Anything missing in my rifle collection?

A

Alabama Shooter

New member
I own the following rifles and am wondering if I am missing anything from my collection that I could benefit from?

I like to target shoot out to 300 yards and hunt most animals under the size of a large white tail. I also use a rifle for self defense inside the home and around my small homestead in rural Alabama.

DMPS AP4 LR-308 - Deer/ hog hunting, target shooting and Home Defense. It is very accurate and reliable but heavy.
Ruger Mini-14 - I used to hunt rabbits and ground hogs with this and use it for home defense. The accuracy is very poor past 50 meters so I am considering selling it and buying an AR. Right now it is a back up rifle for Home Defense.
Remington 742 .30-06- My son uses this to hunt with.
Ruger 10/22 - We have several of these for target shooting
Various other .22s for plinking, hunting and whatnot.
M1 Garand - I bought this as an attempt to collect all the great WWII rifles. So far I am up to three. :)
Mosin Nagant- As above, although not nearly as fun to shoot.
Enfield Mk1 No 4 .303 - As above; but my wife uses this to hunt with.

That is all for now. Any ideas would be helpful.
 
well you got all the allied powers, now you just need a couple axis rifles:
1. Japanese Arisaka, a type 99 would probably serve you best as 7.7mm ammo is easier to find than the older 6.5x50

2. German Mauser or Steyr M95 straight pull

3. (optional) Italian Carcano, though 6.5x52 is impossible to find, a bugger to reload for and are generally held in low esteem by everyone but avid collectors.

Then if you really want you can go for some Neutral persuasion and get a swedish mauser.

then some other honorable mentions for the US are the M1 carbine and 1903A3 springfield.

anything other than those are incredibly expensive and a pain to deal with.
 
You need a modern bolt rifle in a suitable chambering. This is purely personal preference, but with what you own I'd look at a Winchester FWT in either 308 or 30-06 since you already own rifles chambered in those 2.

You'll never use the DPMS for hunting again.
 
^ doubtful, everyone I know that ever bought a featherweight sold it soon after firing it because they kick like a mule in anything over 308. AR10s tend to be very light kicking. I'd rather pack an 8 pound rifle up and down mountains all day(and actually did this year) that barely kicked at all than pack a 5 pound rifle that bruises my shoulder with every shot.
 
I have been thinking about the Mauser for a while now. The price is still kind of ouchy for a collection rifle I won't shoot much so I have not pulled the trigger on it yet. My understanding is that the Mauser design was the basis for most other copies (including allied) of military bolt guns that followed.

You need a modern bolt rifle in a suitable chambering.
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I waver on this a bit. I am thinking an AR15 in 6.5 would be lighter, as accurate and almost as capable as the .308 AR and do just as well as a bolt gun of equal cost. Am I off base here?

I will say they if do get a bolt gun it would almost certainly be in .30-06. I find this huge cartridge to be very capable.

ETA: Lower recoil too. ;)
 
Ruger Mini-14 - I used to hunt rabbits and ground hogs with this and use it for home defense. The accuracy is very poor past 50 meters
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Is that you or the rifle?

They're not competition guns but a decent example is certainly capable of decent shooting past 50 meters.
 
I don't seem to have an accuracy problem with any of the other rifles. There may be some secret to shooting a Mini-14 that I am unaware of? I am using the recommended grain bullets for the rifling.

I purchased the mini during the ban years when ARs were ridiculously expensive and it was about half the going price of an AR. Soon after the ban expired I bought the LR-308. The difference was like night and day. I went from hitting a truck tire to a golf ball at one hundred yards. The change in power level was phenomenal too.
 
I have been thinking about the Mauser for a while now. The price is still kind of ouchy for a collection rifle I won't shoot much so I have not pulled the trigger on it yet. My understanding is that the Mauser design was the basis for most other copies (including allied) of military bolt guns that followed.
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you would be correct in a sense.
the springfield 1903 was built by combining a lot of concepts of the 1898 mauser and 1898 krag rifles which were cock on open designs. similarly the american model 1917 was based loosely off of the 1896 mauser design which was a cock on close design. the japanese arisaka family of rifles were also based on the 1896 mauser. with the exception of those rifles being based off of multiple mauser concepts, many other guns of the era like the mosin nagant family, enfields, swiss K11/K31s, french MAS36 and italian carcanos were either proprietary designs or based on other designs nit originally made by mauser.

I waver on this a bit. I am thinking an AR15 in 6.5 would be lighter, as accurate and almost as capable as the .308 AR and do just as well as a bolt gun of equal cost. Am I off base here?

I will say they if do get a bolt gun it would almost certainly be in .30-06. I find this huge cartridge to be very capable.
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from what I've read, 6.5 grendel actually does very well and performs much of the duties that you would expect from a 308 only with a smaller bullet in a lighter package.
 
I'm going to second a good modern bolt action rifle,which should be more accurate than the mini 14 or the Remington 742.

Lots of great bolt action rifles being produced these days,take a look at maybe 243,260,7mm-08,or 308 in short action rifles.Long action I would look at 25-06,270,280,or the 30-06. All should do a very good job on deer/hogs,as well as 300 yard target shooting.
 
I will jump on the bolt action bandwagon. But i highly recommend 243 win. Big enough for deer small enough for vermin. Low recoil, light weight, accurate. Nuf said.
 
I second (Or third?) the 6.5 Grendel on your AR. Great medium caliber for hogs and deer. Many AR produced today are more accurate then we can shoot them and I just love the ability to swap out uppers for some of these calibers and you can use AR mags (At least that is the way I understand it) and the same trigger system.
 
I really like my Marlin 917v .17HMR, I get exceptional accuracy from it. I love it enough that I can't imagine getting rid of it. I can put 4 shots into a space smaller than a dime from 65 yards and as far as small-medium game is concerned, if I can see it I can hit it. It hits hard, the 17 grain v-max will tear a gray squirrel up. If shooting for meat, I get good enough accuracy that head shots on something as small as a squirrel are very possible. It will reach out past 200 yards, the main factor for longer range with it is how much the wind affects the 17 grain bullet.

A .22-250 makes a good varmint/target/hunting option. It will shoot like a laser beam in the distances your working with. It is also capable of taking any animal up to a large whitetail.
 
A scoped 6.5x55 lightweight modern boltgun, beit a Winchester M70 FeatherWeight, or Tikka - or whatever.

Any of which should come in weighing 2/3 that of most AR's, except a Carbon 15 (5lb) or a pencil-barrel lightweight special build.

My M70 FW in 6.5 Swede weighed in at 7#, with a Leupy Compact 2-7x, with not as much recoil as any of my .30-06's.

I've found I like a light rifle, since they're carried more than shot.
The exception, IMO, would be that a heavier rifle better as a stand/beanfield sniping rifle.


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I vote the 7mm-08, better bullet weights for deer size game and you can drop down to smaller bullets for lighter stuff. I recently bought a 7mm-08 and now wonder why it took me so long, I really like the little rifle and its ballistics! The same case as the .243, .308 etc. Just shoots the .284 bullet (7mm), I have always been a HUGE fan of the 7mm remington magnum so the the little 7-08 was a welcome addition!
 
I really like the 6.5 ballistics but finding one these days is going to be tough. I see a mini-30 going for $1600 on gun broker. That is clearly insane.
 
Quote:
Ruger Mini-14 - I used to hunt rabbits and ground hogs with this and use it for home defense. The accuracy is very poor past 50 meters

Is that you or the rifle?

They're not competition guns but a decent example is certainly capable of decent shooting past 50 meters.
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Try putting an accu-strut on the rifle. Most early Minis suffer from barrel whip due to the thin barrel profile. The barrel gets hot and then starts vertical stringing. If you can put the first few shots on target and then they start walking, this is your issue and a strut should help. You might also try re-torquing the gas block screws, this has been known to shrink groups also. Check out the Perfect Union forums for everything Mini.

As to the OP, seems to me your missing a quality lever action. Look into a Marlin 336 in .30 WCF. Ammo isn't super expensive and is readily available anywhere. The .30 WCF is good for anything up to and including black bear within reasonable range. It's also not a bad plinker if you reload.

If a bolt gun is desired I would second the 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser although ammo can be hard to come by at times. I reload so keeping mine fed isn't really an issue. Winchester doesn't currently list the 6.5x55 on it's web site so you might have to have to go to a Tikka or CZ (check out the CZ 550 FS).
 
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