Show us your favorite rifle

[garand4life]

The Surefire grip, while I have no doubts about it's quality, adds more weight it seems than I want to compensate for. I am going to post to my YouTube a follow up to answer some emails I got. But, to me the scout light and separate vert grip work better for me to save money when upgrading so I can tailor the feel and operation to me a little easier. But, great point about the Surefire grip. It was a contender when I was deciding the setup.

[ericire12]

That 1903 Savage is Cool








BTW, I hate M25

[Badgersmilk]

I've been looking mine over, giving it a lot of thought...  And have finally concluded that if I had a "favorite" among them I wouldn't be very happy with the others.  What I mean is that they all have stuff about them that makes them "special".

The ugliest, oldest, most beaten of the bunch is my 91/30...  If I really had to pick one I felt most comfortable with, and just enjoyed carrying and shooting that old monster may just win!   

[shooter32]

BTW, I hate M25

Your hate list is growing eric.

[tombogan03884]

R Boyette,
Try disassembling that Mosin Nagant and giving the inside a good scrubbing with mineral spirits or some such.
I've found that the Mil Surp rifles are packed in cosmoline and while you may get one that has been cleaned on the outside the inside may still be packed with grease and accumulated crap. Hopefully that will lighten up that trigger pull for you.

[Sponsor]

[philw]

Glad to see somebody else's favorite is an old battle rifle!

 Even tho I've always thought of sporting rifles(& later AR's) as my favorite rifles, lately these Mil-Surp's have caught my fancy. I've been trying to put together a collection of WWII general infantry battle rifles(US-Garand, M1Carbine;GB-Enfield;USSR-Nagant;Jap-Arisaka;Ger-K98;...). Just been trading around to find the best example of each. I realize this is a extremely modest collection when compared to Mike "Duke" Venturino's. Since BAR's, Browning M2's, & Thompson sub-guns are way out of my budget, I have decided to stick with the rifle's that the General Infantry soldiers of each country(Allies & Axis) would carry. Once it is complete i have plans drawn up for a display on a large wall in my Recreation(MAN) Room. It is my small way of paying tribute to my grandfather, an Army Vet stationed in Pearl Harbor Dec 7th, 1941. He had been stationed there shortly after going thru Basic, and was slated for leave(furrlow i think he called it)and was going home(1st time since he left for Basic) for X-mas. The Japanese changed those plans. He was sent to the Pacific Theater, and his older brother to Europe. His brother was captured sometime in 1943 and was held in a German POW camp until the end of the war. He came down with Pneumonia and his feet were frost-bitten & his toes were amputated while in the camp. He died shortly after coming home from infection caused by the amputation. My grandfather spent the war going from island to island fighting the Japanese. He never went into many details about firefights, but he did tell me about there weapons. Stories about being issued a 1903 Springfield in Basic, and how a couple guys from Chicago, Ill left the range with bloody noses from the recoil. Talked about liking the M1 Garand but said there were alot more people singing their praises now than there were in '42. Said most bitched about the weight. He drove an Ammo truck for a time. Driving at night w/o lights through narrow trails cut thru jungles and mountains. Hauling ammo to the front lines, unloading it under fire, then loading & hauling dead bodies back. Talked about being given an M1 Carbine to keep in the truck, then later "picking up" a Thompson, and swapping the M1 Carbine for a M1897 shotgun. He never told me about any kills he might have had, but that he found the 12ga "more useful" when the trucks were ambushed. He never gave any details about the fighting, but he was a tough old Moonshiner, & if he said it was "horrible" then i dont think i want anymore details. He served until the war ended, and finally made it back home 4 months after WW2 ended.   

Anyway, he was my first hero and his stories & pictures are what sparked my interest in firearms, military in particular. The first couple mil-surp rifles i bought were an SKS($60w/bayonet) & a Mosin Nagant($45). While they both went bang everytime i pulled the trigger, i would cringe thinking about having to go into battle with either one. The SKS's I've owned while functional, were horribly inaccurate and the Mosin Nagant has the heaviest trigger ive ever seen. The trigger will not break with a 16lbs gauge, so i know its close to 20lb. In a recent comparison of Mosin-Nagant vs Mauser K98(Guns&Ammo Mag i think), found the Mosin to be more accurate than the famous Mauser. I would love to find out how accurate mine is, but the trigger makes hitting a 1-gallon milk-jug at 25yds a challenge, much less trying to shoot 100yd groups.

Not long ago, i bought an Enfield that has been an absolute pleasure to shoot! The sights were dead on though i believe them to be from a later model Enfield. The accuracy most of these WWI-WWII battle rifles have displayed has been kinda sketchy, until i upgraded to a higher quality sample of each rifle . However, the very first Enfield I bought, while not NRA-mint by any means, works very well and is suprisingly accurate. The last trip to the range(it goes almost everytime i do) i shot 2, 5-shot 100yd groups that measured 1.75" & 1.53" and a 10-group average of 2.45" shooting prone w/ tight sling. While this is not jaw-dropping accuracy by any means, I am quite pleased considering its design coming up on 100yrs old and my lack of proper training in this type of shooting. Ive even thought about taking it deer hunting. Your rifle looks great and i wish my wood & finish looked that good(looks like 50+ coats of cheap black-looking stain)   

very cool



what sort of enfield is it


I am planing on starting to collect them


going to get a no4  and a No5   before them though I am going to get a Trainer version of a No3  same rifle and action, shoots .22lr instead of .303

[devzal]

These two tie as my favorite, my Marlin 45/70 guide gun and my Professional Ordinance Carbon 15 type 97s. My wife bought me the carbon 15 for my birthday years ago and having a lever action rifle seems appropriate as an American also the Marlin 45/70, depending on ammunition and range, can handle just about anything.

[alfsauve]

I like all my rifles (well almost all of them), but my prettiest is this Savage 25

[Badgersmilk]

At the risk of hi-jacking the thread I'm trying to keep this to a bare minimum, but also try to help out with the comment on the Mosin Nagant trigger problem posted earlier.  Squeeze & hold the trigger back, pull the bolt back / out of the gun, and then squeeze the trigger a few more times.  It should move freely with about 1lb of "springy tension".  If not, you need to pull the stock off and inspect the trigger mechanism for further damage (easier to do than shaking pee off the end of your willy).  The two surfaces shown here (sear & hammer) are the ones under tension from the hammer spring, and would be the ones you'd want to square up & polish in order to fine tune your MN's "heavy trigger".  You can take the bolt apart just by pulling on the two ends and turning one.

(pic is my M44 in the midst of being overhauled...  Considering a full covering of Dura Coat Woodland Camo, milling off the bayonet lug & adding a scout scope...)


Hot tap water, & oven cleaner works AWSOME for removing every last drop of Cosmoline.  It's never harmed the bluing on any of my surplus guns either.  Follow the instructions on the oven cleaner can (let it soak a few minutes).

[Bigcat]

haxcat, great llever gun. I am getting the Puma soon. What kind of peep sight is that?