I have a $400 Blue Skys Garand that I had to replace the barrel on. That was it.
here you go...Text Posted
Mothballed for half a century, more than 100,000 rifles used in the Korean War are going under the hammer in South Korea in a novel way to fund the nation's defence force.
About 35,000 carbine rifles and 87,000 M1 rifles will be sold to collectors in the US by year's end, English language website Chosun IIbo has reported.
The M1 was first manufactured in 1926 and was used by U.S forces in the Second World War, Korea and during the Vietnam War. The model was only replaced by the M16 in the 1980s.
Famous US military men such as General Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower lauded the weapon, and hero of Normandy General George S Patton proclaimed it "the greatest single battle implement ever devised by man".
The weapons were part of extensive military aid from the United States to South Korea during the bloody war with communist North Korea from 1950 until 1953.
Korea's Defence Ministry, quoted in Chosun IIbo, estimated a sale price of $AUD253 per M1 and US$160 per carbine, meaning the defence force could earn $23 million from the first shipment of weapons.
"Importers are very interested in them as many Americans want to buy them as curios for their collections," the Koran Defence Ministry's "green" logistics planning division said.
But Korea may be selling itself short with the weapons fetching up to $1000 per rifle among collectors in the US.
A further sale could occur in the coming years with the ministry retaining a stockpile of 640,000 M1 carbines for the use of reserve soldiers, which will need to be disposed of by 2020 as the military modernises.
