My First M1 Carbine...

[Bandanabandit1]

Hey guys, im brand new to this forum so please excuse my ignorance. im looking to buy a m1 carbine but i dont really know too much about them, im looking for a shooting grade that dosent really have too much rust or any cracks in the stock, can someone direct me to a certain grade or type i should look into? thanks!

[deputy85]

your choice right now is rack grade carbines, while they will all be safe to shoot, they may need a lot of prettying up, your about 3-6 months late for the real nice ones/sgs/

[rmongo]

Don't know if your close to south store or north store(or nether) but if close to north store there still some service grades left- i think Standard Pro/ Whinchesters/NPM/ there might be some others(but not many) also Rack grade Inlands/Whinchester/NPM, but some are prity beat up(but cleanupable)just watch barrel wear- good luck-Roger

[AlReiter]

Unless my web page is not updating correctly I still see some Bavarian Rural Police Service Grades left:
http://www.thecmp.org/m1carbine.htm
Get your order in quick since they probably won't last long!!

[conradwojo]

I bought 2 Italian racks that looked great. They both looked like they were wearing almost all of their Italian re-park finish. The only negative was the M-2 soft wood stocks and those Italian FAT stamps. But they prettied up after some stain and re-finishing. Now the 2 current offering rackers I have do not even compare to the Italian ones. Stocks would be firewood if it wasn't for their history and the stock metal was rusty and worn. The gun metal, although not too bad, still looks as if it's been through a war. (pun intended) I went to the N Store and even hand picked the second one and there honestly was not much to choose from if you wanted to go for looks. I would consider them all as project carbines. Great shooters with good metal, but project guns if you want a pretty one. I know what I bought and saw is not representative of all the current offerings, so take this with a grain of salt. That was just my limited experience, and I was looking for a specific serial number range Inland so limited my searching there too to the Inlands.

[JimR]

Go with a Bavarian Service Grade. Usually have nice early wood, early parts and were not abused by the Germans...

[Carbineitis]

Depends on how much $$$ you want to spend.. The auctions contain some nice carbines, many service grade, at a premium price. The Bavaria carbines have an additional historical lineage that may be of interest, but when I compare the cost of a rack grade Inland at $419 and a rack grade Bavaria carbine at $575 I would go with the Inland (IMO). In any case, mailorder is luck-of-the-draw. Ordering sooner is better than later.