wanting to start a WWII sniper rifle colection.

[Kalashnikov]

You can MAKE some reproduction if you're not terribly concerned with whats historically accurate. The Mosins have been covered so we'll move to the Mausers. You can get reproduction mounts and scopes from the time period (may not be exact reproductions of what was issued during the war though), and drill and tap for them. I have a lovely article in one of my SNG about doing just that.

 

[cracked butt]

Unless you have a huge pile of cash to burn there are only a few 'snipers' that you will find for under $2-3K. The first is the replica mosin-nagant PU snipers which run about $300-500. Some of these were put together recently by a Ukranian arsenal, some were put together by importers, and others were put together by basement bubbas. You can buy an authentic PU sniper for around $800-1000, and the PE version will cost about double that. Whether or not they are accurate or not, greatly depends on how good the 91/30 rifle was before a scope and bent bolt were installed and who did the work on them.
The Swedish M41Bs are probably the best made and are on the very top end for accuracy, but they aren't necessarily WWII snipers- some were orginally built as the 'M41' version built during wartime and all were upgraded to the M41B version in the 1950s. The Ajack scope was top notch German optics in the 1940s. The swedish rearsenalled and rebuilt these rifles up until the 1980s. As far as milsurp snipers go, they are by far the best bang for the buck around $1200-2000.

Here's a few pics of my M41B, its a great shooter- I haven't shot any jacketed bullets out of it in a few years, but I've shot 20 shot strings of cast bullets that stayed inside of 2" at 100 yards, which would be really good for pretty mch any rifle shooting jacketed bullet and simply outstanding with cast bullets.

 

[MJ]

Bring your wallet.



Wild women and fast cars will be cheaper.

.........MJ............

 

[Jim Watson]

Yes, but their resale value isn't going to go up.