Most iconic rifles?

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Garand.... whenever I go to the range and there are others there it gets attention and smiles, youngsters enjoy just holding it and a smile when I offer to let them shoot it, no other firearm I own gets that much attention, me personally I enjoy the 03A3s, Mauser, 6.5s, 303s and Rem 700s but they play second fiddle to the Garand
 
Of historical importance is also the Chassepot rifle. and the rifle that holds most international records, the Anschütz 54 Match, a boring rimfire rifle. I do not consider any rifle collection even half way complete, nor balanced, without a 54M. Yet, I prefer the sporter versions of those. .

IMG-5456.jpg
 
I'll play. Would have to contain the following as a base:

A classic American single shot - RB, Sharps etc,
A lever gun - probably the Winchester 1873 as the most iconic
A Krag, as the first American smokeless repeater
At least one Mauser. The K98 or the Springfield 1903 are probably the highest refinements thereof. A triumverate of 1891, 98 Gewehr, and 1903 Springfield would be cool.
A Garand
A classic 22 - Marlin 39, Stevens Favorite, or more modern Ruger 10/22 Marlin 60
A Win Model 70, probably in 375 H&H, as The iconic mid 20th Century safari rifle
At least one of the Cold War battle rifles: AK, FAL, M14, HK91 etc
An M16 A1 clone
And something ridiculous made by Barrett in .50 cal like the M107
 
DocRock said:
I'll play. Would have to contain the following as a base:

A classic American single shot - RB, Sharps etc,
A lever gun - probably the Winchester 1873 as the most iconic
A Krag, as the first American smokeless repeater
At least one Mauser. The K98 or the Springfield 1903 are probably the highest refinements thereof. A triumverate of 1891, 98 Gewehr, and 1903 Springfield would be cool.
A Garand
A classic 22 - Marlin 39, Stevens Favorite, or more modern Ruger 10/22 Marlin 60
A Win Model 70, probably in 375 H&H, as The iconic mid 20th Century safari rifle
At least one of the Cold War battle rifles: AK, FAL, M14, HK91 etc
An M16 A1 clone
And something ridiculous made by Barrett in .50 cal like the M107
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Guess I’m doing well. I have most of those. Can the M1-A count as a sub for the M-14?
 
mgmorden said:
Depends on how big of a collection you're talking about. You could make a list of 5 iconic rifles or 3 dozen depending on how broad you want it to be.

Off the top of my head for a few:
A Winchester 94 - classic American hunting rifle.
Mauser K98 - the basis for the vast majority of the military rifles of the early 20th century and the grandfather of nearly all modern bolt action hunting rifles.
M1 Garand - America's ace in the hole for WW2.
AR15 - The Mauser 98 of our generation - common, ubiquitous, and with tons of militaries either adopting a version of it directly or a gun heavily influenced by it.
AK47 - The same thing for the other half of the world.
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Hard to argue with that list.
 
1873 Winchester in 44-40
1894 Winchester in 30-30
SMLE
Sharps 45-70
Krag-Jorgenson
Trapdoor Springfield
1903 Springfield
Savage 1899
Savage M24/Stevens 22-410
Gewher 98
M1 Garand
M1 Carbine
SKS (lasted in the USSR much longer than the -47)
AK-47
M16/AR15
FAL
Cetme-C (unless you can afford a sturmgewher)
Rem700 in 25-06 or 280 Rem
Win70 in 270 or 243
Ruger 10/22
Ruger #1 in 375 H&H
Barrett 50 cal

That about covers the basics. Idk enough about marlins to suggest any, but they should be included. Then you can head down the rabbit hole farther and get one of all SMLE versions, all the '03 versions, etc etc etc
 
Most of the models I'd suggest have already been named by others, but here's a few I didn't see.
1886 Lebel
Lee Rifle, Model of 1895, caliber 6mm (.236 Navy)
BAR (Actual Browning Automatic Rifle of WWII fame)
 
my guess for the most iconic?

Winchester lever action (any of them)
Mauser 98
Remington Rolling Block
Spencer Repeating rifle
Sharps rifle
Springfield Trapdoor
British Land Pattern Musket "Brown Bess"
 
In no certain order:
Kentucky long rifle
Spencer carbine
Winchester 1873
FN Mauser 98 (pre WWII)
Rigby Big Game
M-1 Garand
Winchester Model 70 (pre-64)
Weatherby Mark V
Ruger No. 1
Ruger 10/22
New Ultra Light Arms Model 20 and 24
Springfield M-1A
Ruger Scout
Late edit——I forgot the Savage Model 99
 
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Covering the world would be too broad. Covering the U.S. would be fascinating.

1. Hawken Rifle. Opened the frontier.
2. Henry repeating rifle. Load on Sunday and fire all week. First practical repeater using metallic cartridges and that you didn't have to thumb the hammer back.
3. Winchester 1873. How the West was won. Centerfire success.
4. Remington Rolling Block/Sharps 1874/Springfield 1873. Killed the buffalo which controlled the Indians. Also armed the army.
5. Savage 1899. Repeater without a tube magazine that used smokeless (gasp) cartridges later including the first one to break the 3000 fps barrier.
6. Springfield model 1903. Armed troops in WW1 and WW2 and provided thousands of actions for custom rifles.
7. M1 Garand. Semi auto power that basically won WW2 and Korea.
8. Winchester Model 70. The Rifleman's Rifle. Won the Wimbledon cup and supplied snipers in Vietnam. Jack O'Connor's favorite hunting rifle.
9. Colt Armalite AR-15/M16. Started winning fights in 1959 and still going strong today.
10. Phased Plasma Rifle in the 40 Watt Range. Just because...
 
HowieG said:
Covering the world would be too broad. Covering the U.S. would be fascinating.

1. Hawken Rifle. Opened the frontier.
2. Henry repeating rifle. Load on Sunday and fire all week. First practical repeater using metallic cartridges and that you didn't have to thumb the hammer back.
3. Winchester 1873. How the West was won. Centerfire success.
4. Remington Rolling Block/Sharps 1874/Springfield 1873. Killed the buffalo which controlled the Indians. Also armed the army.
5. Savage 1899. Repeater without a tube magazine that used smokeless (gasp) cartridges later including the first one to break the 3000 fps barrier.
6. Springfield model 1903. Armed troops in WW1 and WW2 and provided thousands of actions for custom rifles.
7. M1 Garand. Semi auto power that basically won WW2 and Korea.
8. Winchester Model 70. The Rifleman's Rifle. Won the Wimbledon cup and supplied snipers in Vietnam. Jack O'Connor's favorite hunting rifle.
9. Colt Armalite AR-15/M16. Started winning fights in 1959 and still going strong today.
10. Phased Plasma Rifle in the 40 Watt Range. Just because...
Click to expand...

Your love of history (and Science Fiction!) is showing.
 
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LoonWulf said:
I wouldn't even know where to start........you could build a sizable collection just on the variants of a single base rifle design.

To me the 98 mauser is both the most iconic and legendary bolt action extant, and i like bolt actions.
If i didnt have to PAY for them.....
I could see making a life long pursuit of collect a specimen of every variation military and commercial, and as many examples of guns made by custom craftsman as i could.
....and they arnt MY favorite rifle design.
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Yes, the Mauser definitely has to make the short list, given how many subsequent designs were based on it.
 
jmorris said:
The AK-47 is likely the most known firearm world wide.

Lots of others would be known to enthusiasts and be of note though.

Even antigun liberals know of the AK-47 even if they couldn’t pick one out of a lineup with Marlin 60, Remington 870, 10-22, Winchester 1894 and Daisy Red Ryder...

Ironically, for a collection (you can’t have one of everything without one) is about the only reason I have one, not their biggest fan...
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I respect the amazingly reliable design of the AK, but hate how it's been used by the communists to kill so many people.
 
7mmsavage said:
By iconic I take it as what rifle do I see when I think of a particular time or event. This is what I came up with in terms of iconic American history.

Pennsylvania rifle / early American explorers.

Brown Bess type musket with bayonet/ American revolution.

Springfield/ Enfield musket with bayonet / American civil war.

Winchester 73 / post civil war western expansion and growth.

1903 Springfield (though not as prolific as the 1917) with bayonet / WWI soldier.

Any non scoped rifle lever or bolt / American big or small game hunter. Repeat after WWII.

M1 Garand or Thompson / WWII soldier.

M16a1 / Vietnam soldier.

Scoped bolt action rifle with no iron sights / modern American big game hunter.

M4 / modern American soldier.

AR15 / seems like every current American rifle owner.

Non American, AK, Enfield, Single shots, no rifle due to no 2A?
Click to expand...

This a well-supported list of the most iconic. Some may want to add more, but no one would subtract any from this list methinks.
 
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