Surplus Rifle Purchase question.

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

passintime

member
Joined
Apr 6, 2008
Messages
100
I have an opportunity to obtain a Savage no 4 mk1 .303. Is this a good surplus gun, I see AIM surplus has pretty cheap ammo for it? What are some things I should look for when I go to see this tomorrow? The rifle is supposed to be in "excellent" condition, what should I pay? Thanks!
 
Last edited:
GREAT Gun!

Do you know if it's a No4 MK1 or No4 MK1*? The major difference is that the No4 MK1 has a little lever that you have to use to remove the bolt, the No4 MK1* doesn't. Savage didn't make many No4 MK1's. What price is he asking? In excellent condition around here they'd be up hear $350-$450.

Let's see . .if you can check the # on the bolt head. If it's 0 or 1 then you've got a pretty cheap solution IF the headspace happened to be off. Look for the strange "S" on all the various parts to see if they're savage. Other than that I'd check the standard stuff like how does the rifling look etc. I picked up a #'s matching Savage No4 MK1 in "very good" shape about a year and 1/2 ago for $250 and I've had a blast shooting it.

Good Luck!
 
Missed the part about "what should I pay".

If it's truly in excellent shape I'd offer $300 and go up from there. FWIW (I"m assuming it's not a bubba-ized rifle . . . .when to a show yesterday and saw more bubba'd rifles in one small room than I've ever seen)
 
I believe the price is $275.00. It is a no4 Mk1, no asterick. What is this headspace issue you speak of?
 
Those are great rifles. Jump on it. The AIM ammo is probably Pakistani. I think that's about all that's left. It's fairly crappy in my experience. The stuff I had gave a lot of hang-fires. New ammo is available but more expensive. Rifle is STILL a worthwhile purchase.

John
 
Any surplus rifle can have a headspace issue, it's just something you check before you shoot it. You can pick up a "Field" gauge for the rifle for about $18 or take it a gunsmith who probably already has it and will charge you minimal fee to check it.

The nice thing about Enfields was that they were designed to easily change the headspace using different "sized" boltheads. I've found that it's very easy to find #2's and #1's, but #3's are damn near impossible. Odds are that you don't need to change anything, I'm just giving you a worst case scenario. If for instance it had a headspace issue and you had a #1 bolt head you could change it for a #2 for pretty cheap. (make sense?)

For $275 I'd jump all over it if it's in "excellent" condition.

Have a good one,
Dave
 
I bought the Savage No 4 though Dunhams. It has the cool lever for the bolt release, and is marked "US Property". I have never fired it though. I bought it for collecting purposes. I paid around $250.00 for it. I don't recall the exact price.
 
If you get the 303 and decide to handload, neck size the cases instead of rull length sizing. The cases will last a whole lot longer and will give you a slight increase in accuracy.
 
I've got a collection of .303's...paid around 50 to 60 for most of em....back years ago. Even now they're pretty cheap, when you figure inflation.
Nice thing is with millions of parts around.....unless the guy has screwed with the hardware....the rifle is 100% restorable, and fun to shoot!
Depending on the visual inspection of it, and the fact that it's a SAVAGE, I'd go 250 to 300. Chances are it will need very little in the way of work, Most people buy em and then have em laying around till they get tired of em and then sell em, most of the time shooting them very little.
 
They're very good rifles, generally, but not $300 worth of good - not around here. In excellent condition, I'd give about $250. What's the overall condition and bore condition?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top