The Blue Sky markings tend to be struck pretty deep.  So hard in fact that if you look down the bore you can sometimes see indentations on the INSIDE of the barrel from it.  As in the bore is no longer concentric.  At $400, it's a great canidate for a barrel swap though if you wanted to build, say a 7.62mm NATO one, or Match build-up since you'd need to swap the barrel out anyway.  $400 is fair dinkum for it.

Ross

I agree with buying it.

I bought my M1 for all of $125. It looked rough and wasn't in great shape (a Fed.Ord. import). I bought a finished Fajen stock set for it. Then bought a Danish parts set. Spent $50 to have that barrel put on it.

It always went bang. Now it looks great, too. All told I spent @$450, spread over 4-5 years.

If it's anything like my 'Arlington Arms' (same company as your markings), they I say get it.  My M1 Garand barrel was change before i bought it, but I still have the original 'Arlington' stampled barrel.  It's not that deep on mine.  It was changed because the gun smith who check it out said the brass was getting scratched by some kind of burr in the chamber.  He couldn't polish it out.  Granted my FFL buddy never saw the scratched brass......

My M1 Garand is okay.  A old military guy (in his mid 60's now) said it's in better shape then the one's he has seen.

It's hard to say exactly w/ out a pic, but if you just want to have a Garand, go for it.  That was my reasoning.  If possible, take it apart and see how the trigger parts look.

Enjoy.

Crowboy,

What I would do if I were you is before you buy it take the action apart. Bolt out if you don't know how ask the guy you are buying it from if he doesn't know how take the trigger housing out and take the action out of the stock. Then with a flash light look on the inside of the receiver and see if you can see any weld marks. Some receivers were rewelds. If you don't see any buy the gun and then get it rebarreled from orion on Long Island NY. I think their website is orion.org or M1Garand.com. He rebarreled miine for 169 dollars. That included the bbl. He also did a tech inspection for a few bucks when he was done I had a perfectly safe and reliable M1Garand. With a brand new bbl. If you want an original SA bbl that guages excellent he has them also. He can also make that gun into a compitition gun. He is the man. Faster and more reasonable then fulton armory.

Crowboy,

Glad you bought it and took my advice about the welding. A couple of points to beware of. If your bbl is in good shape shoot it the way it is and save some cash. Get use to the rifle then decide what to do with it. I would recommend a tech inspection by orion I think it is like 60 bucks but he goes over the gun to make sure it is safe. He is very honest and he did mine and found nothing wrong. He didn't say I needed anything. The bbl was contracted out to him before the inspection. I would be concerned about the op rod on the receiver. When theses rifles are worn in some cases the op rod would come off and out of the grove on the exterior of the receiver. Could be a dangerous situation. He also gauges the piston at the tip of the op rod(And many other things). Sometimes they look good but guage bad. When they are worn they don't give the proper function and sometimes make for an unreliable gun. So an inspection is well worth it. After he did the work on mine I bought a glass bedding kit from brownell and bedded the action to the stock to make a tighter fit and she shoots very well.

Get Scott Duffs M-1 owners guide. It's everything you need to know about your M-1. Orion 7 has them as cheap as I have seen them $18.00. Nothing wrong with the Blue Sky's. They came back from Korea and are very likely war veterans. I have a Blue Sky M-1 carbine and it's great. As I said in my email an M-1 from the CMP is $100.00 more but I'd be happy with what you have too.

Just wait until your here that lovely "Ching!"
sound as it ejects the clip. It's...melodic!