Older military rifles... opinions?

J

JB-man

New member
I'm looking at many rifle options, for fun, practice, and good defense and longer range property management.
I've had some people tell me that even some of the older military bolt rifles do very well, such as Enfields etc...
Can such a rifle still be good for use today? Can they be reliable?
 
I think they can be. Just take special care of them and go over it many times. If it is chambered in an oddball caliber, stock up on ammo! If it's not, stock up anyway. ;)
 
I have a Enfield No4Mk1 to which I become quite attached. The bore is in excellent condition and the rifle groups well. The bolt is the smoothest I've ever manipulated and it is very easy to cycle. Ammunition is readily available, from what I've heard or seen.
 
Few old military bolt rifles aren't reliable. The Canadian Ross was famously accurate but notriously unreliable under muddy conditions. Modernly, the heavy barrel FN-FAL was noted for "bang - bang - jam" under sandy conditions (so that's why it has the sand grooves now). Turning to the Lee Enfield, I don't think you can go wrong with one of those. It served the British Empire/Commonwealth well for two World Wars.
 
A surplus Lee-Enfield makes for an excellent general purpose utility rifle. Reliable? The Brits thought so and used it basically unchanged from WWI, WWII, Korea, and beyond. Look for a No.4 MK I or Mk II. These were the latest designs and have IMO the best issued sight ever put on an SMLE. The rear sight features a ghost-ring battle sight and a flip-up a finger adjustable peep for target shooting.

I bought an unissued No.4 MkII a few years back for $200, wood is perfect blonde European Beech, all matching numbers including the bayonet. Tens of thousands of these rifles were in long-term storage in Ireland since the 50's, brand new and unissued, the Brits downsized their inventory and sent'em to us a few years back. I still see one or two at every gun show I go to for about the same price... sometimes less. The MkII is especially nice since it was made after WWII and has the best steel & workmanship. -- Kernel
 
i have an Enfeild No.1 Mk3 made in 1918 and it shoots like a dream 4 such an old rifle and fore primitive sites the only thing wrong about it the ammunition is very expensive 20.00 for 20 rounds if you like to reload the brass gets worn out very fast but an all around good gun
 
Enfields are great, as are some Mosin-Nagants (esp. Finnish) and (if you can find them) Springfield 1903's. These WWI and WWII rifles were tougher, more accurate, and far more powerful than the rifles used in combat today. The key is to have headspace and general condition checked by a gunsmith before shooting.

If you want a "brand new" fifty year old Mauser and don't mind some quality time with cosmoline, grab one of the unissued Yugoslavians before they're all sold out. I've been very happy with mine, and it only cost $195. Between the stock and the bayonet, you don't even need to load the thing to have an extremely effective weapon. Weight is somewhere between an SMLE and an MN, but you get used to that. Personally, I prefer the old ramp or elevator sights, but it's not too tough to mount scopes on them. I wouldn't sporterize anything with historical value, such as an SMLE or MN that did service.
 
Few nations will issue a rifle unless it has been proven highly reliable under adverse conditions. (OK, OK, I know about the M16 - I said FEW nations.)

Sometimes a rifle which was state of the art when adopted will continue to be used for economic or logistic reasons long after it is obsolete. That was true of the Italian Carcano, (sorry guys) the British Lee-Enfield, and the Russian Model 1891.

Nonetheless, most ex-military rifles are rugged and reliable. The Mausers, No.4 L-E's, and Mosin-Nagants are not always pretty or the basis of qulaity sporters, but as is, or with a minimum of work they make up into good utility rifles.

Jim
 
I have a 1943 Enfield that someone butchered into a "sporterized" model, paid $50.00 for it..

they won't even get it out of my cold dead fingers...

solid. shoots better than I do. never had a problem that wasn't my fault.

NB
 
Hey folks,

I love the military rifles. I have three M1 Garands (two Springfield and one Win 13) and a WWI SA bayonet for each, a beautiful Long Branch Enfield with a blade bayonet and a spike bayonet, a long Russian Mosin-Nagant with a long spike bayonet, a short Chinese Mosin-Nagant carbine with folding spike bayonet, two Russian SKS rifles with folding blade bayonets, a K-98 German Mauser with a long WW-1 bayonet with saw teeth on the top, a 6.5X55 Swedish Mauser, a 6.5X55 Swedish Lundjman semi-auto, a 1903 Springfield, and a 30-40 Krag cavalry carbine. I also have a couple of AR-15s, but they really do not count as authentic military stock. They all shoot quite well, and I reload ammunition for them all. They also look real good hanging on the wall - especially the ones with fixed bayonets.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile
 
Few nations will issue a rifle unless it has been proven highly reliable under adverse conditions. (OK, OK, I know about the M16 - I said FEW nations.)

Sometimes a rifle which was state of the art when adopted will continue to be used for economic or logistic reasons long after it is obsolete. That was true of the Italian Carcano, (sorry guys) the British Lee-Enfield, and the Russian Model 1891.

Nonetheless, most ex-military rifles are rugged and reliable. The Mausers, No.4 L-E's, and Mosin-Nagants are not always pretty or the basis of qulaity sporters, but as is, or with a minimum of work they make up into good utility rifles.

Jim
Click to expand...

Excellent post!

I trust all my MilSurp weapons......without reservation.


Zouave
 
I love mine...got a mannlicher m95, two mausers, a mosin-nagant, m1 garand, and an enfield jungle carbine. Just keep them clean and happy!!
 
As I was aying to a friend of mine who works at my local gun store just today.."They don't make rifles today the way they used to." ;)
Most of the weapons built during say, the korean war and back were some serious workhorses, built to last, built to shoot, built to take alot of punishment. Oddly enough they were much more affordable not so long ago. Compare that to alot of our newer rifles we have on the market, Lots of plastic parts, very delicate parts that break so easily. etc.:rolleyes:
 
If you want a semiautomatic, try an M1 Garand, If you like bolt actions, get a 1898 Mauser chambered for a readily available cartridge. Have fun! :cool:
 
I was talking to a friend about the estimate that I have seen that says you would have to charge $3,000 to sell a modern-made rifle equivalent to the 98 Mausers. We were later complaining about the "outrageous" price of the S.A. M1A's when in reality they are mostly just a Garand with a box magazine. Connecting that to the $3000 comment made it dawn on me that $1700 for a modern version of a Garand probably wasn't out of line. I love my Garand ... wouldn't mind a scope though! The milsurps are great!

Saands
 
To all the good things said about ex military rifles.....amen.

Cost. Military small arms are generaly made in huge quantities. Replica military stuff such as the M1A etc are made in relatively tiny quantities which alone raises the cost a lot. Plus the replica manufacturer doesn't have to be the low bidder.

You want one receiver for a whatever.....gonna cost a fortune. You want a few thousand of em and the cost is going to be a lot less cause the tooling and programming is amortized over the thousand instead of one. You want a hundred thousand of em and then we get the price for each down a whole bunch.

Regrettably, governments purchasers don't always keep that in mind when letting contracts. Won a contract for a hundred or so loading cams for M19 40mm machine guns. Think they went for around 300 bucks each and the profit margin was about nil. If they had wanted just a few thousand, could have done it for twenty bucks each and made good profit.

So, just cause a milsurp rifle is inexpensive doesn't mean it is cheap stuff.

Sam
 
Old milsurp rifles are the best value in rifles. Also, they are mechanically stronger than modern commercial rifles, and sometimes, more accurate when compared to mass produced commercial ones (of course, it depends...) Also, because they're old, metal is naturally stressed relieved. And of course, milsurp
rifles are well tested, which is not a case with most commercial
rifles.
 
My Enfield No4MK1 is my favorite of all.......... The rifle shoot 10 times better than me at any distance. If I had to choose any bolt rilfe to have with me in a pinch, it would be the Enfield.
 
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