Show me your battle rifle

[Buckshot]

M1891 Argentine. Brass disc on the butt is stamped "R. Robertson" ?





M1909 Argentine Cavalry Carbine





M1891 Argentine Engineers carbine





M1895 Austrian Steyr 8x56 Carbine





Remington M1917 & bayonet

[Buckshot]

.577 Snider Carbine (cutdown rifle)





Turkish M38/46





Brazilian M1908





Swiss K31





M1938 Swede Mauser





Egyptian Hakim

[Buckshot]

VZ 24





VZ 24/47







M1 Garand. Serial number on it dates it to Nov 1942. The stock is a much more recent Springfield pedigree


.............Buckshot

[jmort]

That .577 Snider is my favorite of a fantastic collection.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

The M1908 Brazilian Mauser stock is beautiful!

[smokeywolf]

The M1908 Brazilian Mauser stock is beautiful!

Was thinking the same thing.

WOW Buckshot! A most impressive collection.

[6bg6ga]

I'm just speechless looking at all these fine rifles.

[roysha]

The worlds greatest design.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Attachment 180260I don't know why this one wants to lay on its side--I tried uploading it three times with the same results. It's upright in my file. Anyway, the point is to show the length of the rifle in comparison to an M1--I'm unable to take a nicely detailed close up photo of the entire rifle at once. It is a WW I French Mannlicher Berthier made by Delaunay Bellerville, and it looks like it's "been there and done that", but is really still in pretty good condition and I have fired it. Some close ups with more detail below:
Attachment 180261
Attachment 180262
Attachment 180263
Attachment 180264
Attachment 180265
There don't seem to be too many of these rifles around in my part of the country, but for some reason there seem to be more "back East." Although I spent a long time gunsmithing this was the first (and only) one I'd ever disassembled/reassembled, and it is quite different from a Mauser. It is an interesting and sturdy design, and despite the fact that it is so long it balances very well, points easily, and doesn't feel heavy. Taking the bolt out isn't very easy or convenient, so it's probably best to clean it from the muzzle end. Remington made some for the French and not all were shipped due to the end of the war, and once in awhile it is possible to find one in very nice condition.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Attachment 180271Attachment 180272
Click to enlarge.

Here's a very short Carcano carbine that was converted by persons unknown to 8mm Mauser. Stories vary on who did these conversions, from the Germans or Italians to have ammunition commonality during WW II, or by the Israelis after WW II so as to be able to use Italian weapons left in N. Africa after the War, as they had adopted the K98k in 8mm as their official rifle at the time. It was in very poor condition externally, so I refinished it, but it has nice bore. I have shot it using .30-30 level loads (chicken!) and it shoots quite well, but is a single shot because no Carcano Mannlicher clips successfully modified to handle the 8mm size case are available. Some folks have modified them on an individual basis, but the results seem to usually be less than satisfactory. I've never gotten around to trying my hand at it.

[Buckshot]

..............I've heard of some of the Carcanos having been converted to 8x57. Ditto the Steyr Straight pull 8x56 rifles/carbines. In both instances due to the original 'Packet Clip' loading design, the later alterations caused difficulties. Also in the 8x56/8x57 conversions there were attendant extractor problems. I was much intrigued by the 1895 straight pulls (and especially their low prices). Propelling a 205gr slug at 2400 from their abbreviated barrels caused the short Stutzen and carbine versions to back off the bullet smartly. Their crazy bore and groove combinations made them somewhat of a headache for accurate shooting of cast boolits . I found that the 30-40 Krag round would work very well via a couple minor modifications to the clip. So I created one Hoping not to give anyone gas for going off topic, here it is:



The pink lines on the clip in the right photo show where they need to be 'pinched in' a bit to have the boolit present correctly to the breech.




The right photo shows where a slight tweeking of the clip's bottom forward edge needs attention. Basically to take up some of the room in the clip caused by the 30-40 Krag case being smaller in OD.

The trigger is still poor, but the rifle itself is superbly accurate. Proves to me that with realistic barrel bore dimensions the accuracy is there.

.............Buckshot

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Buckshot--I've seen and envied that M-95 .30-40 on other occasions and admired it greatly. It seems like the perfect solution to the 8x56Rmm's usual scarcity and wide range of bore diameters. Nice rifle! There are some U-tube videos on converting Carcano clips to 8mm, but as I said before the results vary.

[Texas by God]

I'll second Buckshots recoil analysis of the Stutzen! I've wondered about a 7.62 Russian conversion on these. But that .30-40 is real & beautiful and pure shooting pleasure I bet. Best, Thomas.

[flyin brian]

Here are a few of mine

Rem 1903-A3:


Rem 03-A4 with M73B1 scope and another military marked Weaver 330 on the table:


M1D Sniper Garand from the CMP:


Gew 88 Commission Rifle made in 1891 at Danzig:


No4 Mk1 Canadian Enfield Made at Long Branch in 1942:


A couple of RC Mausers:


Winchester Model of 1917:


Finnish M28 & M24 Lotta rifle:


Finnish M27RV cavalry rifle:

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Very nice collection! Thanks for showing them to us.

[tdoyka]

30-40 krag bubbasized

barrel has been cut down to 21 5/8"
lower band is a s&s firearms
orignal stock has been put on, it was black from age, it took a weeks worth of fine steel wool and johnson's paste wax.
i took off the rear sight and i put on a redfield peep sight.

[smokeywolf]

Even though Bubba got hold of it, you have to love the Krag.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Your Krag has a nice look of competence, like "Bambi beware"!

[tdoyka]

thanks guys!

i think it has become my favorite cast boolit launcher. my tc encore with a 23" MGM barrel in 444 marlin used to be, but the 30-40 krag with 165gr(173gr actully) ranch dog and 25.5gr of h4198 is the one.

its been my great-pap, my paps, my old man and my late uncle's, now it belongs to me. the bishop? stock had to be replaced, i swear it took 5lbs off the rifle!!! i was about to send a check to s&s firearms when my friend noticed the original stock in my late pap's house. some light steel wool(about a week, 8+ hours/day) and some johnson's paste wax sorta cleaned it up. the redfield peep sight(no-drill) could now be replaced, well it took a bit of kroil(3 - 4 days) to take out the original screws from the rear sight. a warning that must be imposed is the krag cut off/detente while handi-capable(its just plain hard to do with only one hand!!!). its much easier to use your youngest son to take it off.

last year i killed a doe with it(pre-bishop), but it is now my favoritist gun in the world!!!!

[shdwlkr]

Battle rifles to me are M1 carbine, M14, M16, AK47, Quad Ma Deuce, sorry no pictures as I don't have any of them now, long gone. DOD knows where I am even today 40 years after leaving the Army must have done something interesting or they just need a reason to see if they can find some of us.