I know they were arsenal reconditioned at blue sky in virginia.Ones a garand and the other a winchester carbine with bayo lug and korean rear sight.Any ideas on worth both are excellent condition 90% finish.Garand has original wood and barrel marked 6/51.I was told by the sprinfield armory museum the rifle was made between a lot of rifles produced in january 44 and sent to the pacific theater.Any idea on value.Paid $300 for the garand and $175 for the carbine 15 years ago.Any idea on value or collectability.

Blue Sky is the importation mark. It has nothing to do with any type of arsenal reconditioning. The Blue Sky's have a reputation of being dogs. Some had the import mark stamped so heavily it actually bent the barrel. They also have a rep for being badly pitted below the woodline.

Value? It all depends on condition. If in good mechanical condition, and not too worn out,...$4-500. Their collectability is virtually nil unless some rare bird.

As stated the Blue Sky is a re import form a lend/lease program with Korea. Most of these M1 Garand and M1 Carbines have seen plenty of abuse, negolect and are a total wreck for the most part.

On occassion I have heard a a few where they where in great condition and in need of little if any repair, reconditioning but those seem to be just short of being scarecerthen hens teeth.

A Blue Sky for the right price would be an excellent canidate for a re barrel to .308 like I did or in a Carbine good start for a total rebuild.

As for any collectablity......None, they were parts guns, loaned/sold/given to to Korea and later bought back by a company that re imported then re sold to the public. Most likely think of them as a Box O Parts needing a new barrel, refinish and new wood.

Karsten

Thanks guys..the carbine is beutiful..the garand is good and could use a rebarreling at least I know the price wasnt bad..thanks again

I got really lucky with my M1 carbine Blue Sky.  It functions flawlessly and is in excellent shape.  Great little 9mm magnum!

Quoted: As stated the Blue Sky is a re import form a lend/lease program with Korea. Most of these M1 Garand and M1 Carbines have seen plenty of abuse, negolect and are a total wreck for the most part. On occassion I have heard a a few where they where in great condition and in need of little if any repair, reconditioning but those seem to be just short of being scarecerthen hens teeth. A Blue Sky for the right price would be an excellent canidate for a re barrel to .308 like I did or in a Carbine good start for a total rebuild. As for any collectablity......None, they were parts guns, loaned/sold/given to to Korea and later bought back by a company that re imported then re sold to the public. Most likely think of them as a Box O Parts needing a new barrel, refinish and new wood. Karsten

As Karsten said - +1, however......I had the opportunity to look through a pile of Blue Sky's back in 95-96ish - looked at probably 40 or 50 until I found a diamond in the rough.  It was a SA in original park - no pitting - the recvr is FLAWLESS - sn 69XX.  It was originally a gas trap Garand.  If my memory serves me - late 1936 or early 1937 production.  It has the 7th round stoppage reapir.  The rest of the rifle was trash.  The bbl was stamped so hard with "Blue Sky Alexandria VA" that the bore was actually oval.    There were a few salvageable parts,  - bolt, a good condition trigger group and some others.  I paid a wopping $169 for it....
It has been rebuilt into an early NM rifle (type 1) with new wood and all original NM parts.
I have toyed with rebuilding it again into a repro Gas Trap, but get scared away by the cost.

As an added note, I actually saw Blue Sky's that had modified bolts in them that had a spring installed in the rear of the bolt into a hole that was machined in just below the leg of the firing pin.  Presumably it was to reduce the possibility of a slam fire by tensioning the firing pin to the rear.  It may have also been an attempt to slavage rvcr's that had damgaed cam slots in the rcvr bridge.

1SGA

- the recvr is FLAWLESS - sn 69XX.  It was originally a gas trap Garand.  If my memory serves me - late 1936 or early 1937 production.   1SGA

late nov 38 thru early jan 39 for that range (69xx)  (according to duff's)

Yeah - that sounds right - the mind is the first thing that goes....LOL
I knew it was right at the end of a year or beginning of the next.

"Blue Sky" on the barrell doesn't necessarily mean junk, although it will limit the guns value to "shooter" pricing or maybe slightly less.  Based on testimony such as you've seen here, I'm sure a lot of them were pretty bad.  However; here in the St. Louis area we had a big gunshop that bought batches of them and sold them off.  They let me hand pick from the bunch and I bought several.  I examined them closely (even broke quite a few down) and picked the best few of the bunch.  However, the others were in "good" condition.  My dad still has one and we shoot it regularly.

One of the worst things they did to most of them, was trying to correct the crowns.  It looked like they just rammed a drill down into the barrel about an inch.  This however, is easily correctable (if necessary) by a good gunsmith.

PS:  I'm refering to the M1 carbines only here.  I've had no experience with any of the others.