A Few Military Bolt Rifles

TJm15.38

TJm15.38

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Over the years I've collected a few (too many) military surplus bolt guns. This is just a portion of them. The best ones are in my safe. I have Mosin Nagant M91/30's, M38 and M44. Some others in here are Japanese Type 99 Arisaka with intact mum, M38 Turkish Mauser, No. I MkIII* Lithgow Enfield, and M96 Swedish Mauser. I bought all the Mosin Nagant M91/30 rifles when they were selling for just over $100 apiece.
 

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Nice! I also bought a bunch of those Mosins when they were cheap. They certainly aren't now! The crate is nice, I've used a crate for storing some of my collection as well and have other crates filled with parts and projects as well as various militaria. Great for storage!
 
TJm15.38, that's a neat sampling of your rifles. I would agree with you that the "recent way back", when MN's were very affordable, were some of the best days. I picked up a few myself; later regretted that since my one
Chatellerault wasn't very accurate I traded it back in. Silly me.

Hope you have a chance to try some of them out and give us a little range report.
 
Nice crate! Milsurps were my "first love" so to speak when I got into firearms in the late-90s- Enfields, Mosins, Mausers, 1917s, etc. I've sold practically all of them with the exception of two- a 1904 BSA SMLE Mk I*** and a 1903A1 National Match.
 
TJm15.38 said:
Over the years I've collected a few (too many) military surplus bolt guns. This is just a portion of them. The best ones are in my safe. I have Mosin Nagant M91/30's, M38 and M44. Some others in here are Japanese Type 99 Arisaka with intact mum, M38 Turkish Mauser, No. I MkIII* Lithgow Enfield, and M96 Swedish Mauser. I bought all the Mosin Nagant M91/30 rifles when they were selling for just over $100 apiece.
Click to expand...

Wow, you got into collecting late. When I saw what was available I got my 03FFL. Ten bucks a year and it only took a couple weeks to get it.

This was about 1998. Mosins went for about $29, with free shipping to your house. Then there was a sale on Mausers for $39. They came with a free bayo and leather ammo pouch.

But the real deal was Century's U-Fix-Ems. I bought many a Mauser for $16 and most were only missing a screw.

Back then surplus ammo was only a few cents per round in 440 round spam cans. All were 100% sure fire.

Nice collection you have. In my case I fire each one. I can't reload today cheaper than my surplus ammo. Fortunately, I stocked up when it was cheap.
 
Very cool collection!!!

I had a small collection of milsurps for a while. I kept one after selling off the others, a 98 Mauser rebarreled by the Israeli Defense Forces to 7.62 NATO, with all markings removed except the serial number and an IDF star stamped into the wood. A really cool rifle that was lost in my 2018 fire. Oh, well, other things have replaced it.... :D
 
DGNY said:
TJm15.38, that's a neat sampling of your rifles. I would agree with you that the "recent way back", when MN's were very affordable, were some of the best days. I picked up a few myself; later regretted that since my one
Chatellerault wasn't very accurate I traded it back in. Silly me.

Hope you have a chance to try some of them out and give us a little range report.
Click to expand...

I have shot every rifle in the case except the 1928 Tula M91/30 ex-dragoon. It's a factory refurbished rifle unfired since purchase. Unfortunately, I haven't done any rifle shooting lately and it has gotten so damn hot that I probably won't do any until cooler weather.
 
Thanks for sharing. Those $50-100 deals long gone today. Recall a barrel full of milsurps at a Woolworth"s back around 1978 or a bit later going for those amounts. Glad to have inherited a 98k I have. Going for big bucks today especially if all matching.
 
Guess I am a real old fart. I remember walking into a gun shop in Havelock, NC and there were about 100 or more milsurps for sale. This was 1970. He had 7 MM & 8 MM Mausers and 7.5 Schmitt-Rubens for $20.00, take your pick......They were in good shape, no beat like a lot you see today.
 
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Mill surp rifles have sure gone up. Last show I was at, there were Mosins, asking $500-$600. RC k98s in the same range. Did not see any Enfields.
 
Bought my first firearm in I think in 1959 or 1960. 7th grade, and happened to ride my bike to a small shopping center in Norfolk, VA, and found barrels of surplus rifles, and went back with ten bucks of my lawn mowing money and bought a 1915 303 Enfield No1Mk III. I still have it, a nice rifle, I did have a NOS barrel put on it several yeas ago by an Enfield restoration specialist. Also bought a 1898 Argentine 7.62 in mint condition. I reload for the several 303 Enfields I have, the other a 1946 MK5 "Jungle Carbine", and shot the Argentine some back when I was a kid, but not since.

Military rifles were cheap and available every where before the Kennedy assignation. I was mowing yards for fifty cents, and raised my price to a buck when I added trimming and edging.

All the best,,,, SF VET
 
Lee Enfields No. 3, 4, & 5. were all favorites when they were cheap. Really like the Savage and Long Branch made No. 4s. And what the hey, a Winchester P-14.

Wonder what they go for now?
 
I've had many military bolt-actions over many years. For cast bullet shooters, these are great rifles as is as long as bores are okay; they needn't be perfect or even very good to shoot cast well. They also do just fine with jacketed bullets.

Favorites were Krags and Springfields, but there's nothing wrong with the British .303s and Swedish Mausers. As my interests changed, I eventually got rid of all these guns except for one '03-A3 that I still shoot occasionally. The insight into cast bullet lore gained by experimenting with these rifles was an invaluable education.
 
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SF VET said:
Bought my first firearm in I think in 1959 or 1960. 7th grade, and happened to ride my bike to a small shopping center in Norfolk, VA, and found barrels of surplus rifles, and went back with ten bucks of my lawn mowing money and bought a 1915 303 Enfield No1Mk III. I still have it, a nice rifle, I did have a NOS barrel put on it several yeas ago by an Enfield restoration specialist. Also bought a 1898 Argentine 7.62 in mint condition. I reload for the several 303 Enfields I have, the other a 1946 MK5 "Jungle Carbine", and shot the Argentine some back when I was a kid, but not since.

Military rifles were cheap and available every where before the Kennedy assignation. I was mowing yards for fifty cents, and raised my price to a buck when I added trimming and edging.

All the best,,,, SF VET
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In about 1962 Woolworth and K-Mart were selling Mausers, Schmidt-Rubins, Enfields and 03-A3s. All were 20 bucks. Our local store had a pile of Carcanos and i remember thinking what **** they were. After Nov, 1963 the Carcanos all seemed to disappear. Of course after 1968 a LOT changed.

I remember buyin an 03-A3 in K-Mart. It seemed unissued, or at least not since it was reworked. I didn't know much back then and I ended up trading it. One of tnhe few that got away.
 
I just got into milsurps after my retirement 10 years ago. Started with original us krags then rebuilt a couple bubba'ed up '03s, Model 12s and a Stevens 520/620, a No1Mk3, a 1917 and a few AR45s.
 

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I was accumulating that stuff for a while. I think my two favorite were the Remington 1891 for the Czar and the SVT40. Somewhere along the line I decided to concentrate on US weapons, then narrowed it down further to S&Ws. The milsurp guns are fun to shoot. Here are some i had back in the 90s. That SVT would go for crazy money these days. I'd say the major problem was keeping the bore clean after shooting the old corrosive ammo. Many people did not care for them properly.
 

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