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I just have a fondness for them and so, I was very interested to find out more about Royal Tiger Import’s haul. There are a few old cars, and a girl or two I will always have a soft spot for. Yes, they are importing many other exciting models, but the M1 carbines stuck out to me. Oli and Uli searched for years before finding a treasure trove of surplus firearms here.Ĭurrently trending on social media is their trove of GI M1 carbines they managed to import into the U.S. Uli Wiegand stands in front of a stack of M1 carbines in a warehouse in Ethiopia. Then there was the excitement of heading to the range for the first time with an old classic purchased at a reasonable price. I missed the smell of cosmoline, the excitement of picking out a historic piece you wish could talk and time spent carefully scrubbing and cleaning a new acquisition. The world was changing, and frankly I didn’t like it one bit. Some undertook manufacturing while others simply disappeared into the history books. To cope with this sad reality many of the old time surplus dealers began to transition into other things. Sure, there were bits and pieces that showed up occasionally, but in recent years there have been no really exciting discoveries. It appeared as if the well had finally dried up. service until 1973.įor a long time it seemed as if the age of surplus had come to an end. military history which served throughout World War II, Korea and Vietnam and remained in U.S. The M1 carbine is a classic piece of U.S. It was a classic piece of World War II military surplus. Even so, it remained a favorite of mine in an ever expanding collection. It was very fun to shoot, but ammunition was expensive which put a slight damper on things. Over the next four years or so, that old GI M1 carbine became a constant companion. ball which were all loaded on stripper clips. It came with a sling, oiler, a number of 15-round magazines, one 30-round magazine, and about 450 rounds of G.I. I believe I paid $250 for it at a small gun shop in 1980. Royal Tiger Imports has a wide variety of M1 carbines available from almost all the manufacturers in both early and late model configuration. Rather, you would have been out of place without one. Things were different back then, a simpler time and no-one thought twice about a teenager exploring the woods with a self-loading rifle. It was the perfect gun for a 14-year-old hiking through the dense forest of rural Maine in the early 1980s. No, the M1 carbine is no power-house, but it is very easy to shoot, fairly accurate and is fed from a 15- or 30-round magazine. All positive attributes while wandering over hill-and-dale exploring. It was short, light and handy, carried easily and slung well. 30 caliber M1 carbine was one of my favorite companions while roaming the Maine woods as a young teenager.