Lee
Guild of Calamitous Intent
Classic and RTI have had them for a while, going on a year, maybe more. RTI is even doing some restoration and selling them at a premium.
Best as I can tell they all came out of Africa, Classic is pretty vague, leaving it as specific as the continent of Africa, RTI gets as specific as saying they're from Ethiopia. I believe I.O. imported them, at least they imported mine - more on that later.
Here's a single example, a Quality Hardware bought from Classic Firearms. It was a birthday gift, it's a wonderful and thoughtful gift, I am very pleased to have it, and don't want anyone to think otherwise, any M1 Carbine is better than no M1 Carbine.
After going to Wanenmacher's Tulsa Arms Show in early April, with the express goal of coming home with an M1 Carbine, and then leaving empty handed, I was pretty jaded. I knew what I could buy a "Quality Hardware" or "IBM" (my top 2 choices) from Classic for, so that was my price point. EVERYTHING I considered in Tulsa was at least double, most, good all matching non-Inland Carbines started around $2K and the sky was the limit.
When I came home empty handed, Jewels snagged the QH Carbine from Classic. I think I'll keep her. 😍
The Carbine I got from Classic was absolutely FILTHY, rusty, most of the barrel finish is gone, and the stock was beat to hell. I get that they are surplus, and it's luck of the draw, ordering sight unseen online, but had I seen this gun, in the condition I received it, for the price they're asking, I would have rolled my eyes, scoffed and moved on. Jewels either didn't read or understand the option for having them hand select the best of 10 option, so I got the first one they grabbed. Side note: I got a police trade-in S&W 5906 from them a few years ago, paid for hand selection, and still felt like I got ripped off, so I'm not so sure hand selection is worth it.
What I got was a Quality Hardware receiver, with probably its original Rock-Ola barrel, QH mostly used Rock-Ola barrels, but that's about it. Everything else is an arsenal, hodgepodge of parts, of other manufacturers and some post-war replacement parts.
A few examples based on this website:
Receiver: Quality Hardware
Barrel: Rock-Ola
Stock: Underwood
Trigger Housing: Inland
Bolt: Mystery (says "AT 3" the 3 is sideways like a fancy script W)
Hammer: Inland
Sear: Inland
Trigger: Standard Products
Operating Slide: Inland
Barrel Band: Post War Replacement
Mag Catch: Post War Replacement
Safety: Post War Replacement
1943 I believe.
I took the thing almost completely apart, didn't remove the front or rear sights, nor did I disassemble the bolt. Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned some more. I soaked all the small parts in Evapo-Rust for 36+ hours, occasionally scrubbing with a nylon brush. I thoroughly scrubbed the stock with a toothbrush and various soaps, started with orange oil cleaner, but that did nothing, then went to Ajax liquid soap, made some headway, and eventually attacked it with Comet powder, yeah you read that right. It was FILTHY.
Gross, the recoil spring tube was solid brown with rust, I wish I had a before picture, it really cleaned up nice. The oil tube and its retainer in the stock were the same way, super rusty, but the Evapo-Rust worked great.
I got the stock reasonably clean, hot water from the tap helped the smaller dents quite a bit too. I had a thread in Chit Chat, to get some pointers on steaming dents, got some pointers and called names, par for course. I wound up using a steam spot cleaner on the stock, spent about 2 hours steaming out dents. Not perfect but sure helped.
The sight was stuck, couldn’t adjust elevation at all and windage was only adjustable to the right. A lot of degreaser and penetrating oil finally freed it up. The Carbine arrived with its sight no longer staked in place and has a lot of play in its dovetail. It’s not loose enough to remove by hand, but there’s ~3/16” of side-to-side play. These things were just stacked in piles, no telling how many other guns got dings and dents from my gun’s sight.
Here's some rust pitting, this is after cleaning.
Condition and price aside, I think these Carbines are being sold for $300-$500 more than they're worth, but what really ticked me off the most was this.
From Classic's own website.
Here's how I got it:
Here it is after a few hours of cleaning, treating rust, steaming dents, rust protecting, a few coats of tung oil, and learning how to put the thing back together. I should probably make a better YouTube video for the trigger spring, I watched 3 or 4 of them before I got the orientation right.
All in all, I'm very happy, like I said it's an amazing gift, and I've wanted a Carbine to compliment my Garand for a long time. It cleaned up fairly well, I wish the barrel finish was better, and for sure wish I.O. hadn't stamped it, I wish it was more Quality Hardware than just the receiver... but, the bore cleaned up well, it's bright and shiny, sharp rifling grooves, after cleaning and lubing, it's got a real smooth action. I expect it will be a real sweetheart of plinker after I restake the rear sight, and IF I can ever find ammo.
Take it for what it is, this is only one example, from one anal retentive, somewhat snobby, wanna-be collector. Carbines are drying up, prices are soaring, but temper your expectations if you're buying one of these African imports, they're still overpriced.
Best as I can tell they all came out of Africa, Classic is pretty vague, leaving it as specific as the continent of Africa, RTI gets as specific as saying they're from Ethiopia. I believe I.O. imported them, at least they imported mine - more on that later.
Here's a single example, a Quality Hardware bought from Classic Firearms. It was a birthday gift, it's a wonderful and thoughtful gift, I am very pleased to have it, and don't want anyone to think otherwise, any M1 Carbine is better than no M1 Carbine.
After going to Wanenmacher's Tulsa Arms Show in early April, with the express goal of coming home with an M1 Carbine, and then leaving empty handed, I was pretty jaded. I knew what I could buy a "Quality Hardware" or "IBM" (my top 2 choices) from Classic for, so that was my price point. EVERYTHING I considered in Tulsa was at least double, most, good all matching non-Inland Carbines started around $2K and the sky was the limit.
When I came home empty handed, Jewels snagged the QH Carbine from Classic. I think I'll keep her. 😍
The Carbine I got from Classic was absolutely FILTHY, rusty, most of the barrel finish is gone, and the stock was beat to hell. I get that they are surplus, and it's luck of the draw, ordering sight unseen online, but had I seen this gun, in the condition I received it, for the price they're asking, I would have rolled my eyes, scoffed and moved on. Jewels either didn't read or understand the option for having them hand select the best of 10 option, so I got the first one they grabbed. Side note: I got a police trade-in S&W 5906 from them a few years ago, paid for hand selection, and still felt like I got ripped off, so I'm not so sure hand selection is worth it.
What I got was a Quality Hardware receiver, with probably its original Rock-Ola barrel, QH mostly used Rock-Ola barrels, but that's about it. Everything else is an arsenal, hodgepodge of parts, of other manufacturers and some post-war replacement parts.
A few examples based on this website:
Receiver: Quality Hardware
Barrel: Rock-Ola
Stock: Underwood
Trigger Housing: Inland
Bolt: Mystery (says "AT 3" the 3 is sideways like a fancy script W)
Hammer: Inland
Sear: Inland
Trigger: Standard Products
Operating Slide: Inland
Barrel Band: Post War Replacement
Mag Catch: Post War Replacement
Safety: Post War Replacement
1943 I believe.
I took the thing almost completely apart, didn't remove the front or rear sights, nor did I disassemble the bolt. Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned some more. I soaked all the small parts in Evapo-Rust for 36+ hours, occasionally scrubbing with a nylon brush. I thoroughly scrubbed the stock with a toothbrush and various soaps, started with orange oil cleaner, but that did nothing, then went to Ajax liquid soap, made some headway, and eventually attacked it with Comet powder, yeah you read that right. It was FILTHY.
Gross, the recoil spring tube was solid brown with rust, I wish I had a before picture, it really cleaned up nice. The oil tube and its retainer in the stock were the same way, super rusty, but the Evapo-Rust worked great.
I got the stock reasonably clean, hot water from the tap helped the smaller dents quite a bit too. I had a thread in Chit Chat, to get some pointers on steaming dents, got some pointers and called names, par for course. I wound up using a steam spot cleaner on the stock, spent about 2 hours steaming out dents. Not perfect but sure helped.
The sight was stuck, couldn’t adjust elevation at all and windage was only adjustable to the right. A lot of degreaser and penetrating oil finally freed it up. The Carbine arrived with its sight no longer staked in place and has a lot of play in its dovetail. It’s not loose enough to remove by hand, but there’s ~3/16” of side-to-side play. These things were just stacked in piles, no telling how many other guns got dings and dents from my gun’s sight.
Here's some rust pitting, this is after cleaning.
Condition and price aside, I think these Carbines are being sold for $300-$500 more than they're worth, but what really ticked me off the most was this.
From Classic's own website.
Here's how I got it:
Here it is after a few hours of cleaning, treating rust, steaming dents, rust protecting, a few coats of tung oil, and learning how to put the thing back together. I should probably make a better YouTube video for the trigger spring, I watched 3 or 4 of them before I got the orientation right.
All in all, I'm very happy, like I said it's an amazing gift, and I've wanted a Carbine to compliment my Garand for a long time. It cleaned up fairly well, I wish the barrel finish was better, and for sure wish I.O. hadn't stamped it, I wish it was more Quality Hardware than just the receiver... but, the bore cleaned up well, it's bright and shiny, sharp rifling grooves, after cleaning and lubing, it's got a real smooth action. I expect it will be a real sweetheart of plinker after I restake the rear sight, and IF I can ever find ammo.
Take it for what it is, this is only one example, from one anal retentive, somewhat snobby, wanna-be collector. Carbines are drying up, prices are soaring, but temper your expectations if you're buying one of these African imports, they're still overpriced.
![[486]](https://data.irate4x4.com/avatars/m/0/94.jpg?1700178133){kind=avatar}
