Hunting with Milsurps

[sixgunner455]

SKS. Wished I'd had something else, but it was what I had, so used it. Didn't see a legal deer, but I don't regret carrying the SKS ... except for the weight. Was a heavy beast.

I've taken along a Mosin as a back-up on an elk hunt, and nearly got to use that one. This year's elk hunt, I'll probably take along a K31 for the backup.

 

[MCgunner]

The SKS is powerful enough for 200 yards and in and mine is accurate enough with the right ammo. BUT, yeah, milsurps in general ain't the best hunting rifles. I'll take my Remington M7 any day over ANY milsurp you can mention for serious hunting. It's 3/4 MOA accurate, about 6.5 lbs plus the scope, it's stainless and has a polymer stock so its even MORE elements resistant than my SKS, which is blued. The M7 is in .308 Winchester, superior round to any 7.62x39. It is compact in a box blind. It's just a better rifle than anything milsurp for the purpose of hunting. It's not the only sporting rifle I have, but it's my fave.

I had to add a recoil pad on that SKS to get enough eye relief for the scope, not a good compromise, but one that is common. The alternative is a small, short scope with no light gathering ability when the sun is nearly set or not quite up. Iron sights in dim light are even worse and it's dim light when most game is spotted, especially hogs.

I had a brief flirtation with trying to hunt with milsurps, but realized the futility and went back to my sporting rifles. YMMV, but I suspect that as soon as a guy realizes this and can afford a Savage 110 or something, which in fact now days isn't any more expensive than an SKS, he'll move on from thinking of milsurps as primary hunting weapons.

I've spent good money on hunting trips. I don't see that getting cheap with my rifle is a good thing when I'm out 1500 bucks on a New Mexico trip just in travel expenses and a license. Bubbas might carry an SKS in the woods, but they ain't spending money on the trip.

I mean, yeah, you CAN hunt with milsurps and I have, but I cannot say it's the way to go over the myriad of quality sporting arms out there. Look at it this way, in Vietnam, when the government wanted to arm serious snipers and not just designated marksmen, they went out and bought Winchester M70s and Remington M700s to arm them with as they had nothing appropriate in the arsenal. So, just think of that Remington 700 as a mil surp sniper rifle if you want to, I mean, if that's important to you.

 

[303tom]

Every Year..................

 

[ssyoumans]

Regarding weights, the Mil-Surps aren't always much heavier.

Remington 700 ADL 308 Win w/scope 8 lb 5.2oz
16" S&W AR15 w/scope and sling 8 lb 9.2 oz
Marlin 336 8 lbs 5.8 oz
Mosin Nagant M38 8 lbs 10.2 oz
Yugo M48 Mauser, 8 lbs 12.8 oz

Lightest to heaviest of these is less than 1/2 pound. Now a Garand is a bit heavier but the Mosin carbine and M48/K98 Mauser are right in line with modern hunting rifles.

 

[MCgunner]

BUT, if light is what you want, you won't find it in a milsurp. YOU CAN find it in a sporting arm. There are super light AR15s, now, but I don't hunt with .223, want more and don't want some off the wall 6.5 Beowulf or Grendel or whatever the hell it is.

My M7 is considerably lighter than any of the above listed arms and it's 3/4 MOA accurate. There are even lighter guns built, down to around 5 lbs, semi customs, if it's important to you. I just read about a new lightweight AFFORDABLE rifle that Savage has introduced, 6.5 lb IIRC.

Light guns are handy when one does a lot of walking and climbing in the field. It matters not to me for most of my hunting now days as that's usually done from a stand. I do appreciate the compactness of my M7 in a box blind, though. Banging around a Mosin in a box blind isn't conducive to low noise hunting.

Now, I know Caribou is going to weigh in now that I've dissed Mosins......but he doesn't hunt from a box blind. Beyond that, if I were to win the Texas Lotto and suddenly have enough money to fly up there and hunt with him, I'd take my Savage 7 mag. I wouldn't run out and buy a Mosin for the trip. I'm sure the gun makes ultimate sense for HIM. Me, too, I need an optic for long range. My eyes are aging and not as crisp as they once were. Beyond 100 yards, I need an optic. I can actually focus the Weatherby scope on that Savage, too, and use it without glasses if I were to lose my glasses in the trip on one of those snowmobile things they use up there. I'd bring my full face helmet, though, for the ride.

 

[tomrkba]

Why hunt with an AR-15 chambered in 5.56x45mm or .223 Remington when you can use 6.8 SPC or 300 Blackout? A friend of mine uses 458 SOCOM and it does a number on the deer around here (especially at 50 yards or less).

 

[jrdolall]

I shot a doe with my Russian SKS last year at around 90 yards and she dropped in her tracks. With open sights my eyesight is not good past that distance but the gun shoots well enough.

I plan to hunt with a sporterized 6.5 Swede this year if I can afford to get it drilled, tapped and scoped in time.

 

[buck460XVR]

For forty years I hunted deer with a M1917 Eddystone. Lost tract of how many deer it killed. Went to strictly handguns for deer ten years ago. Didn't want to carry that old tree around in the woods anymore. I paid my dues. I don't get near the deer I used to tho, but then @ my age, I don't relish the idea of draggin em out anymore. Paid my dues there also. Still take the old ought-six to the range, just for old times sake. She still outshoots anything else I own.

 

[whetrock]

I've been toying with the idea as to whether or not I should tote my 91/30 into the woods in this years whitetail deer season. However after seeing this thread I've been interested in my rifles capabilty as a woods gun and feel from what shooting that I've done with it that it has more than serviceable accuracy as a hunting rifle and should serve well as such. All in all a lot of my realitives got their start in medium sized game hunting with old beater Milsurp rifles and I for one don't see why I can't use one with some degree of effiency as well.

 

[Shadow 7D]

find a bubba gun
it's cheaper *usually
it already has most of what one would do to a perfectly fine piece of history done to it
you won't endure the cases of flaming pants that posting a cut up mil sup will get you from the collectors crowd...

 

[MCgunner]

Why hunt with an AR-15 chambered in 5.56x45mm or .223 Remington when you can use 6.8 SPC or 300 Blackout? A friend of mine uses 458 SOCOM and it does a number on the deer around here (especially at 50 yards or less).

Why hunt with one of these alphabet modified AR calibers that brass is hard to come by for and the gun is going to toss that brass into the briars when you can get so many BETTER hunting calibers in hunting rifles? Ever heard of the .30-06? It WAS a military round. .308, okay, 7.62x51 NATO if you are the tacticool type, is easy to find in a slight weight short action hunting rifle. It don't have to be a 10 lb AR10 with funky ergos.

find a bubba gun
it's cheaper *usually
it already has most of what one would do to a perfectly fine piece of history done to it
you won't endure the cases of flaming pants that posting a cut up mil sup will get you from the collectors crowd...

Not really any cheaper with the exception of the Mosin. One can buy a sporting rifle now days for under 300 bucks that will shoot MOA. What the milsurp does, if you pick your milsurp, is appreciate in value. They're good investments. Even the Mosin has tripled in value in the last 20 years. Some folks buy gold, but cold steel is more fun to play with. In order to retain its value, it must remain military, no drill and tapping, no modified stocks or free floating. To do all that runs the price up higher than a Savage 110 anyway. I own milsurps, but not for hunting. Yeah, I've modified a few in my ignorance. My SKS is a handy ranch rifle/truck gun, though. I kinda like it for that and it's around when I see targets of opportunity. Sure, it's heavy and I pick one of my commercial hunting rifles when I go hunting. Milsurp ammo for the SKS is cheap for plinking, too, and I don't have to chase the brass. That's pretty cool. It does have practical uses, just don't think of hunting as one of them.

I mean, y'all milsurp bubbas go ahead and beat me up. SOMEone has the be the contrary voice of reason on this thread.

 

[sixgunner455]

McGunner - I started hunting with a muzzleloader, and I'll do it again, I'm sure. I carried that SKS because I had it, it worked, and I needed a longer range rifle for where I was hunting.

Last year, I decided to hunt deer again (it'd been a while) and I make a bit more now than I did back when. I got a Savage 11 and a Burris Fullfield II for $550. Much better hunting rifle, very accurate, and longer legs on it than that SKS. I'm hunting cow elk this fall, and have three centerfire rifles: a lightweight AR15 in 5.56, a K31, and that Savage 11 in .243. The AR is a non-starter, the K31 is too heavy to haul up and down the mountains, and I'd need to scope it, which isn't happening lol. So, it's the Savage, even though .243 might be considered a little bit light for the animal. I've hunted elk before, know how big they are, and know where to hit one to put it down. Maybe I should have gotten a .308, but ... I really like this .243. So does my 15 yo. Oh, well.

If my recent big game luck holds, I'll see one group of elk at about 1000 yards on the third day, lose ten pounds of flab, and come home with all the rounds of ammo I take with me. If that happens, then what difference will it make what rifle I'm carrying?

 

[rduchateau2954]

I shot a deer with my SKS at 75yrds.

That being said now that I have a .270 the sks will probably never leave the safe ever again.

 

[whetrock]

MCgunner hit the nail on the head IMO. From what my older realitives and family friends tell me is that back in the day when they were toying with hunting deer and like game that their was a void in the market for reasonably accurate budget minded bolt action rifles that lasted for some time so many turned to buying Enfields, Mausers and Mosins.... Now with rifles like the Remington 770, Savage edge/Axis, and Ruger American it's pretty easy to get a rifle that will at last shoot 1.5 MOA or so and have a high degree of reliability as well. But still Milsurp rifles are grand investments that can serve quite well as a hedge against inflation and the devalueing of our currency. Also there is a certain nostalgic element present with the rifles as well that's a bit hard to describe.

 

[MCgunner]

Note, though, that I'm not saying that a milsurp can't hunt, OF COURSE IT CAN! But, whetrock gets it. There was a time when milsurps made sense at the entry level for new hunters, not so much anymore. I will add that my 20 year old $200 Savage 110 shoots MOA groups with either 150 Game Kings or 160 Nosler Partitions (in 7mm Rem Mag). That's all one needs in a hunting rifle unless you're into that 1000 yard stuff. But, I don't measure my case volumes or weigh and cull my bullets or even WEIGHT every charge, I load with a volume measure weighing every 5th charge. I could probably cut some group size by doing all that and I already have by free floating the barrel. I haven't bedded the action, though, but no matter, 1 MOA makes me happy. My old Remington 722 shoots 1/2 MOA.

Hey, if you have a milsurp and it pleases you to hunt with it, DO IT! I'm not arguing against that, just saying what whetrock says in a more intelligible way. I probably need to learn to be a little more concise.

 

[Dr.Rob]

I knew a guy that started elk hunting with a sporterized Enfield .303. That thing kicked like a mule to me as a lad.

I own a 1903A3 that came with a sporter stock, but luckily it had all the original military hardward and stock as well. The owner used it as a deer rifle and it came to elk camp as a back up. There are a lot of well done sporters out there made from a 1903.

I was given a BRNO Kar98k that had been bubba'ed up as a deer rifle. Took a few weeks to get all the pasts to put it back to 98k configuration, and with its accuracy I'd take it hunting anytime.

 

[MCgunner]

Many folks started with a .303 Enfield of one iteration or another. That's because back in the 60s, you could buy one for something like 20 bucks, mail order before 1968. Not so much anymore. Now, that was 1964, when a dollar was worth closer to what a dollar should be worth and it was backed by treasury gold, so I don't know if that's as great a price as it sounds, but it was pretty cheap compared to the price of a Winchester M70 or something.

Over the years, I've watched this and that milsurp come on the market in droves when an arsenal would purge its stock to US importers, CHEAP. Soon as the inventory dried up, up goes the prices. Lower the production, higher the increase in price. My Hakim is a good example PLUS, that thing is intriguing mechanically, one of the first direct gas impingement guns being designed from the earlier Swedish Ljungman and chambered in 8x67S. ONE WEIRD action, had to spend a half hour with an article on the gun to figure out how it worked and how to take it down for cleaning, LOL! I love that thing even IF it's too heavy and long for anything practical. It's always a hit at the range, little recoil due to the weight and excellent muzzle break and a friggin' semi auto cannon. It sorta reminds me of how shooting a BAR must feel. LOL. I should kill something with THAT just to say I did.

I wish I'd gotten one of those Rashid carbines, they were 179 at the time. The Hakim was 80 bucks and I'm quite sure is WAY more fun.

 

[303tom]

Nothing wrong with a .303...............

 

[T.R.]

My nephew has taken 3 nice bucks and about a dozen does with his German Mauser in 8mm. Original open sights work well for him. Remington ammo is loaded to similar performance as the 32 Special. This is slower than European 8mm ammo but gets the job done.

TR

 

[gunner69]

I had a friend of mine give me three boxes of Norma 8mm Mauser, and have tqken several deer with mine. In fact I still have just over 2 boxes left. I must say the norma is a lot hotter than U.S. made ammo.