts guns, and junk.  I could be combining multiple conspiracy theories, but I don't think so.  You very well might have that 1 in 1000 Blue Sky, more power to you.  I didn't mean to say yours is a piece, just that most are.  Most of them do look good because I believe they were all overhauled, and reparkerized.  I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me will be by shortly to correct my lack of knowledge/stupidity.

Go shoot it, you'll fall in love with the very first trigger pull, I know I did.


Steve L.

Since there has been a number of questions regarding Blue Sky Garand's and carbines over the last couple weeks, I feel I should tell you what I know. I worked for one of the largest buyers of the Blue Sky imports, and I can tell you all rifles that were refurbished were done in Korea by Koreans using U.S. spare parts. (some Nat match parts) many were simply reparked with better new or used wood put on them, if they were in good shape, they were left alone. I personally looked through and unloaded several truckloads of these rifles for Woolworths back in the mid 80's and I can tell you that about 50% of the Garands were in real good condition, and shot well right out of the box, the carbines were even better, with about 90% in very good to excellent condition. Garands retailed for $299...carbines for $139...25% of the Garands were worth fixing up, and 25% were near complete junkers and Woolworths had a hard time unloading the bad 25%. I bought three excellent carbines and three Garands when they went on sale, and all three were terriffic rifles, with no problems whatsoever. So there you have it...

Well i found out some infromation on my Blue Sky M1 Garand today that explains alot about why my rifle looked and seems above average for a Blue Sky.
Come to find out the only thing thats Blue Sky is the barrel and recivier. The rest of the rifle was built by a guy in Ill. he has done a couple for this dealer before and they all turned out perfect. At least that is the story the dealer gave me. It have a short cycling problem when i got it but the dealer fixed it with a new op. rod spring and the stock was rubbing the op. rod also so he took a little of the wood off to provide a little more clearance.
What a waste of all that time and money on a Blue Sky reciver and barrel right.
E3

I just paid $800 for a 43 [44BBL]all SA Garand with an excellent bore. Close to perfect in fact. Came with a Boyds stock and an original one. The Boyd is very very nice and will stay on the rifle. I wanted a very good shooter and was willing to spend the money for one with an excellent bore [.5/1.5] I don't see all that many with excellent bores that still have a WW2 BBL on them.


You did fine. Now shoot it and have fun. Make sure you use the proper ammo, not some hunting round you find at the local gunshop.