Why to people butcher and rape milsurps?

It seems germane to point out that, during the (first) Depression, Springfield Armory took orders for custom sporters built on 1903 actions. This was to keep the gun smiths working. They usually kept the front blade, but had a Williams reciever peep sight aft. Usually blued, and with stocks that were either field oiled or varnished.

So, the business of sporterizing military rifles has a long, convoluted past. Which includes at least one maker of milsurps.

win71 said:

Saleen322 !
That is a very nicely done 1903A3. Here is a poor photo of a gunsmith school project rifle. A 1903 in 308 Norma Magnum. To have it built now would cost 3 times more than a off the shelf 300 Win Mag.

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That is a fine looking rifle. The 308 Norma magnum is one of my favorite calibers. It was a favorite of the 'smiths in the 60s when so many wanted a magnum. It would fit in a 30-06 length magazine, was powerful, and very accurate.

Because the British .303 I bought back in 1965 was butt-ugly and weighed a ton.

I cut 1 1/2" off the barrel and re-crowned it,,,
Removed the rear ramp sights,,,
Cut down and pared the stock,,,
It became a light deer rifle.

Oh yeah,,,
I scoped it as well.

All for a total cost of less than $60.00

Aarond

.

If you are griping about the non-availability of vintage military surplus you either:

A) were not paying attention when they were available, or
B) too young to be around when they were available.

If (A), that's your fault, get over it.

If (B), that's life, get over it.

amadeus76 said:

Some of you seem to think I collect these rifles and don't shoot them... I shoot them all and quite frequently. My M48 and my 1903a3 are my primary hunting rifles.

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Don't really care one way or another.

lysanderxiii said:

If you are griping about the non-availability of vintage military surplus you either:

A) were not paying attention when they were available, or
B) too young to be around when they were available.

If (A), that's your fault, get over it.

If (B), that's life, get over it.

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I remember buckets of SKS carbines for $50.

Dad was fine buying me sporting rifles, shotguns, and rimfire revolvers, but he wasn't a gun guy. The SKS put him off because of price (must be broken) and because a military rifle would have scared Mom. (Mom has recently accepted that guns are not only for killing. I think my business has a lot to do with her changed views.)

I regret not being 18 at the time, but oh well. I'm enjoying today. I have hopes that we'll still see Berettas and early M16s surplused. Not a lot of hope, but a twinkling.

Regards,

Josh

^ Beretta s maybe

LoonWulf said:

^ Beretta s maybe

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I would like a Beretta. They're not my choice for carry any longer, but I do have fondness for the platform.

Even if they don't want to surplus the AR receivers due to full auto, why not surplus the uppers?

I don't have any huge desire to own an AR, no soul you know, but I do recognize their utility.

I would not mind buying a civilian receiver, filling it with milsurp parts, and planting a milsurp upper on it.

A regular skinny barrel AR would do everything I need it to do.

Regards,

Josh

BrocLuna,
O/T a bit, but would you consider posting in Rifles or Gunsmithing detailed steps on your welding a cracked receiver. I am looking a longterm project involving mating a cracked 1917 receiver into a heavy barrel .22 LR rifle as I have a lot of the parts on hand.

Josh,
Have found your website very useful in rebuilding a Finn 28/30 from a barrelled receiver. Thanks for the detailed trigger instructions, look forward to ordering and using some of your kits to redo some Russian Mosins with dreadful triggers.

Here's another mil-surp ready to be sporterized into a hunting rifle. Since somebody already added a scope and screwed a fake montecarlo comb on the stock it's not original anyway so all I need do is chop the barrel down to about 20" to take some weight off and it will be an OK deer rifle. The bore looks like new.

How long are smle barrels? I thought they were pretty short? Admittedly ive never gotten my hands on one

LoonWulf said:

How long are smle barrels? I thought they were pretty short? Admittedly ive never gotten my hands on one

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25.2 inches

Offfhand said:

Here's another mil-surp ready to be sporterized into a hunting rifle. Since somebody already added a scope and screwed a fake montecarlo comb on the stock it's not original anyway so all I need do is chop the barrel down to about 20" to take some weight off and it will be an OK deer rifle. The bore looks like new.
View attachment 229944 View attachment 229945

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Like this?



There was a place in England that butchered a bunch (a few thousand at least) of No.4(T)s in the 1970s, made them shoot the more plentiful .308 Winchester too, threw out the original barrels. I think they closed down that factory.

LoonWulf said:

How long are smle barrels? I thought they were pretty short? Admittedly ive never gotten my hands on one

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unless you get the jungle carbine with 18.8 barrel very handy

amadeus76 said:

The weight difference of half a pound to a pound is negligible and if it's too much for you, you just need to get tougher.

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Age tends to erode away one's toughness and strength. Lightening the load tends to become a goal as one gets older.

It's like when I changed from my 60 lb. hand carry tool kit for work to a 40 lb. hand carry tool kit about when I hit 40 years of age. Now at 52, I put that 40 pounder and another 40 pounds of other tools on a 2-wheel cart for my usual 200 yard tow along or drag up staircases. The stair cases are still a PITA.

Then there's my dad who is 81. He was Army, played college sports, and coached high school sports. Nowadays, he won't touch that 40 pound tool kit I have when I visit him to do repairs.

EDIT: I stand corrected. This weekend he picked up my tool kit and moved it 30 feet. Then he climbed a 12 foot ladder while I wasn't looking. Never say never, I suppose.

Offhand,
Make sure that you don't have a former sniper enfield. They are worth a bunch even without the issued scope. It should have a T Mark on the receiver wrist. They have a comb addition that resembles your stock.

At second look, offhand do not cut or alter. That is a British sniper scope mount and may be an issued scope. Examples start at 2000 and up.

Don't alter that rifle until you check experts opinion. See my other postings. It appears to be an original sniper model which could be worth 2000 or more unaltered.

Offfhand said:

Here's another mil-surp ready to be sporterized into a hunting rifle. Since somebody already added a scope and screwed a fake montecarlo comb on the stock it's not original anyway so all I need do is chop the barrel down to about 20" to take some weight off and it will be an OK deer rifle. The bore looks like new.
View attachment 229944 View attachment 229945

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Im pretty sure he knows that, thats why he posted lol

boom boom said:

At second look, offhand do not cut or alter. That is a British sniper scope mount and may be an issued scope. Examples start at 2000 and up.

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You probably think Jonathan Swift was a cannibal, don't you?

Yeah... I got played but it is a bit early for April fools so I did not see it coming.

its never early for april fools

I skimmed the posts and did not see much about how I know dozens of Mausers were made into sporters.

It was far better to buy actions with bottom metal than complete rifles, especially if your plan all along was to put a good quality stock, barrel and trigger on it. These actions were in the white and never assembled into a rifle until we got our dirty, filthy, gun raping hands on them.

People can customize things they way they want.

For a lot of these things - hundreds of thousands or even MILLIONS of them were made. They're not rare. They made a crap-load more military Mausers than they did Winchester Mod 54's yet those who would throw a fit at "chopping up" the former wouldn't bat an eye at someone modifying the latter.

Given that they're not particularly rare or valuable (heck most of the "good ones that have gone up in value" barely can pull in what a used Remington 700 can), they don't have exclusive rights to being "historical" (all old things are historical - being used in military service sin't a prerequisite for that), I don't see any reason to worry about it. Most importantly though, I'm firmly in the camp that people who own something can do whatever they'd like to with their property.