Military Surplus Hunting Rifle

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ME Woodsman

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First post whats going on every one?

Im looking for a hunting rifle for bear and deer. I bought a mosin a few years ago but did not like the safety on the thing. I have been looking at an enfield 2a1. Would this be a good buy? Also I am looking to replace the stock with a thumbhole stock.

As well as mounting a scope but I still want the ability to look down the iron sights in case i ever walk up on a bear so i have a quick shot. Any ideas where I can find one of these? I have one on my .30-30 but have no idea where it came from.
 
I've got an M48 mauser in 8mm that I sporterized with a Boyd's stock, scout scope mount and a Burris 2.75 power scout scope (the scope cost more than the gun but was well worth it). Although you want iron sights, the scout scope works as well or better and the M-48 is fine with iron sights if you don't want a scope at all. I went with the scout scope because it wasn't worth it for me to have the gun drilled and tapped for a regular scope.

It is truely a great truck, swamp, foul weather gun. The 8mm is as good as the 30-06 with European ammo and I really could care less if it gets banged up hunting pigs and such.

Although there is no real historic or collectable value to these rifles, I can convert it back in about 10 minutes if I had to. Of course this was one of the reasons that made it a perfect truck, swamp, foul weather conversion to begin with. Also the mauser safety is far superior in operation to the clumbsy assed contrapsion on the Moisin.

My plan was for an inexpensive, hard use, powerful rifle that I wouldn't worry about like a pre 64 Winchester model 70. Which if I was lucky enough to own one would spend most of its time in the safe.
 
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how much do those go for? Im lookin for something cheap that i plan on using for a month of bear and deer hunting in maine before i join the air force. I have .30-30 i use in missouri but want more power if ill be hunting bear by myself.
 
I paid $150 for mine about 4 years ago and haven't look for one in a while (no need any more). My son killed his first hog (150-200 lbs) using this rifle with one shot using 170 gr bullets.

Although the 8mm (with European ammo) is more powerful than the 30-30 my great uncle killed a large black bear about 60 years ago with a 30-30 using a 170 grain bullet. He was very happy with the guns performance and back in those days nobody doubted the power of the 30-30 in NE PA.

He also had a 30-06 and other than those two rifles, the only other hunting rifle I ever saw back then (1960-70s) was a 270 winchester. Magnum fever hadn't caught on with those old guys. I guess thats why the 30-06 is my favorite and I like the 8mm because it was cheap and work just as well.
 
A nice M 24/47 Yugo mauser with like new bore will no doubt be a good misurp hunting rifle. Using Priv Partizan 8 mm SP 196 gr will be as good as an expensive commercial hunting sporter.
 
I have a bubba'd Mauser 93 in 7x57. Excellent hunting rifle for $130. But buy a M48 rifle, restock it, put a Timney trigger in it & put a .308 (or whatever your preference is) barrel on it? You'll be north of $700 before you even realize what happened.

That said, I also have a Marlin XS7 in 7mm-08 (ballistically a clone of the 7x57) that I bought this summer NIB for ~$300. Much as I love Mausers, you'll do better to hunt with a brand new Marlin than a sporterized Mauser unless someone gives you one with all the work already done.
 
Last I went hunting for big game I just took my stock Mosin-Nagant 91/30.
Paid $100 for when I got it back when I turned 18.

Not the most asthetically pleasing (to some :p) but it's deadset reliable and it's something that you won't get all dinged up about if the rifle does. It shoots great and the ammo is cheap (last box of hunting ammo I picked up for 15 and change from Big 5 here in town). Plus, you can add all sorts of doodads to it if that's your thing.

I've also taken out a 1895 Turkish Mauser and an Yugo M48, both in 8mm, out before. Both are right in the ballpark of 150 clams. I liked them but I always went back to my old Mosin. I think it was just that I was more familiar with the other platform and also the commercial hunting ammo tended to be rather expensive compared to old faithful.
 
A Yugo Mauser is a great bang for the buck. That 8mm is a hard hitting round and the rifles can be found for under $200 in nearly new condition. Search "Yugo" on Gunbroker and look at the "bolt action" listings. Several models to choose from.
 
+1 on the Yugo 24/47 mauser

I have 2

My son and I hunt with them all the time

Get a Tallsight (about $8), sight it in (takes a file) buy hunting ammo
(There is PLENTY of milsurp to plink with)



A few notes

The rifle "as-is" is set to go out to 300 meters. The bullet actually arcs up a bit then back down to the POA 300 meters away.

(which is too far for my old eyes)

The Texas boar that I hunt, usually end up with shots at 50 to 100yards

The tallsight allows me to hunt with iron sights for these distances


Almost all of these being sold were rebarreled in the 40's and immediately put away for storage for the next "big" war....it never happened

So.... you almost always get a NEW barrel in a older gun.

The cosmoline is a protectant that takes just a bit of time (not that hard)
to remove
 
You might also want to look at the K-31. You can get them for about $250, and they're the most accurate mil-surp I've ever seen. I own four of them. The stocks on all of them look rough, but the action and barrel on almost every one I've seen have been perfect. These barrels have never seen corrosive ammo, which you can't say about Mausers. However, the 24/47's that I've seen do seem to have new (or nearly) barrels, and they are cheaper...

The only downside to the K-31 is that the surplus ammo is more expensive than 8mm, but it's EXCELLENT. Match grade stuff. Of course, you're not going to hunt with FMJ, so that may not be a concern to you unless you plan a lot of range time with it.

Hunting ammo for 8mm and the swiss 7.5mm run about the same. Definitely get European hunting ammo for 8mm, don't fool with Remington and such. American 8mm ammo is loaded pretty weak since they lawyers are concerned about some yahoo loading full power ammo in one of the 100+year old receivers that are still around. Look up the ballistics of Norma 8mm vs. Remington 8mm.

The 7.5 Swiss is ballistically identical to .308 Winchester, which is convenient.
 
I handload all my ammo so finding ammo isn't a problem.that said the top 3 milsurps imho
K31 very accurate
finn M28/30
M1

all use .308 bullets :)

pete
 
Welcome.

The Enfield 2A1 is a great rifle - I have one in my safe from 1965. BUT they were imported in very limited numbers and the remainder in India were destroyed.There won't be any more coming, and prices have gone up a lot as people are realising this. Also, therer are almost NO scope mounts for the .308 Isshy...those that are still made are very expensive.

I have a few recommendations: My favorite bolt action is a k98 Mauser that was sporterized in the 1960's some time by someone who did a fine job on it.
It was re-barreled to .398 Win, has a bent and jeweled bolt with a low safety
and a very fine blue. I bought it for about $275 a few years ago, put a black plastic stock on it and a Redfield 2.5x7 scope...just installed a Timney trigger in it this morning.

I'd look for a well done sporter if that is what you want...with all the work done and holes drilled. You will spend less money that way than doing the work to a military rifle, and if you shop around ther are a lot of these old rifles for sale cheap.

If you want an issue military rifle to hunt with as is, get a 98 Mauser, or any other shorter Mauser rifle in any caliber you like, or get a Lee Enfield in .303 British. Both are excellent rifles use great hunting cartridges and can be found at great prices al,most anywhere.
I used to handload the .303 Brit, and it is hard to beat for versatility.
Enjoy yourself.

mark
 
+1+1 on the Yugo Mauser. The 7.92X57(8mm Mauser) is indeed a hard hitting round and quite capable of taking any game in North America. And the M48 is the less expensive of the lot. Also most M48's are "new" guns. They were buillt in the late 40's and early to mid 50's, and put into warehouses, because the military had adopted autoloading weapons such as the SKS and AK's, hence many/most of the M48's were never issued to troops, just stored, occasionally cleaned, test fired, re-cleand, and stored again.

As for ammo, the US made ammo is very under powered and loaded to .30-30 specs. Winchester, Federal and Hornady load theirs with 170gr SP @ 2100 fps, where as the European manufactures such as Privi Partisan, Sellier & Bellot, and Wolf, usually load with 196 gr SP @ 2600 fps. By the way, US made ammo is much more expensive than European ammo. The US ammo usually ranges around $28 to $32 per box and the Euro around $21. I paid $24 including shipping for a box of S&B.
 
wlewis is correct it is very easy to run up the price real quick. When my son got his pig the gun was dead stock and a $150 bargain.

I went with the scout scope because my eyes unfortunately aren't what they used to be and I wanted to use it past 50 or 75 yards. It was still a bargain with a good scope.

The stock change was totally unecessary, I got lucky on the stock as it was a Boyd's second and was less than a $100. But the original stock was fine and stronger, but also heavier and doesn't feel or look as nice as the Boyd's.

I would never waste the money on a barrel change. The 8mm is a great round and for the price of a barrel change and other modifications its cheaper to just go to Walmart and buy a modern hunting rifle.

The M48 was fine as the original price was cheap, the round is effective and I would have bought a good scope for any other huning rifle I wanted. I'm not a big scout fan but as I said earlier I wasn't going to spend the money to drill and tap for a regular scope.

The nice thing about these old 8mm mausers is that they are strong, cheap, reliable, controled round feeding rifles that can safely take any game in North America (and have done very well on other conitinents) and they give you the option to spend as much or a little as your budget dictates.
 
The great disadvantage of military rifles for hunting is the sights. Most military sights are very poor -- usually V-notch rear and inverted V ("barleycorn") front sight.

The best military bolt action sights are aperture ("peep") sights found on the M1917 Enfield and it's British predecessor, the P14 Enfield, and on the M1903A3 Springfield and the Number 4 Enfield.

In my opinion, if you are going to scope the rifle, you don't need to worry about iron sights that are only marginally effective. If you must have the issue irons, simply use bases low enough so you can remove the scope and rings and still see the irons. In this case, you are reserving the irons for a case where your scope is damaged and no longer useable.
 
The India 2A is NOT for this purpose -- it is an older, heavier, WWI arm. A guy I used to work for said "I love finding s**t and turning it into gold. Find a very cheap, already sporterized, WWII Enfield or Mauser if you must. They are ubiquitous. Find a see-thru scope mount if you NEED scope-eye. Or load that .30-30 with a hard, heavy, bullet and "take care of that Bear."
Al
 
The .30-30 you already have is plenty for black bear and deer. The paper ballistics for 170gr don't look as good as for 150gr but the heavier slug gives better penetration. By the time you get a military surplus rifle converted to an equally good sporter season will be over and you will have doubled or tripled the price of the gun.
 
I hunt occasionally with a Swiss K31 with a clamp on scope mount. The mount is offset to the right side of the receiver and allows for use of the open sights.

I shoot with the open sights and just use the scope for spotting.
 
If you want a scope buy an XL 7 combo or whatever combo rifle/scope set your local big box retailer has cheap.

If you want Iron sights get a Enfield no 4. mk 1 or 2. Much better sights than a no. 1 mk. 3 (which is what I assume you were looking at.) Classic Arms and others have them in stock: http://www.classicarms.us/. A no. 4 enfield is the cheapest full power rifle with peep sights that I can think of.
 
+1 for the 30-30.

If your 30-30 is a lever action, I don't have to tell you how well they carry and how quick to the shoulder they are. They have undoubtedly killed more deer than any other caliber in use today.

A Mauser, Mosin or Enfield are rugged but quite heavy to carry, and often the barrels give less than stellar accuracy. If you can keep your shots on a 9" plate at 150-200yds, then you're good to go.
They can be fitted with Mojo sights which replace the original military sights.

www.mojosights.com/



NCsmitty
 
Modifying military rifles is no longer economical. It's cheaper to buy a rifle from Remington or Ruger or one of the others and spend far less than you would in turning a military gun into a suitable hunting rifle.

I agree with others saying the 30-30 is a fine hunting rifle. The various 30 caliber military rounds are not all that more powerful.
 
ive taken 2 deer with my ishy 2a taken 1 with my m1891 mosin hpefully another witht he other one i just got.

got a bobcat with my fr-8 2-3 foxes with my m1 carbine


feel free to take your milsurp hunting just practice with it and tune the sights in

all of mine are still in military form except for being refinished. its not cheaper to sporterize one anymore but can still be alot of fun. i have plans to build a mosin one day. i actually prefer the mosin action to the mauser, i feel it locks up tighter. but im gonna rechamber it. its not for cost reasons i just like the action
 
Modifying military rifles is no longer economical. It's cheaper to buy a rifle from Remington or Ruger or one of the others and spend far less than you would in turning a military gun into a suitable hunting rifle.
Click to expand...
You can usually find nice sporterized guns on craigs list or whatever you have in your neck of the woods. I usually see sporterized enfields and mausers going for around 150-350$. Some of them are quite nice, especially some of the sporterized mausers that have been rebarreled.
 
And dont forget theres the Finn M 39 with legendary accuracy using Russian 54 R . You wont regret getting one...
 
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