My wife just returned from a trip to El Salvador, Central America, for a little church work and vacation. After her work was done, she spent several days in a remote, pleasant hotel/resort, hiking, riding horses, sleeping in hammocks, lounging in the pool, etc. Cost was $40 a night.

The resort was gated and gaurded by a guy with a rifle, as are most businesses in El Salvador. The gaurd was friendly, and let her handle the rifle, which looks like a cobbled together M-1 Carbine. Action and barrell looks like a carbine, stock and magazine are different. The electrical tape is holding the front hand gaurd on....



Also, looks like the rear sight is missing.

What do you think, M-1 Carbine or an imitation?

By the way, the plastic wrapped bundles on the table are bread and cakes, not pot....

My eye went right to the "bread" on the table. As far as that rifle goes I don't know. I'm looking at it on my iPhone and that magazine looks funny as well as the reciever and bolt assembly. Just not right. But who knows what has been done to that thing.

That is an Erma .22 caliber M1 carbine look alike. Most Central and South American nations seem to have laws that prohibit citizens from having military caliber small arms.

The Ermas could be had in .22 LR and I think .22 mag. Popular calibers, and generally legal to have, in Central America.

Looks like an Erma to me too.

Its not an M1 carbine, and most South American counties do ban civilian ownership of military ordnance. Id also say its probably an Erma 22. Bread huh, whole wheat or white?

My Mom has spent several months of the last three years in Honduras working with missionaries teaching single mothers a skill for employment. The guard at the church and the guards who went with them to some of the sketchier areas carried AK-47s. I have no idea what that guy is carrying.

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All the guards in South America I ever saw carried shotguns or what looked like hunting rifles.

It does appear to be the Erma 22 version.
http://www.milsurps.com/images/impor...masLarge-1.jpg

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I was in Honduras last February on a missions trip. The guard at the lumber yard carried an M-16 or AR-15 -- not sure which. There was maybe 10% of the finish left on the receiver -- it was almost all silver! A couple of others had their picture taken with him, but I won't post those. Wish I would have!

The Bible Institute guard carried a .38 special revolver that I didn't recognize the make.

For the most part, the armed guards are to insure no trouble. Didn't sound like they're ever messed with. And for the most part, it works. Except when I was there, someone did sneak into the school and steal the batteries out of the bus that was parked near our dorm.

Yep, an Erma .22....

There for the deterrent factor, not to get into a firefight with.

The bread? "Pan Dulce", a sweet, hard bread, $1.00 a loaf.

Pretty much the same conditions in Nicaragua, on the rural east coast especially, where I went with our a group of our church kids in 2009 and 2010. All of the "better" homes and the businesses, including the orphange we stayed at, had walls with wire, bars onteh windows, and armed folks at the gates. When we talked about it with one of the locals driving the bus for us, he laughed and said EVERYONE in Nicaragua has a gun. A couple of photos, as we arrived, and in town of Puerto Cabezas.
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Businesses in Guatemala were primarily guarded by what appeared to be eighteen year-olds with riot type pistol grip shotguns. The exception was was the bank, which had several squared away looking guys carrying some type of MP-5 looking subgun, both inside and out by the drive-through.

On my one trip to El Salvador about 15 years ago, all I saw was Mossburg riot shotguns. I was told that the CIA gave out a lot of them during the civil war. I was in San Salvador, not out in the jungle.

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6/23/2022

"By the way, the plastic wrapped bundles on the table are bread and cakes, not pot...."---uh-huh!! Church work, Huh? Nice save canoe!! LOL

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Is that why he's guarding it with a rifle?