Top Ten Combat rifles

[McBuck]

I ran across this while researching something else, and it caught my attention pretty quickly. I am not sure I agree with th eorder, but I think they have the top ten dead on.

http://military.discovery.com/technology/weapons/rifles.html

 

[T.A.Sharps]

I never like those ratings.

I watched a show once that had length of service as a big factor, that has nothing to do with the quality and effectiveness of a rifle.

The Lee Enfield is a fine rifle, but I would hardly place it above the M14, or any semi auto. In my opinion the SR-25, or M110 should be up at the top.

There was a show last night showing the "hell test" shots with a new AR design, not sure if it was a Knights Armament or not, but it seems awesome. And if the AR platform was that reliable, or at least as reliable as the AK, it would be light years ahead of the AK in performance and quality.

 

[elmerfudd]

I'm of the opinion that these shows are pretty silly myself. There's no way you can realistically grade rifles that were designed 100 years apart for radically different battle fields. Lee Enfields and Mausers were state of the art 100 years ago and went on to dominate battlefields worldwide for decades, but they couldn't compare to even the worst modern rifles.

Of course, historically they're ten times as important as an SA80 or an INSAS and unlike those two lemons they represent the best of their era rather than the worst.

 

[taliv]

do a search here... we already discussed that a few times

 

[61chalk]

I've seen 3 different, whats a good word...."Polls"...on these...One had the M16 as #1, another had the AK47 as #1, an another had the Garand as #1....depends on whose doing the "Polls".

 

[Mr_Pale_Horse]

My Criterion for the poll: The rifle should have been used in a major war, and in copious numbers in that war, and to good effect (ie, the weapon was servicable and effective).

That puts the Mosin Nagant and Gewehr 98 in, and eliminates the things like the M-14, AUG, SG 44.

There were more M1917s employed in WWI than 1903's, so add them also.

Shuffled and reordered.

1. Mosin Nagant - 37 million combo club/paddle/lamp post/rifles
2. M1 Garand - Ahead of its time and a game changer
3. SMLE - If there was a war in the last 100 years, somebody showed up carrying one
4. K98 - Tied for best hunting rifle ever to go to war
5. Gewehr 98 - Tied for best hunting rifle to go to war
6. M1917 - Best target rifle to go to war
7. M1903 - A hunting rifle with really awkward sights, rendering it frustrating until later mods
8. AK47 - Purpose made for third world proxy meat packing operations
9. M16 - Way too nice for third world proxy meat packing operations, but applicable nonetheless
10. FN FAL - FuN For ALl third world proxy meat packing operations?

 

[sillar68]

"There was a show last night showing the "hell test" shots with a new AR design, not sure if it was a Knights Armament or not, but it seems awesome."

If it was the show on the M16 history, I saw that too. The new AR design was the HK416 or some variant. Looks pretty cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HK416.jpg