LAST EDITED ON Mar-07-16 AT 07:51 PM (EST)
 
>What's sad is that they've apparently decided that they've sold out of
>their inventory of M1 carbines, and they don't appear to have any
>plans to acquire more of them.

Well, in fairness, it may not be a question of "plans". There is only a finite number of them, after all. I'm actually kind of surprised they still have even the sporadic availability of Garands they have, given how long they've been out of service.

On the other hand, unlike the Garand,* I know of at least three companies (Auto-Ordnance, Inland Manufacturing, and Chiappa in Italy) making new M1 carbines, including one (the Chiappa version, sold under the brand name "Citadel" in the US) in .22 rimfire. So the collector market isn't your only route to carbineerhood, unless you're set on a genuine GI one, at which point, I would submit, you kind of are a collector. :)

--G.
* The closest thing to a new-production Garand I know of off the top of my head is Springfield Armory Inc.'s M1A, which is basically a non-select-fire M14. My knowledge of the market is not encyclopedic, however, and there might well be someone making GI M1 replicas somewhere. After all, it's not as if the patents are still in force.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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