Milsurp Deer Hunt

I have a 1916 or 17 Spandau Gewehr 98 Mauser in 8mm that I used one year for deer season. I was probably 13 or 14 years old. I didn't get a shot. I'll be 40 this year. Still have it. It's been in my family for at least 4 generations, maybe 5. I don't hunt with it now, but I do still shoot it from time to time.
 
I haven’t hunted with them...yet, but I dressed my SMLE Jungle Carbine in a Monte Carlo stock and mounted a scope on it and it’s ready to go, and I have a Springfield Krag that was made in 1900 that I will be mounting a scope to here shortly. It already had a sporterized original stock on it when I got it. The cartouche says 1900. I’m having the plate on left side and the loading gate on right side reblued because the guy I had reblue it didn’t do very good on those two parts. Then I’ll buy that S&K no drill scope mount for $119 and then stick a little Nikon on it and get it sighted in. I like nice old rifles that are accurate so they will join many others that could be used for hunting so I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to hunting with them. I just like knowing they’re ready if I ever need it...
 
I shot an elk with a 30-06 built on a Spanish Mauser action, but mostly I just spend time humping milsurps when hunting with them: I've taken a couple K98s hunting and also carried my 7.7 Japanese Type 99 looking for elk, but the elk didn't cooperate.
I've always thought an 8mm Hakim with a barrel chopped back to 18" would be a great brush gun, although it would be quite the muzzle blast I'm sure. I bought a Mosin type 44 b/c my friends in Texas kept threatening to take me "real hunting" for hogs. That never happened, but it was a fine rifle. I eventually sold that to a Texan, so I suppose it did go hog hunting at some point.
If I can sort out the sights on my latest Type 38 Arisaka carbine I'd love to take that once.
 
Shot a few white tails using a Garand, hand loaded 150 soft points. Got a doe with my K31 Swiss, han loads as well. Used a sporter Mosin, got a decent little buck. But that has a scope, composite stock and a Timney trigger so it's not much surplus anymore. I have no issues carrying a old military rifle into the field with the appropriate ammo. Other than most are pretty heavy it's a great to use them.
 
Has anybody ever used a Milsurp rifle to hunt for deer and other game?
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Lots and lots of them, sporterized in calibers ranging from .22-250 to .458 Win Mag.

Grew up in an era where sporterizing those rifles was the thing to do. Stupid to carry a 9lb infantry rifle in the deer woods when a 7lb version would do just as well, and better. Deer don't usually return fire so a large magazine isn't really useful, and from what I hear, hand to hand combat with fixed bayonets is pretty rare, too. SO, the sturdiness and weight of the unaltered milsurp are just un-needed weight to carry around when hunting.

If you want to use an original issue condition milsurp for a nostalgia reason, that's fine with me, but you're carrying it, not me! :D (I will make an exception for the Swede carbine ;))
 
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:D




Red
 
I tagged a good branch antlered bull elk and a few whitetails with my M1917 (Eddystone). It has a really nice Redfield Olympic receiver sight on it, along with a nice banded front ramp sight. Nice old gun, and whoever "sporterized" it, did a very nice job. Found the rifle back in the mid-90's at a local gun show.
 
When I lived in Alaska I used a borrowed '03 Springfield for deer and caribou. I was back up there in the summer of 2017 and talked to a guy who used an '03 Springfield for all his Alaskan hunting. 30-06.
 
Limited milsurp hunting

I had a box-stock 1903A3 with which I hunted a few times but never got to take a shot.

My elder son carried my unmodified No. 4 Mk 1 but never had a chance for a shot. I carried same rifle while same son took a few deer with my commercial rifles. He later got a sporterized '03 Springfield. He took one deer in the original callber and later had it rebarreled to .35 Whelen. He's had good success with that old action, but had since moved on to commercial rifles of his own.

I've carried milsurps on many a hunt, but never took game with one.
 
I have shot deer with a few of my milsurps, my favorite is a Japanese 99 in 7.7 with matching numbers that my uncle sent back from the pacific durning ww-2, still full military with monopod. I shoot a 174 gr Hornady bullet and 2450 fps that's close to the military load. three shot groups at 100 yards from a rest with the original peep sights are 1.5-2 ".
 
I killed my first deer with a marlin .30-30 but bought an M44 mosin for myself when I was 14 and used it to take 7 deer until I got old enough to admit I didn’t like the recoil/howitzer type properties of that firearm and bought a modern deer rifle. Also, having an optic now is nice. In other words, getting old is no bueno.
 
My first deer rifle was a Argentina Mauser back in the late 70s never got a shot on one,I did shoot one a few years later with a sporterized K98,an old guy told me that hole was big enough to poke a sombrero through,had to laugh.
 
My brother-in-law used an Arisaka in 7.7 for quite a few years. It was extremely accurate but he complained that it just drilled a hole through the deer without expanding at all (no, it wasn't FMJ!) and led to a lot of tracking. I offered to reload for him with better performing bullets, but he retired the Arisaka and got a different rifle.
 
Moose season opened yesterday! Got my Garand a gas plug from Garand Gear so I can shoot basically whatever I want. Ran good with 180 gr. Core Lokt's. My Ishapore 7.62 has some very good 165 gr. Core Lokt reloads. Now have to go over my 03-A3 and sight it in and maybe make up some more 200 gr. Nozzler Partitions. : )
 
Love hunting with Milsurps! My Bubba'd No4Mk1 consistently puts deer in the freezer. I'll also be using my K31 and Jap Model 99 to hopefully fill some of my 5 antlerless tags this year. May even pull out the old 98k too!
 
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