Let's see your sporterized Military Surplus Rifles

[AJ]

I don't hear anyone here advocating hacking up a perfectly good rife.

The 8 mm Mauser cartridge is excellent, roughly equal to a 30-06.

Let me know if you have other similar rifles that you want to dump.

Never said anyone here said that. Just have seen to many "Bubba Jobs" done to good military firearms.

If you enjoy attempting to make something nice out of a Bubba Job, then good for you.

The 8 MM as loaded by U.S. manufacturers was underpowered by European standards. Pretty much all of the major powers rifles were on par with each other (8MM, 30-06, .303 British, 7.62X54, and 7.7 Jap).

 

[StrawHat]

Here is one I did years ago.

Kevin

 

[smoothshooter]

The great thing about Lee Enfield's is that surplus ammo is still pretty
Cheap. Power, decent accuracy, spare parts and a 10-round mag make it the perfect all around, knock around rifle.

Let's see yours.

.303 ammo is neither cheap or readily available any more.

 

[ispcapt]

Dad spent the winter of 1957 doing this one. Winchester 1917. I own it now. I've done 1" 5 shot groups at 100 yds with it with the Williams Peep Sight. 2" is no problem with a good reload. So easy to shoot.

 

[cmansguns]

First real rifle in 1962

At 17 in 1962 I could not really afford a "real" rifle like a Winchester, or Remington...not on pumping gas and wiping windshields at a local Mobil station so I did accumulate a tad less than $50 and bought a sporterized SMLE .303 British from Sears, Roebuck catalog. I was not yet 18 so my Mom had to go down to the railway station and pick it up when it arrived.

I tell you straight....for $45.00 that rifle was gorgeous to me. Nice peep sight rear, Williams leather sling, Fajen stock with Monte Carlo cheekpiece, barrel cut, recrowned, and some sort of parkerizing.

Ammo WAS cheap and plentiful in those days, not so much now, but still a fun rifle, and sits right up there on the kids wish lists for hand me downs when I divest along with the M1 Garand, the Remington Nylon 66's, the Ithaca's, the Winchester's Savage and later accumulated long guns.

Heck..I recall a family outage years back when one son had a small farm and we could shoot long guns to our hearts content and I had the sporter SMLE, a all correct 1903-A3, and the Garand. The older sons and son-in-laws really liked the sporter OVER the Garand and the Remington 03-A3.

I think sporters have a place in USA shooting sports history, mostly family reminisces, and although I don't have the skills or inclination to ever do one...I still thank Sears and Roebuck for filling a young mans dreams on very limited finances.

 

[smithman 10]

K98

I bought a "sporterized" K98 from Sears back about 1967 for something like 50 bucks,I think.

Was going to hunt with it but never did. It lived over at Dad's house while I was away in the Air Force.

I sold it for a bit more than I paid but as homely as it was I wish I had kept it! It might help spark memories of my father and my younger days if I could just handle it now.

Sometimes "junk" is worth more than you think.

 

[Dump1567]

Sporterized 1903 Mark I I picked-up about 14 months ago. Mostly because it was cheap, and I still have some surplus 30-06 ammo. But I haven't even shot it yet. I keep forgetting it's in the safe and I need to take it out.

I've also got this Enfield. I have fired it, but it's mostly a wall hanger. This is one done up by Parker Hale.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

I had several milsurps that I subsequently traded or sold, including a couple of SKSs (ick), Swedish Mausers (gorgeous), a Czech Mauser (someone else wanted it more than I did), Spanish 7mm Mausers, and one spectacular 8mm German 98 Mauser converted to .308 by the IDF but that one was completely burned up in my 2018 fire. However, I bought this Yugoslavian 8mm Mauser for the specific purpose of having it sporterized:

Customized-sporterized Yugoslavian 8mm Mauser - now .35 Whelen

It's death on feral hogs out to amazing distances.

 

[.455_Hunter]

I had a few sporterized milsurps as placeholders in my collection until I could get proper "as issued" examples. I would never initiate a new sporterization, but buying a nice pre-existing example is possible, along with ungrading an older Bubba project.

 

[Glenn R. McMannly]

I wouldn't mind cutting up a Mosin to make a usable hunting rifle.

 

[GypsmJim]

OK, I actually DO have a sporter in my collection. Bought early in my shooting carreer and not molested by me personally.

Back in 1972 I bought what looked like an unissued 03-A3 in KMart for 40 bucks. Being very anxious I also bought a Whack-a-Mole, a box of bullets, a box of brass and a can of IMR-3031 powder. Turned out It would not shoot (I believe the firing pin was broken), so I took it back. They had none left so I got my money back.

With all that ammo I found a sporter, but had to pay double my original price. It's still in my collection, although I also have 2 other 03-A3's that I acquired later.

Remington 1943 with original barrel cut down. Fajen Supreme stock and Unertl 4x scope. At 100 yards if I do my part I can do a 3-shot string with all holes touching.

 

[ColbyBruce]

Some of the north Georgia members may have known the gunsmith T.C. Kennon of Stone Mountain. He sporterized various Springfield and Mauser rifles. Kennon rifles usually had Douglas barrels and R-F stocks. He could be talked into shortening actions and made a few .22/250 and .250 Savage rifles. I always wanted one but never found a Kennon rifle in the calibers I preferred.

 

[noonster]

Sporters, cont.

There are VERY few original milsurps out there. Pretty much all have had replacement stocks, barrels, other stuff replaced over the years. And the "restored" ones are nothing more than "restored." I still have a couple chop-ups. Krags make a fine rifle (sport) and the price is amazing usually. I've had others over the years. Back in the 50's and 60's there were always articles in the gun mags about how to sporterize the (whatever) gun. Even in the early 60's (62?) there was an article in Am Rflmn: how to sporterize the Garand. I kept a Xerox. After I "get my wings" I'm gonna have fun looking down here, reading the guys squawk about how some goofball messed up that perfectly good AK47 or Makarov to "whatever" it. Not too many of the base models are what we'd call rare. Enjoy them - it's part of their history.

 

[LVSteve]

There are VERY few original milsurps out there. Pretty much all have had replacement stocks, barrels, other stuff replaced over the years.

So long as those changes were made by the military, they are still original to most collectors.

 

[LVSteve]

I wouldn't mind cutting up a Mosin to make a usable hunting rifle.

You do know that certain Mosins are very collectible, I hope.

 

[AJ]

So long as those changes were made by the military, they are still original to most collectors.

You do know that certain Mosins are very collectible, I hope.

Steve,

I feel as you do. But some will never understand.

AJ

 

[smithman 10]

Good that they are collectable

Because they sure are a pain in the shoulder to shoot! Particularly the carbines.

Hell of ball of flame out of the muzzle when twilight approached. I could hardly get anyone to shoot my 91/59 carbine at the range once they saw me fire it. I got it from a geezer about 15 years ago for $100 and sold it for $200, I believe. Wonder what it would bring today?

 

[Golddollar]

You do know that certain Mosins are very collectible, I hope.

I look for Russian arms that have Finnish capture marks.

 

[Tom K]

Back in 1994 I bought this Mauser Destroyer Carbine that had been someone else's project, at a gun show for $200. (At the time, unaltered surplus Destroyers were going for about $100 due to being chambered for the uncommon-in-the-USA 9mm Largo.)

This gun had been converted to .45ACP with a new barrel (still in the white) and an altered 1911 magazine made to fit the magazine well. The bolt handle had been cut off, bent, and clumsily rewelded. New sights were put on with a peep of unknown origin on the rear of the receiver. The forward hardware for the full length stock was stripped and gone, and the end cut more or less flush with the barrel. The top picture is how it looked when I bought it.

I took the gun to the range a few times and it shot pretty well, in spite of me finally noticing that the front sight was loose. I have little to no gunsmithing skills so I put it away, unfinished, for a later day.

In 2021 I finally took it to my local gunsmith that I had found who does reliable work. I had him clean up the metal, work on the action a little, bead blast it and blue it. He doesn't do stock work so I expect one day I'll finally cut the forend back to an appropriate length, shape it, strip, and refinish it.

This last picture is one that I found on the internet of someone else's gun, with original barrel and sights. It shows more or less what I'd probably try to make the stock look like.

 

[smithman 10]

Destroyer

Have you fired it recently?