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militaty rifle

rong
Morning folks-
I'd like to buy an inexpensive
WWII bolt rifle safe to shoot and
reload for.I've always had a passing
interest in them but never pushed it.
I really don't want a rifle in the 30-06
power range as it would be too much
for my shoulder (football injury).
could one of you point me in the right
direction as I know absolutely nothing
about these firearms?
thanks so much
rong
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Comments

11 comments

Date Votes
  • hunterX
    Geeze, I dunno. Every WW2 BOLT action rifle I can think of off the top of my head may be what you describe as in the "30-06" power range give or take. that's kinda how it was "back in the day"
    Now if you can overlook the bolt action aspect and get a semi M1 carbine, that is a ice creamcat to shoot.
    There are a rare few bolt guns with less than the 3006 to maybe make a difference, but then ammo is troublesome for them. But the main players as in U.S.A , the russians/germans/brits all had real caliber rifles. Maybe a jap 6.5 would work for you , but theres the ammo problem there, doable YES, but perhaps not enough to make you happy.
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  • allen griggs
    254139.jpg


    You want a Swedish Mauser.
    These are 6.5 mm. The recoil is mild, nothing like a 30-06.
    They are beautiful rifles and very accurate.

    Here is some very accurate military surplus ammo for 37 cents a shot.
    This ammo is unusual for milsurp because it is non corrosive.

    http://www.samcoglobal.com/Ammunition.html#6.5

    These rifles were made before, and during, WW2, even though Sweden sat out the war.
    If you want a rifle that was actually used in the war, you need to find a Swede Mauser that has the letters SA in a little rectangular box on the barrel. Sweden gave some rifles to Finland and these are marked SA.
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  • gary wray
    rong...+1 for allen griggs. Can't go wrong with a Swedish mauser. Old world craftsmanship, great 6.5x55 round, mild recoil, great accuracy, still available at rather reasonable prices on the GB auction side. If you want a WWII Swedish mauser then you would have buy a Husqvarna made between 1941-1944 and you will pay a little more for them but they have the advantage of having a turndown bolt. Since Sweden was neutral during the war none of their weapons were used in battle so are in great condition. Still the same wonderful 6.5x55 round. But if you want a rifle that is milder than a 8mm/30-06/7.7 and was in combat, then I guess you will have to turn to a 6.5 of Japanese/Italian decent and most of those, in my view, are not near the quality of the Swedes that are presently available. They might be cheaper than a Swede but you usually get what you pay for and with the Swedes you can shoot them for years and always sell them for more than you paid. Can't beat that...or quality! Good shooting!
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  • beantownshootah
    I think hunter X has it.

    With the exception of the Swede Mauser already mentioned, pretty much ALL the WWII era bolt action rifles are roughly equivalent to the 30'06 powerwise, and for any that aren't ammo is not going to be cheap (or necessarily easy to reload).

    If the idea is to go cheap (which it sounds like it is ), then you want to use one of the more common calibers.

    Fortunately, if you are willing to reload, then there is plenty of commercially available reloadable boxer primed brass around. I believe the Sellier & Bellot and Wolf brass ammo are reloadable in both 8mm Mauser as well as 7.62x54R.

    There is no law saying you have to reload to WWI era specs. Its perfectly fine to reload using light bullets and loads to reduce recoil.

    In terms of just pure shooting, the 7.62x54R is probably the cheapest surplus around right now, with ammo still available at 20 cents per round for Berdan primed corrosive steel case surplus.
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  • mbsams
    M1 Carbine is fun, easy on the shoulder, inexpensive to reload, and useful incase of civil disorder.
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  • Fatstrat
    A sometimes overlooked 6MM WW-2 bolt gun is the Italian Carcano.
    Italy was out of the war fairly quickly, so the Carcano is ovelooked as one of the "classic" WW-2 battle rifles. And just as often diss'ed as being of poor quality. Which is not the case. Then as now, Italian firms such as Beretta were making very good quality military guns.
    Best part is that you can likely get a Carcano for a fraction of the cost of most of the others.
    As w/the Arisaka, cost and availability of ammo may be issue. But if you are reloader, should be easy to overcome.
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  • Mr. Perfect
    Remington makes some reduced recoil loads for a 30-06 that are worth considering.

    http://www.remington.com/products/ammunition/centerfire/managed-Recoil.asp

    They claim a 2x reduction in recoil which should make any old mil gun more than manageable.
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  • allen griggs
    Mr. Perfect got me to thinking.
    Winchester and Remington down-load 8mm ammo, it is way less powerful than the stuff the Krauts were shooting in WW2.

    I just looked at the Remington site, their 8mm 170 gr. slug cranks out 2102 foot pounds at the muzzle.
    Their 140 grain Swedish Mauser round cranks out 2028 foot pounds.
    These are so close as to be indistinguishable.

    Plus, if you are planning to hand load, as others have said, you can load the thing to any amount of foot pounds you want.

    Now I am a big Swedish Mauser fan, but you could certainly get an 8mm Mauser that would fit your needs.
    All kinds of great 8mm Mausers out there, German, Yugoslav, German captured and refitted by Russians, Persian. There is a whole world of beautiful 8mm Mausers.
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  • rong
    Thanks guys
    rong
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  • sandwarrior
    rong,

    Allen Griggs' thinking got me to thinking that while the 8mm is downloaded by both Winchester and Remington, so is the 7mm. You might just go onto the auction side here, type in Mauser into the search (via rifles, you'll find it under firearms) and enjoy what comes up. You can get some in original condition and others as 'sporterized'. Some 'sporterized' are called 'custom'. But to be a true custom IMO, it has to be built to an owners liking to "quality" specifications. You will find a lot of these that range from a couple hundred to a couple thousand. I've turned up a lot of gems doing this. Something too you'll find is that a lot of them have been converted to something that doesn't kick as much but still has either a 30-06. Mauser or .308 based case. These smaller cartridges aren't much, if any, more expensive to shoot than mil-surp cartridges. If looking for a mil-surp cartridge that is coming back on to the market in affordability, the 7.62x51 is being seen around a lot. Look for a Mauser that shoots that or .308.

    -good luck with this
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  • bpost
    I like the Mauser loaded with cast bullets. It can reduce recoil by a huge margin but still shoot very well. A benifit is the brass can be made from 30-06 cases. Casting is fun and easy too.
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