Want to Get Into a MilSurp...Need Help Deciding.

[Kirk]

I don't know you age or condition of your eyesight but as you grow older, eyesight gets worse. Rifles with rear aperture sights like the 1917, 1903A3 & Garand will let you shoot better, longer. Unless you are on a very restricted budget, don't let price deter you. If going on price alone, get a Mosin Nagant. Rifles regularly go for less than $100 & ammo is cheap as well (all the surplus ammo has corrosive primers so immediate cleaning is a must). If not on a restricted budget, start setting aside some cash & save up for what you want. The 1917 has excellent sights but they are not adjustable for windage. The 1903A3 & Garand adjust for both W&E. If you shop around, it's not impossible to find a A3 or a a Garand for $500. The CMP has excellent bargains & the cheapest surplus .30-06 ammo around (excellent quality & non-corrosive). The CMP has Garands now and sometime after the first of the year they will again sell 1917s and 1903s. CMP Sales

Study up on what you want. Be ready to act when you find it - opportunity is fleeting.

Information

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[Patrick Chadwick]

Nalapombu,
if you feel strongly that you want an old service rifle for target shooting, but are very unclear about which type to go for, then I recommend that before buying any rifle you purchase the book "Collecting Classic Bolt Action Militray Rifles" By Paul Scarlata. It covers all the types you are likely to come across, and a lot more.

Then:
Join a club where others are shooting old rifles. That way, you can get to try out various types to see if they suit you.

Sights: age and open sights do not go well together. For target shooting, it really is easier to point a Garand, Springfield 03-A3, M1917 or Lee Enfield No4 than any rifle with open sights. Best with open sights are the Swedish Mauser and the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin rifles.
And (surprise, surprise!) that is also roughly the price ranking, although condition variations cause a large overlap.

Ammo: assuming you are living on the West Side of the Great Pond, .30-06 is easier to come by than most others, apart from .308, but there are not so many examples of the types listed above on .308 versions.

Windage adjustment - I don't want to get to involved for a beginner, but if your main activities are going to be in the 100 yard region, with occasional 300 yard outings, then you can live very well without it.

Summarizing: get the book, join the club, try out various types - THEN you can make an informed choice!

Patrick

[bigduke6]

Nalapombu,

The worlds your oyster when it comes to milsurp rifles, you have stated a few good rifles already, I,m an Enfield man myself (SMLE,s ) but do have a soft spot for the M1903 I have two, a Rock Island arsnal and a springfield, if I was in the USA then I would have a lot more of these as the price is a lot cheaper there than the UK, plus if i was there I would have a Garand, and a MI carbine.......

Buying a sporterized example and returning to it original state I would give it a miss untill you know which way you want to go, this can in some cases lead to more expense, nothing worse than buying a stock and fitting it, to find the barrel was reduced by an inch or so.

My advice would be, stick to something that you can get cheap surplus ammo for, then go on from there.

[smellie]

Look at yourself, your own famly. Chances are that your family did not always live on this side of The Great Puddle, which means that you are "ethnic". Of course, we're ALL "ethnic" when you look at it like that, so that could be a Good Thing.

Did you have a GGF in the Austro-Hungarian military? Good field there, very interesting and the rifles aren't all that horridly expensive to get into. You'll be looking at Mannlicher straight-pulls and Werndls.

Any Italian in the background? Vetterlis, Vetterli-Vitalis, Mannlicher-Carcanos, Garands by Breda and Beretta.

Polish? Now we're cooking! What part of Poland? Could be Mausers, Mausers, Mannlichers, Moisins.

British? Gunmaking industry has been ENGLISH since 1746; the Sassenachs say we are not to have firearms! But that gives you the Tower, Enfield, BSA, London Small Arms, Standard, National and so forth, not to mention the Enfield revolvers made by Albion Motors in Glasgie.

Pick something and get a good barrel. Load your own ammunition; it cuts the price by a half, even on the common calibres. For the really strange stuff it's even better. I can pay $4 a shot for .43 Mauser or I can reload my old brass for a little over a dime. Ammo is $3 a shot for my Carcanos, but I can handload the stuff for about 65 cents. And that's match-grade ammo, too: none of this foolin' around with the leftovers from Stalingrad.

For 300-yard shooting, almost ANY of the military rifles can be made to perform adequately, just so long as you aren't trying to put them all on the same dime. Peacetime standard for most military rifles was about 2 MOA with a brand-new rifle. In wartime, this standard generally was relaxed a bit. That is STILL hits, one after the other, on a gallon plastic milk bottle (filled with water, of course) at 300. At 100, you will put them all on the same postcard.

So pick one out that INTERESTS you. Then get back to us here and somebody is sure to know how to get the best out of it. And they will be happy to tell you just exactly how to do this.

Have fun! That's what it's all about!
.

[Adolf Galland]

How about the sks rifle.It's a nice semi-auto carbine.

[enfield303t]

The main thing is to start. You have so many choices and I take it from your post you live in the USA so I would start with a good Moisin, they are very cheap, great shooters and lots of ammo is available. Then save and get a SKS, again a good shooter and I am sure you would like it. You have to decide if you want to collect by country or just any milsurp.

Start small, buy good quality no matter what you choose, as mentioned clean them religiously as generally milsurp ammo has corrosive primers and it would be a shame to ruin a great gun for lack of maintenance.

Welcome and let us know what when you make your first purchase.

[sovblocgunfan]

I think an excellent choice would be a Finn Mosin. You can find them with plenty of wow factor in terms of the stock, as well as the history you might be able to glean from it. Ammo is also the same as any other Mosin (ie, dirt cheap).

[TDH]

You want kick? Try a Marlin 512P slug gun. Or a Remington 710 in 30.06. They will kick you. The Garand is easier on the shoulder because of the gas system. You don't get that with the bolt guns. Factory ammo has a lot of thump but you can releoad and reduce the powder charge by a couple of grains and get probably even morte accurate ammo with less thump so you can shoot more. And yes reloadable brass for the 7.62x54R is available. Another o[tiom is to adda slip on recioil pad to the rifle butt. Try Winchester. They run around 30 bucks.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Dave,

Here's an old thread about mauser recoil that you might find interesting.

Mauser Recoil

[DaveN]

cafdfw, went to the recoil thread you suggested. Great read and info I will use, thanks.