Greatest bolt action battle rifle in history...

[Gil Boyd]

Parker Hale M85 Snipers Rifle

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[mrclark303]

Parker Hale M85 Snipers Rifle

There's always one .... come and sit at the front Boyd were we can keep an eye on you, your're going the right way to be sent to the Head Master for caning young man...

[old tanker]

Having shot an assortment of the old milsurp bolt guns, I think the best balance of speed, accuracy and reliability would have to go to the No. 4 Mk I* rifle, in my opinion. (Shooting a P-13 in .276 Enfield might make me reconsider.) The only other manually operated rifle that might have surpassed in speed might have been the M95 Steyr-Mannlicher. It served the Austrians well in the First War, and the Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Romanins, and Yugoslavs years after. The only other straight pull rifles to see any kind of combat, as far as I know were, the 6mm Lee Navy used by Marines during the Boxer Rebellion and the Ross in WW1 by the Canadians. The Ross has had plenty of bad press while the Lee seems to have been relegated to minor footnote.

[Sunray]

"...the No III or No 4..." No. 4's sights are better. And no bolt action battle rifle can be cycled as fast as any Lee-Enfield.

[amadeus76]

And no bolt action battle rifle can be cycled as fast as any Lee-Enfield.

I’ll put a caveat on that statement... My Swiss straight pull rifles are almost as fast, and would probably be as fast as my Enfield’s if it wasn’t for the design requires you to move your head so you don’t smack yourself in the face when you cycle the action.

[GeeRam]

Yep, No.4 without question.

I remember asking my father the same question about 25 years ago (he'd used the P14, SMLE, No.4 and No.5 in service, as well as being on the receiving end of lots of K98's etc as well as having a go with a lot with them after VE day and then later in Palestine) and he said the No.4 without hesitation, although his personal favourite was the No.5, and he was quite complimentary about the K98.

[Gil Boyd]

Well if I'm being pressed to sit in the corner with my dunce hat on, I have to say the L42A1 as it was developed from the best, making it better for a lot longer.
Now all buy the book SNIPERS DOWN SOUTH for a great cause!!

[philb]

Mauser action

[bob4wd]

This will be the least popular and most easily laughed-at of them all, but I submit to you ............ The Carcano 38 SR!
Reasoning behind this apparent off-the-wall nominee is as follows:
Light weight and light weight cartridge, so less fatigue when carrying and can carry more rounds for an equal weight of ammo. You will notice that all of the world’s armies have gone that route since the war ended, except of corse for being semi auto nowadays.
Effective cartridge out to about 200-300 meters which is all that realistically is needed, especially in jungles, hedgerows, and towns. The days of massed infantry shooting at each other from opposing trenches were long gone by then.
Accuracy is vastly overrated, the average soldier didn’t even aim, just pointed. Maybe the members of this forum aimed, back in the day, but hardly anyone else did. Anyway, that’s what snipers are for. But even then, it was accurate enough. And the simplest sights of any rifle.
Modern doctrine, as used then, was to let the machine guns do the bulk of the killing. Rifle Fire was very much secondary.
Low recoil, so that the average grunt would actually be more apt to aim his rifle, wouldn’t be as afraid of it. Say what you will, battle rifles of the day kicked like mules, which had to lead to flinch-and-miss shooting.
One more round than every other rifle, except the Enfield, of course.
Action was simple, strong, smooth, and probably the easiest to manufacture of them all.
Short barrel, very handy in confined spaces, like towns, forests and the like.
So what more could you ask for? Maybe better leadership and tactics, maybe then the bad reputation would not have happened. But the rifle itself should not be faulted.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

This will be the least popular and most easily laughed-at of them all, but I submit to you ............ The Carcano 38 SR!

Did not see that one coming but you make a good case.