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Firearms International FI00002

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De7247 View Drop Down
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    Posted: Jul 21 2018 at 7:58pm
Evening fellow Carbine owners. I wanted to share some pictures with you of my Firearms International M1 Carbine. There were only 165 ever made and this is the second one ever produced.

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Donnie View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Donnie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul 21 2018 at 8:20pm
No. 2 out of 165 total. Wow, talk about rare!
It looks nice and in great condition, too. I am sure you are a proud owner. Thanks for sharing.
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De7247 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote De7247 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul 21 2018 at 9:39pm
Thank you so much. The rifle has never been fired. My FFL dealer asked me about the rifle when I picked it up. He was as excited as I was. Have a great night!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sleeplessnashadow Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul 22 2018 at 12:34am
Hi Donnie. Thanks for sharing the pics and info on your FI carbine. I'm the person who authored the web page. I'm also the person who owes you an apology for not responding to your e-mail earlier this month. I try to stay on top of everything but sometimes I get far behind due to the workload.

A couple things for clarification.

You obviously do have the 2nd with the markings and serial number sequence yours has. But we don't know how many they made with these markings and serial number format. The highest we've seen so far is s/n FI000164 shown on the web page.

Some background.

Larry Horner was one of the founding members of the Carbine Club back in the mid 1970's. He was also editor of the newsletter for a number of years. When he was contacted by the people who wanted him to finish machine and assemble new commercial M1 carbines for them the first name he used was Liberty Armory. This was a gunsmith business owned by Horner. These two were prototypes as he worked out the corrections needs for the tooling and mold to be used by the foundry.

(click on the image for a larger image)













Who owns EXP01 is Larry Ruth, author of the War Baby series on the .30 caliber carbines. Who provided all of the above background on Larry Horner was Larry.

Larry had added a section to War Baby Volume II on the commercial carbines but the book had predated Horner's work for Firearms International. When Larry was starting on War Baby III I volunteered to do his photos and any investigative work he needed done. The end result appears in War Baby III. My background is investigation and research.

Larry's a collector, obviously. He has one of best .30 caliber carbine collections in the world. His collection includes the commercial carbines. I would have paid for the education as I took the photos. I did in a way as I flew myself to his place 5 or 6 times over 2-3 years to shoot pics using my makeshift photo "studio" in his basement. I volunteered to keep the cost of the book down. Just as I volunteer to do all the web pages here. As a bonus my experience with pics for Larry upped the quality of the photos I now take.

Back to Firearms International. At some point the powers involved decided to change the name to Israel Arms International. The serial numbers started over with M888-200001, M888 being the model number. The manufacturers mark was IAI over HOUSTON TX over U.S.A.. With IAI later changed to iai.

Horner died unexpectedly due to a health issue. It was a shock and surprise to many. I never knew him as his death preceded my interest in carbines. A definite loss for all.

While we don't know how many were made with the Firearms International name Larry Ruth believes the quantity was probably not much higher than the 164 seen so far.

About a week after you e-mail me another FI owner mailed me. Hopefully I'll get him to join us here and post pictures. Or give me permission to do so. I'm fairly certain his preceded the series yours became as the markings, their location, the serial number and several features of the cast receiver are different.

I've updated the web page but have not included more pics until permission is shared and we get a look at the recent ones that have turned up.

http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_fi.html

Jim
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nevinator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jul 22 2018 at 11:33am
Great story. Thanks for the history lesson!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote alex@txmgo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep 23 2018 at 3:27pm
Howdy- I own a good amount of Firearms International Receivers- I have 
F.I. EXP3, 00000 (yes this is correct), 00004, 00007, 00009, 00010 (Barreled), 00011 along with a bunch of other FI/Universal, Iver Johnson marked ones. 
I was looking for information on them when i ran into this website, this forum, the web owner, and we've been talking back and forth via email. 
I'm all about showing pictures and/or letting people see them. Being that I purchased these during a recent gun manufacturer bankruptcy I've been trying to decide what to do with them as well.......
one of the higher numbers I have is 436128, which obviously doesn't fit into the 165 known- I suspect these were Iver Johnson's that were used? I'm not sure, as I'm not an M1 carbine expert, nor play one on TV :)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote De7247 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep 23 2018 at 3:47pm
Alex,
Wow I would love to see some of the pictures that you have. I can't believe you were able to pick up all of the rifles in sequential order. This website has been an incredible source of information and longing. Let me know if you decided that you want to part with one of the rifles.

Have a great evening and I look forward to seeing you the pictures.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote alex@txmgo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep 23 2018 at 4:00pm
Originally posted by De7247 De7247 wrote:

Alex,
Wow I would love to see some of the pictures that you have. I can't believe you were able to pick up all of the rifles in sequential order. This website has been an incredible source of information and longing. Let me know if you decided that you want to part with one of the rifles.

Have a great evening and I look forward to seeing you the pictures.

I'd love to, but this forum is not very big picture friendly :/
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote W5USMC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep 23 2018 at 4:47pm
Alex, I find it much harder to post pictures on other forums, here is really good picture posting info for this site,

http://www.uscarbinecal30.com/forum/picture-editing-on-pc-with-paint_topic2820.html
Wayne
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote New2brass Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Sep 23 2018 at 8:40pm
If you need help send pictures to dan@uscarbinecal30.com
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