Sporterized military rifles

[Mark Mahler]

I’ve always been interested in the bolt action military rifles that were “sporterized” - the Mauser, 1903s, Enfields, etc. I was recently surprised by my brother with the gift of an ‘03 Springfield sporter, which then motivated me to get a Model 1917 Enfield.
Here’s the 03 with the Redfield 70 aperture sight installed.


Here’s the Enfield. It came with the Redfield sight, which is why I got one for the ‘03. Excellent sight.
I’d like to see pictures of your sporters.

 

[Duster340]

I love them. Here's a few of my deer rifles.

 

[entropy]

I bought this as a barreled action with triggerguard/mag at a gunshow for $25, added a $10 eBay Hungarian M44 stock, and FrankenTula™ was born. It's my most accurate Mosin, has accompanied me into the woods for deer several times. It's a 1937 Tula, probably one of the Spanish Civil War guns bought as surplus and sporterized by/for Sears, Wards, and other chain stoes in the 50's and 60's. It has an M1903 Springfield front sight, which I believe is why it's so accurate.

 

[Nature Boy]

My 03A3, that I got from my dad

 

[Mosin77]

Sporters don’t get a lot of love in the milsurp collector world. I do feel like nowadays if you sporterize an old military gun you should be horsewhipped. And you are an idiot because you’ve taken a $700-1000 rifle and turned it into a $250 rifle. (Or in the case of the typical Mosin, a $300 rifle into a -really bad compared to commercial guns- $150 one.)

But that being said, I love shooting the old sporters and I have a couple myself. I’d almost rather shoot (and definitely rather carry afield) a sporterized example than lug around a valuable relic. And a sporter has loads more character, history, and often quality compared to a run of the mill modern commercial hunting rifle. I’d much rather take a deer with my sporterized .30-06 K98k than a plastic stocked Savage Axis for about the same price.

 

[tubeshooter]

I bought a sporterized 1903 as my first 30-06. It has a Bishop stock that is likely from the '50s and a Lyman peep sight.


I consider it a good pickup for my uses. As stated, I'd rather have it than a typical modern-day budget bolt gun.

 

[Random 8]

I have an M1917 I picked up at a pawnshop for $150. Don't have a picture of it here, it hangs up at my deer camp for emergency use and occasional practice shooting. Basically got it for the action, and was surprised to learn it had a quality vintage glass bed job under the goofy custom stock. The stock had a crack which I stabilized with 2 ash dowels, epoxy, and an inset wood screw. The darn thing shoots near MOA with my standard Garand load, so rather than harvest the action to build a neat sporter, I ended up with a surprisingly accurate utilitarian rifle that will work in any conditions no matter what. The finish is mostly rust colored parkerizing ( I believe the rifle was re-arsenaled sometime around WWII) showing severe finish wear. The goofy custom stock with a high cheek piece and palm rest pistol grip leads me to believe it was used as a high power match rifle at some point in it's life. It also bears a shadow from a receiver and barrel band front sight, the trigger breaks at a clean 1.7 lbs, and an M1 Garand rear sling stud is installed, lending further creedence to this theory. After this use, somebody professionally drilled and tapped it for a weaver tip-off mount that it still wears. The thing has really seen some love over the last 75 or so years.

It's a real ringer at the local deer camps when we go visiting third weekend and some informal shooting matches with friendly wagers are to be had. The regulars know me and my rifle, and go out of there way to get the new guys to bet against me with their whiz bang new made rifles. It humbled a few 6.5 creeds last year.

 

[Duster340]

All the milsurps I hunt with, i.e. K31 and No4Mk1 with were already cut up or too far gone to restore to milspec. My current project is this Model 99 7.7 Jap. Was already drill, tapped and cut up when given to me. It shoots straight and will be in my tree stand at some point this season.

It would be a shame to not get these old rifles out in the field. And I assure you them deer don't seem to know the difference between them new guns and these 75 - 80 Year old guns.

Be well folks

 

[mokin]

Lots of pretty rifles here.

I like seeing these old rifles being shot. I'd never cut one up today, but I have modified one that was already sporterized to make it a better shooter. More power to those who do the same!

 

[AlexanderA]

The whole subject of sporterized milsurp rifles is upsetting to me. So many collectibles have been ruined! (I say this as someone who was guilty of doing this back in the day. Mea culpa!)

The worst thing was when the American Rifleman published detailed directions for sporterizing a Garand. Shame!

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

Small ring mausers are my favorites. This chilean 95 with a swedish barrel is my current favorite. I only “sporterize” rifles that are in poor shape to begin with. I call them rescue guns.

 

[Nature Boy]

The whole subject of sporterized milsurp rifles is upsetting to me. So many collectibles have been ruined!

Look at it this way Alexander.

If you had a magic wand and could instantly convert every sporterized milsurp back to its original wartime condition, what would that do to the collector market?

They might not be worth much more than you could have bought one back in the 60’s when they were cheap and plentiful....because they would become instantly plentiful again, and cheap

In other words, throughout the years, some were lost, some were damaged, some were destroyed and some were converted into hunting rifles. It’s all part of the history that makes the ones that remain in their original configuration valuable (relatively speaking) and desired by collectors.

Don’t forget, there are folks who also like to collect sporterized milsups too.

 

[LoonWulf]

Few of mine

 

[earlthegoat2]

They were sporterized to make them a bit more user friendly for hunting and/or target shooting. Many military rifles have garbage sights and oftentimes it shows with so many milsurps out there drilled and tapped as their first modification.

This is why I like 03A3s, No 4 and later Enfields, P14 and 1917s, and any others that have good sights.

I really like the Griffin & Howe 1903 sporters.

 

[indy1919a4]

What is so wild about people today looking at horror at sporterized mil-surp.. In the 60s & 70s.. people looked down their noses at folks who were hunting with unconverted mil-surp as poor souls who could not afford to buy or make a modern rifle. Few would brag about having an original unmolested rifle.. Who knows 20 years from now we may again look in horror at unconverted rifles..

So goes the vagaries of fashion.

 

[troy fairweather]

 

[Offfhand]

Here are a couple rifles that began life as respectable 1909 Argentine Mausers before being "bubba-ized" to .338 Win Mag and .257 Roberts.

 

[Duster340]

Gorgeous! And two great calibers.

 

[Mullo98]

I got a Lee Enfield sporter, I think its a rare model, i might upload a few pics later.

 

[daniel craig]

This is my sporterized Mosin

 

[Bfh_auto]

Here is a terrible picture of mine.
It's a 1896 carbine. It was given to me without a bolt. It's good for 2.5 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yards.
I prefer sporter rifles. They have been modified to make them better. The original stock on a military rifle is brutal.

 

[Bfh_auto]

Small ring mausers are my favorites. This chilean 95 with a swedish barrel is my current favorite. I only “sporterize” rifles that are in poor shape to begin with. I call them rescue guns.

I like that rifle.
You need to make a riser for the comb. I like using lace up leather ones.

 

[AlexanderA]

Note that the 2nd Amendment is not about hunting. Sporterizing makes a rifle less useful for its original military / militia purposes. It can therefore be argued that this process is anti-2nd Amendment.

 

[Random 8]

Forgot I did have a picture of the M1917 in my FB files. I did remove the Weaver tip-off at some point. Forgot I did that to make the 30mm woods scope fit. The cheap 30mm china scope holds zero, tracks well and hasn't self destructed yet. Any ideas on the stock maker?

 

[entropy]

The whole subject of sporterized milsurp rifles is upsetting to me. So many collectibles have been ruined! (I say this as someone who was guilty of doing this back in the day. Mea culpa!)

The worst thing was when the American Rifleman published detailed directions for sporterizing a Garand. Shame!

I agree. But most of these guns were done when we were whippersnappers. Nobody here is advocating buying a milsurp NOW and sporterizing it. First, they are comparatively (and in real dollars) much more expensive than they were back in the 50's and 60's when most of these guns were done. Second, Back in the day, there were literally barrels full of them in every gun shop and hardware store in the country, and they were priced $5 on up, by people who bought them basically at scrap prices. There were millions of them, and they were not highly thought of (the non-us/British ones), nor appreciated for the history behind them as they are by some of us now.